n' to work will suffer for it. Do you think I'd see thim
crathurs at their dhry phatie, an' our cows standin' in a pound for no
rason? No; high hangin' to me, but I'll split to the skull the first man
that takes them; an' all I'm sorry for is, that it's not the vagabone
Landlord himself that's near me. That's our thanks for paying many
a good pound, in honesty and dacency, to him an' his; lavin' us to a
schamin' agent, an' not even to that same, but to his undher-strap-pers,
that's robbin' us on both sides between them. May hard fortune attind
him, for a landlord! You may tell him this, Frank,--that his wisest plan
is to keep clear of the counthry. Sure, it's a gambler he is, they say;
an' we must be harrished an' racked to support his villany! But wait a
bit; maybe there's a good time comin', when we'll pay our money to thim
that won't be too proud to hear our complaints wid their own ears,
an' who won't turn us over to a divil's limb of an agent. He had need,
anyhow, to get his coffin sooner nor he thinks. What signifies hangin'
in a good cause?" said he, as the tears of keen indignation burst from
his glowing eyes. "It's a dacent death, an' a happy death, when it's
for the right," he added--for his mind was evidently fixed upon the
contemplation of those means of redress, which the habits of the
country, and the prejudices of the people, present to them in the first
moments of passion.

"It's well that Frank's one of ourselves," replied Owen, coolly,
"otherwise, Jemmy, you said words that would lay you up by the heels.
As for you, Frank, you must look over this. The boy's the son of dacent
poor parents, an' it's a new thing for him to see the cows druv from the
place. The poor fellow's vexed, too, that he has been so long laid up
wid a sore back; an' so you see one thing or another has put him through
other. Jimmy is warm-hearted afther all, an' will be sorry for it when
he cools, an' renumbers that you wor only doin' your duty."

"But what am I to do about the cows? Sure, I can't go back widout either
thim or the rint?" said Frank, with a look of fear and trembling at
Jemmy.

"The cows!" said another of the widow's sons who then came in; "why, you
dirty spalpeen of a rip, you may whistle on the wrong side o' your mouth
for them. I druv them off of the estate; an' now take them, if you dar!
It's conthrairy to law," said the urchin; "an' if you'd touch them, I'd
make my mudher sarve you wid a _lattitat_ or _fiery-fl