if you go, and
if my mother 'ud get unwell, who'd be to take care of her? Father, don't
lave your own 'weeny crathurs' (a pet name he had for them)--maybe
the meal 'ud be eat out before you'd come back; or maybe something 'ud
happen you in that strange place."

"Indeed, there's truth in what they say, Owen," said, the wife; "do
be said by your own Kathleen for this time, and don't take sich a long
journey upon you. Afther all, maybe, you wouldn't see him--sure the
nabors will help us, if you could only humble yourself to ax them!"

"Kathleen," said Owen, "when this is past you'll be glad I went--indeed
you will; sure it's only the tindher feelin' of your hearts, darlins.
Who knows what the landlord may do when I see himself, and show him
these resates--every penny paid him by our own family. Let me go,
acushla; it does cut me to the heart to lave yez the way yez are in,
even for a while; but it's far worse to see your poor wasted faces,
widout havin' it in my power to do anything for yez."

He then kissed them again, one by one; and pressing the affectionate
partner of his sorrows to his breaking heart, he bade God bless them,
and set out in the twilight of a bitter March morning. He had not gone
many yards from the door when little Alley ran after him in tears; he
felt her hand upon the skirts of his coat, which, she plucked with a
smile of affection that neither tears nor sorrow could repress. "Father,
kiss me again," said she. He stooped down, and kissed her tenderly. The
child then ascended a green ditch, and Owen, as he looked back, saw her
standing upon it; her fair tresses were tossed by the blast about her
face, as with straining eyes she watched him receding from her view.
Kathleen and the other children stood at the door, and also with deep
sorrow watched his form, until the angle of the bridle-road rendered him
no longer visible; after which they returned slowly to the fire and wept
bitterly.

We believe no men are capable of bearing greater toil or privation than
the Irish. Owen's viaticum was only two or three oaten cakes tied in a
little handkerchief, and a few shillings in silver to pay for his bed.
With this small stock of food and money, an oaken stick in his hand, and
his wife's kerchief tied about his waist, he undertook a journey of one
hundred and ten miles, in quest of a landlord who, so far from being
acquainted with the distresses of his tenantry, scarcely knew even their
names, and not one o