e instantly dried her eyes.

"Wha--what kep that blasted whelp, Mul--Mulrennan, out till now, I say?"

"I don't know indeed, Art."

"You--you don't! you kno--know noth-in'; An' now I'll have a smash, by
the--the holy man, I'll--I'll smash every thing in--in the house."

He then took up a chair, which, by one blow against the floor, he
crashed to pieces.

"Now," said he, "tha--that's number one; whe--where's that whelp,
Mul--Mulrennan, till I pay--pay him for stayin' out so--so late. Send
him here, send the ska-min' sco--scoundrel here, I bid you.". Margaret,
naturally dreading violence, went to get little Atty to pacify him, as
well as to intercede for the apprentice; she immediately returned, and
told him the latter was coming. Art, in the mean time, stood a little
beyond the fireplace, with a small beach chair in his hand which he had
made for Atty, when the boy was only a couple of years old, but which
had been given to the other children in succession. He had been first
about to break it also, but on looking at it, he paused and said--

"Not this--this is Atty's, and I won't break it."

At that moment Mulrennan entered the room, with Atty behind him, but
he had scarcely done so, when Art with all his strength flung the hard
beach chair at his head; the lad, naturally anxious to avoid it, started
to one side out of its way, and Atty, while in the act of stretching out
his arms to run to his father, received the blow which had been designed
for the other. It struck him a little above the temple, and he fell,
but was not cut. The mother, on witnessing the act, raised her arms and
shrieked, but on hearing the heavy, but dull and terrible sound of the
blow against the poor boy's head, the shriek was suspended when half
uttered, and she stood, her arms still stretched out, and bent a little
upwards, as if she would have supplicated heaven to avert it;--her mouth
was half open--her eyes apparently enlarged, and starting as if it
were out of their sockets; there she stood--for a short time so full
of horror as to be incapable properly of comprehending what had taken
place. At length this momentary paralysis of thought passed away, and
with all the tender terrors of affection awakened in her heart, she
rushed to the insensible boy. Oh, heavy and miserable night! What pen
can portray, what language describe, or what imagination conceive, the
anguish, the agony of that loving mother, when, on raising her sweet,
and beau