d the smell of the peat on the hearth in winter.
It's queer and lonesome I'd be without these things, and that's the
truth."

He threw his head back and began to sing. Everybody joined in and sang,
too. This is the song they sang:--

"Old Ireland you're my jewel sure,
My heart's delight and glory,
Till Time shall pass his empty glass
Your name shall live in story.

"And this shall be the song for me,
The first my heart was learning,
When first my tongue its accents flung,
Old Ireland, you're my darling!

"From Dublin Bay to Cork's Sweet Cove,
Old Ireland, you're my darling
My darling, my darling,
From Dublin Bay to Cork's Sweet Cove;
Old Ireland, you're my darling."

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

MR MCQUEEN MAKES UP HIS MIND.

Michael sang with the others. And when the song was ended, he said,
"'Tis a true word, Mr Maguire, that there's no place like old Ireland;
and you'll not find an Irishman anywhere in America that wouldn't put
the man down that said a word against her. But what with the landlords
taking every shilling you can scrape together and charging you higher
rent whenever you make a bit of an improvement on your farm, there's no
chance at all to get on in the world. And with the children, God bless
them, coming along by sixes and dozens, and little for them to do at
home, and no place to put them when they grow up, sure, it's well to go
where they've a better chance.

"Look at the schools now! If you could see the school that my Patrick
goes to, you'd never rest at all until your children had the same!
Sure, the schoolhouses are like palaces over there, and as for learning,
the children pick it up as a hen does corn!"

"And are there no faults with America, whatever?" Mr McQueen said to
Michael.

"There do be faults with her," Michael answered, "and I'll never be the
man to say otherwise. There's plenty of things to be said about America
that would leave you thinking 'tis a long way this side of Heaven. But
whatever it is that's wrong, 'tis the people themselves that make it so,
and by the same token it is themselves that can cure the trouble when
they're so minded. It's not like having your troubles put down on you
by the people that's above you, and that you can't reach at all for to
be correcting them! All I say is there's a better chance over there for
yourself and the children."

The Twins and Dennis and the other young people were getting tired of
sittin