Darby, on the other hand,
seemed more depressed than before, and betrayed in many ways a state of
doubt and uncertainty as to his movements,--sometimes pushing on rapidly
for half a mile or so; then relapsing into a slow and plodding
pace; often looking back too, and more than once coming to a perfect
stand-still, talking the whole time to himself in a low muttering voice.

In this way we proceeded for above two miles, when at last I descried
through the beating rain the dusky gable of a small cabin in the
distance, and eagerly asked if that were to be our halting place.

"Yes," said Darby, "that 's Peg's cabin; and though it 's not very
remarkable in the way of cookery or the like, it 's the only house
within seven miles of us."

As we came nearer, the aspect of the building became even less enticing.
It was a low mud hovel, with a miserable roof of sods, or scraws, as
they are technically called; a wretched attempt at a chimney occupying
the gable; and the front to the road containing a small square aperture,
with a single pane of glass as a window, and a wicker contrivance in
the shape of a door, which, notwithstanding the severity of the day,
lay wide open to permit the exit of the smoke, which rolled more freely
through this than through the chimney. A filthy pool of stagnant,
green-covered water stood before the door, through which a little
causeway of earth led. Upon this a thin, lank-sided sow was standing to
be rained, on, her long, pointed snout turned meditatively towards the
luscious mud beside her. Displacing this Important member of the family
with an unceremonious kick. Darby stooped to enter the low doorway,
uttering as he did so the customary "God save all here!" As I followed
him in, I did not catch the usual response to the greeting, and from the
thick smoke which filled the cabin, could see nothing whatever around
me.

"Well, Peg," said Darby, "how is it with you the day?"

A low grunting noise issued from the foot of a little mud wall beside
the fireplace. I turned and beheld the figure of a woman of some seventy
years of age, seated beside the turf embers; her dark eyes, bleared with
smoke and dimmed with age, were still sharp and piercing; and her nose,
thin and aquiline, indicated a class of features by no means common
among the people. Her dress was the blue frieze coat of a laboring man,
over the woollen gown usually worn by women. Her feet and legs were
bare; and her head was covered with