he hysterics like
yer doin'."

"Young man, the spirit of the Lord is mighty, and cometh like a strong
wind on the four corners of the house."

"Then why in the divil did ye blame me for it?" was the answer.

"Oh, son of Belial! Hell fire and eternal damnation, a portion in the
pit that burneth with fire, is the lot of those that desecrate the
sanctuary of the Most High. I tell you it were better for you that you
had never been born----"

"But sure, I am born; and it's mesilf that's aloive yet an' going
strong."

"Oh, unregenerate blasphemer----"

But a sudden cry and commotion interrupted the preacher.

"Here, lay her down, get some water."

A little girl had been hurt in the crush and now she had fainted. The
threats of the men had roused Jim to his joyful, battle enthusiasm. The
onslaught of the preacher had stirred his sense of humour; but the poor,
limp, and seemingly dead form of the little girl, a child whom he knew
and had often petted, was an attack he was ill-prepared to meet.

"There, see what you have done. It were better that a millstone were
hanged about your neck and that you were cast into the depths of the sea
than that you should have harmed this little one. Her blood be on your
head."

The mother was kneeling by the child, unwisely holding up its head. She
was praying intently; the air was full of religious fervour. "Oh, God,
spare my baby. Oh, God, be merciful."

Jim heard the words and they entered his soul like a two-edged sword.
All the fun of the incident was gone, and all the cruelty, the
unkindness, the wickedness, loomed large and larger. With his intense
nature, subject to the most violent reactions, the effect was profound.
It seemed to him, as he stood there, that a veil dissolved before his
eyes and that he saw himself and his life for the first time. There had
ever been two natures struggling in his soul, the calm and wise one of
his Ulster blood of placid Saxon stock, and that of the wild and fiery
Celt from Donegal, ready to fight, ready to sing, ever ready for fun,
but ever the easy prey of deep remorse in even measure with the mood of
passion that foreran and begot it.

Smitten from within and without, utter humiliation, self-accusation, and
abasement filled his soul. Jim sank to the ground by the little girl,
and wept in an agony of remorse.

"Young man," said the exhorter, "if God in His mercy has sent me here to
save your soul from eternal damnation by this hellish