cel, "but I really did not think
that matters were altogether so bad as you describe them. The people
are infatuated, and will only draw the vengeance of the law upon their
heads. They will suffer, as they always do by their own misconduct and
madness."

Duggan had scarcely withdrawn, when our old friend, Darby Hourigan,
thrust in his hateful and murderous-looking countenance. "God save you,
Misther John."

"God save you kindly, Misther Hourigan."

"Isn't it glorious weather for the saison, sir?"

"I have seen better and I have seen worse, Mr. Hourigan; but Darby,
passing the weather by, which neither you nor I can mend, allow me to
say that I hope you are not coming here for the twentieth time to palm
us off about the tithe."

"Troth, then, and, Mr. John; I can't afford to pay tide--I'm a poor man,
sir; and, as it happens that I never trouble the parson in religious
matthers, I don't see what right the parson has to trouble me for my
money."

"Ah! you have got the cant, I see. You have been tutored."

"I have got the truth, sir."

"Ay, but have you got the tithe, sir? for I do assure you, Mr. Hourigan,
that it is not your logic, but your money I want."

"Begad, sir, and I'm afeard you'll be forced to put up wid my logic this
time, too. You can't take more from the cat than her skin, you know."

There was an atrocious and sneering spirit, not only in this ruffian's
manner, but in the tones of his voice, that was calculated to overcome
human patience.

"Darby, we have let you run a long time, but I now tell you, there's an
end of our forbearance so far as you are concerned. If you were not able
to pay I could feel for you, put we know, and all the world knows, that
you are one of the most comfortable and independent men in the parish.
Darby, you in short are a d--d rogue, and what is worse, a treacherous
and mischief-makin scoundrel. I am aware of the language you use against
our whole family, whom you blacken whenever you have an opportunity of
doing so. You are not only dishonest but ungrateful, sirrah."

"No man has a betther right to be a judge, and a good judge of
dishonesty, than your father's son," replied Hourigan. "Why didn't you
call me an oppressor of the poor, and a blood-sucker?--why didn't you
say I was a hard-hearted beggarly upstart, that rose from maneness and
cheatery, and am now tyrannizin' over hundreds that's a thousand times
betther than myself? Why don't you say that I'd sell my chur