which solely, or chiefly, showed itself in continual
complaints that the descendants and the present family of the
Macdermots should be harrowed and brought to the ground by such
low-born ruffians as Flannelly and Keegan.

It is odd that though Feemy often thwarted him and Thady rarely
did,--and though Thady was making the best fight he could, poor
fellow, for the Macdermots and Ballycloran,--the old man always
seemed cross to him, and never was so to her. May be he spent more
of his time with her, and was more afraid of her; but so it was;
and though he certainly loved her better than anything, excepting
Ballycloran and his own name, it will be owned that he was no guide
for a girl like Feemy, possessed of strong natural powers, stronger
passions, and but very indifferent education.

And from circumstances her brother was not much better. He had been
called on at a very early age to bear the weight of the family. From
the time of his leaving school he had been subjected to constant
vexation; on the contrary, his pleasures were very few and far
between; his constant occupation for many years had been hunting for
money, which was not to be got. If his heart could have been seen,
the word "Rent" would have been found engraved on it. Collecting the
rent, and managing the few acres of land which the Macdermots kept in
their own hands, were his employments, and hard he laboured at them.
He was therefore constantly out of the house; and of an evening after
his punch, he spent his hours in totting and calculating, adding
and subtracting at his old greasy book, till he would turn into bed,
to forget another day's woes, and dream of punctual tenants and
unembarrassed properties. Alas! it was only in his dreams he was
destined to meet such halcyon things. What could such a man have
to say to a young girl that would attract or amuse her? Poor Thady
had little to say to any one, except in the way of business, and on
that subject Feemy would not listen to him. She constantly heard her
father growling about his Carrick foes, and her brother cursing the
tenants; but she had so long been used to it, that now she did not
think much of it. She knew they were very poor, and that it was with
difficulty she now and again got the price of a new dress from her
brother; and when she did, it was usually somewhat in this fashion:
Pat Kelly owed two years' rent or so, may be five pounds. Mrs.
Brennan, the Mohill haberdasher, took Pat's pig or h