in, when the child, looking
round him for a moment, and then upon his mother, made a faint struggle
to get back.

"What is it, asthore?" asked the woman; "what is it you want?"

"Lave me wid my mother," he said; "let me go to her; my poor father's
dead, an' left us--oh! let me stay with her."

The poor boy's voice was so low and feeble, that it was with difficulty
she heard the words, which she repeated to the priest.

"Dear child," said the latter, "we are bringing you to where you will
get food and drink, and a warm bed to go to, and you will get better, I
hope."

And as he took the helpless and innocent sufferer into his arms, after
having fixed himself in the saddle, the tears of strong compassion ran
down his cheeks.

"He is as light as a feather, poor thing," exclaimed the kind-hearted
man; "but I trust in heaven we may save him yet."

And they immediately hurried onward to the next house, which happened to
be that of our friend Jerry Sullivan, to the care of whose humane and.
affectionate family they consigned him.

We cannot dwell here upon that which every reader can anticipate; it is
enough to say that the boy with care recovered, and that his unfortunate
mother with her two children received an humble grave in the nearest
churchyard, beyond the reach of the storms and miseries of life forever.

On reaching the Grange, or rather the house now occupied by widow
Hanlon, the priest having sent for Charley, into whose confidence he had
for some time been admitted, had a private conference, of considerable
length, with him and the pedlar; after which, Nelly was called in, as it
would seem, to make some disclosure connected with the subject they
were discussing. A deep gloom, however, rested upon both Hanlon and
the pedlar; and it was sufficiently evident that whatever the import of
Nelly M'Gowan's communication may have been, it was not of so cheering
a nature as to compensate for the absence of widow Hanlon, and the party
for which she had been sent. Father Hanratty having left them, they took
an early breakfast, and proceeded to Ballynafail--which we choose to
designate as the assize town--in order to watch, with disappointed
and heavy hearts, the trial of Condy Dalton, in whose fate they felt a
deeper interest than the reader might suppose.

All the parties attended, the Prophet among the rest; and it might
have been observed, that his countenance was marked by an expression of
peculiar determination