let it out of the
mouth.

MARTIN. A light heart, is it! There is not a light heart with
Mary to-night, my grief!

BLIND MAN. Mary is your wife?

MARTIN. She is. I made her my wife three hours ago.

BLIND MAN. Three hours ago?

MARTIN (_bitterly_).--That is so. We were married to-day; and
it is at our wedding dinner you are sitting.

BLIND MAN. Your wedding dinner! Do not be mocking me! There is
no company here.

MARY. Oh, he is not mocking you; he would not do a thing like
that. There is no company here; for we have nothing in the house to give
them.

BLIND MAN. But you gave it to me! Is it the truth you are
speaking? Am I the only person that was asked to your wedding?

MARY. You are. But that is to the honour of God; and we would
never have told you that, but Martin let slip the word from his mouth.

BLIND MAN. Oh, and I eat your little feast on you, and without
knowing it.

MARY. It is not without a welcome you eat it.

MARTIN. I am well pleased you came in; you were more in want of
it than ourselves. If we have a bare house now, we might have a full
house yet; and a good dinner on the table to share with those in need of
it. I'd be better off now; but all the little money I had I laid it out
on the house, and the little patch of land. I thought I was wise at the
time; but now we have the house, and we haven't what will keep us alive
in it. I have the potatoes set in the garden; but I haven't so much as a
potato to eat. We are left bare, and I am guilty of it.

MARY. If there is any fault, it is on me it is; coming maybe to
be a drag on Martin, where I have no fortune at all. The little money I
gained in service, I lost it all on my poor father, when he took sick.
And I went back into service; and the mistress I had was a cross woman;
and when Martin saw the way she was treating me, he wouldn't let me
stop with her any more, but he made me his wife. And now I will have
great courage, when I have to go out to service again.

BLIND MAN. Will you have to be parted again?

MARTIN. We will, indeed; I must go as a _spailpin fanac_, to
reap and to dig the harvest in some other place. But Mary and myself
have it settled we'll meet again at this house on a certain day, with
the blessing of God. I'll have the key in my pocket; and we'll come in,
with a better chance of stopping in it. You'll have your own cows yet,
Mary; and your calves and your firkins of butter, with the help of God.

MARY. I think I he