did not, it is true, join in the dances,
drinking-matches, football, and other sports with which the Carnmore
folk celebrated the Lord's day; but they scrupled not, on the other
hand, to mend their garden-ditch or mould a row of cabbages on the
Sabbath--a circumstance, for which two or three of the Carnmore boys
were, one Sunday evening when tipsy, well-nigh chastising them. Their
usual manner, however, of spending that day was by sauntering lazily
about the fields, or stretching themselves supinely on the sunny side of
the hedges, their arms folded on their bosoms, and their hats lying over
their faces to keep off the sun.

In the mean time, loss of property was becoming quite common in the
neighborhood. Sheep were stolen from the farmers, and cows and horses
from the more extensive graziers in the parish. The complaints against
the authors of these depredations were loud and incessant: watches were
set, combinations for mutual security formed, and subscriptions to a
considerable amount entered into, with a hope of being able, by the
temptation of a large reward, to work upon the weakness or cupidity
of some accomplice to betray the gang of villains who infested the
neighborhood. All, however, was in vain; every week brought some new act
of plunder to light, perpetrated upon such unsuspecting persons as
had hitherto escaped the notice of the robbers; but no trace could be
discovered of the perpetrators. Although theft had from time to time
been committed upon a small scale before the arrival of the Meehans in
the village, yet it was undeniable that since that period the instances
not only multiplied, but became of a more daring and extensive
description. They arose in a gradual scale, from the henroost to the
stable; and with such ability were they planned and executed, that the
people, who in every instance identified Meehan and his brother with
them, began to believe and hint that, in consequence of their compact
with the devil, they had power to render themselves invisible. Common
Fame, who can best treat such subjects, took up this, and never laid it
aside until, by narrating several exploits which Meehan the elder was
said to have performed in other parts of the kingdom, she wound it up by
roundly informing the Carnmorians, that, having been once taken prisoner
for murder, he was caught by the leg, when half through a hedge, but
that; being most wickedly determined to save his neck, he left the leg
with the offic