sked Jerry
suddenly, in case she was tiring him--although how any one COULD be
tired listening to the description of her Hero she could not imagine.

Jerry hastened to assure her that he was really most interested.

"I am not botherin' ye listenin', am I?"

"Not in the least," Jerry assured her again.

"Well, so long as yer not tired I'll tell ye some more. Ye know I went
all through Ireland when I was a child with me father in a cart. An'
the police and the constabulary used to follow us about. They were very
frightened of me father, they were. They were grand days for me. Ye
know he used to thry his speeches on me first. Then I'd listen to him
make them in public. I used to learn them when I'd heard them often
enough. I know about fifty. I'll tell ye some of them if I ever see ye
again. Would ye like to hear some of them?"

"Very much indeed," answered Jerry.

"Well, if I STAY here ye must come some time an' I'll tell ye them. But
it is not the same hearin' me that it is hearin' me father. Ye've got
to see the flash of his eye hear the big sob in his voice, when he
spakes of his counthry, to ralely get the full power o' them. I'll do
me best for ye, of course."

"Ye're English, mebbe?" she asked him suddenly.

"I am," said Jerry. He almost felt inclined to apologise.

"Well, sure that's not your fault. Ye couldn't help it. No one should
hold that against ye. We can't all be born Irish."

"I'm glad you look at it so broad-mindedly," said Jerry.

"Do ye know much about Ireland?" asked Peg.

"Very little, I'm ashamed to say," answered Jerry. "Well, it would be
worth yer while to learn somethin' about it," said Peg.

"I'll make it my business to," he assured her. "It's God country, is
Ireland. And it's many a tear He must have shed at the way England
mismanages it. But He is very lenient and patient with the English.
They're so slow to take notice of how things really are. And some day
He will punish them and it will be through the Irish that punishment
will be meted out to them." She had unconsciously dropped again into
her father's method of oratory, climaxing the speech with all the
vigour of the rising inflection. She looked at Jerry, her face aglow
with enthusiasm.

"That's from another of me father's speeches. Did ye notice the way he
ended it?--'through the Irish that punishment will be meted out to
them!' I think 'meted out' is grand. I tell you me father has the most
wondherful command of languag