t's near
our hearts--the future of Ireland--I want to prophesy--"

"Prophesy is it?"

"That's what I want to do."

"An' what's it ye'd be after prophesying?"

"This: that ten years from now, with her own Government, with her own
language back again--Gaelic--an' what language in the wurrld yields
greater music than the old Gaelic?--with Ireland united and Ireland's
land in the care of IRISHMEN: with Ireland's people self-respectin' an'
sober an' healthy an' educated: with Irishmen employed on Irish
industries, exportin' them all over the wurrld: with Ireland's heart
beatin' with hope an' faith in the future--do ye know what will happen?"

"Go on, Frank O'Connell. I love to listen to ye. Don't stop."

"I'll tell ye what will happen! Back will go the Irishmen in tens o'
thousands from all the other counthries they were dhriven to in the
days o' famine an' oppression an' coercion an' buck-shot--back they
will go to their mother counthry. An' can ye see far enough into the
future to realise what THAT will do? Ye can't. Well, I'll tell ye that,
too. The exiled Irish, who have lived their lives abroad--takin' their
wives, like as not, from the people o' the counthry they lived in an'
not from their own stock--when they go back to Ireland with different
outlooks, with different manners an' with different tastes, so long as
they've kept the hearts o' them thrue an' loyal--just so long as
they've done that--an' kept the Faith o 'their forefathers--they'll
form a new NATION, an' a NATION with all the best o' the old--the great
big Faith an' Hope o' the old--added to the prosperity an' education
an' business-like principles an' statesmanship o' the NEW--an' it's the
BLOOD o' the great OLD an' the POWER o' the great NEW that'll make the
Ireland o' the future one o' the greatest NATIONS in PEACE as she has
always been in WAR."

O'Connell's voice died away as he looked out across the years to come.
And the light of prophecy shone in his eyes, and the eerie tone of the
seer was in his voice.

It was the Ireland he had dreamed of! Ireland free, prosperous,
contented--happy. Ireland speaking and writing in her national tongue!
Ireland with all the depth of the poetic nature of the peasant equal to
the peer! Ireland handling her own resources, developing her own
national character, responsible before the WORLD and not to an alien
nation for her acts--an Ireland triumphant.

Even if he would not live to see the golden harvest ri