re of Erin, holding in her right hand a crucifix, and
with the left hand pointing it to her children, with the words, "_Sola
spes nostra, ubi crux ibi patria_"--"This is our only hope; wherever the
cross is honored, call that your country."

After having seen to the proper execution of all things in reference to
the tomb of his family, Paul O'Clery, with a heavy heart, returned to
acquaint his little brother Patrick and sister Bridget about the fate of
Eugene. He did not forget, however, before quitting the last
resting-place of his parents and brother, to have the grave fenced round
with a neat iron rail; and fixing all inside the fence in the form of
two pretty flower beds, he, with his own hands, carefully planted the
roots of the shamrocks which were brought from Ireland, and which he
luckily found in Mr. Gulvert's kitchen garden, where they had been
thrown, after having been taken from Eugene. And to this very day these
shamrocks flourish--neither frost, nor cold, nor parching heat, nor
inclement seasons being able to retard their growth; as if their verdure
and flourishing vegetation were supplied from the pure and genuine
Irish clay to which the bodies of the three O'Clerys have been long
since reduced.

Paul now saw his people reduced by more than one half. When they left
Ireland, they were seven in number; now they were only three. He was too
well trained in Christian resignation, however, to repine at what
evidently appeared to him the dispensation of Heaven. After the example
of holy Job, therefore, he praised the Lord, to whom, if he deprived him
of his good parents, he was also indebted for being placed under the
care of such patterns of virtue. These several trials, and the
consequent distractions in which they involved him, made him more
disgusted than ever with the world; and his desire to consecrate himself
to God in the holy priesthood became stronger and stronger every day.
The Almighty seemed to have some special mission in view for this
spotless child of St. Patrick, when his mercy had conducted him, like
the children in the fiery furnace, so early through such meritorious
trials and sufferings, as it requires the most faithful correspondence
with grace to endure, and it falls to the lot of a few to encounter.

The end of all his difficulties and trials had now arrived. From this
day forward the breeze that bore him along in his ecclesiastical voyage
became fairer and fairer, till, advancing from