I am the only one of 'em," he added, whispering
still lower than before, "that's doing a ha'porth for the masther.
There are the two young ladies a-working their very fingers off down
to the knuckles. As for me, I've got it all on my shoulders." No
doubt Peter was true to his master in adversity, but he did not allow
the multiplicity of his occupations to interfere with his eloquence.

Then Frank went in and found his father seated alone in his
magistrate's room. "This is bad, father," said Frank, taking him by
the hand.

"Bad! yes, you may call it bad. I am ruined, I suppose. There are
twenty heifers ready for market next week, and I am told that not a
butcher in County Galway will look at one of them."

"Then you must send them on to Westmeath; I suppose the Mullingar
butchers won't boycott you?"

"It's just what they will do."

"Then send them on to Dublin."

"Who's to take them to Dublin?" said the father, in his distress.

"I will if there be no one else. We are not going to be knocked out
of time for want of two or three pairs of hands."

"There are two policemen here to watch the herd at night. They'd cut
the tails off them otherwise as they did over at Ballinrobe last
autumn. To whom am I to consign 'em in Dublin? While I am making new
arrangements of that kind their time will have gone by. There are
five cows should be milked morning and night. Who is to milk them?"

"Who is milking them?"

"Your sisters are doing it, with the aid of an old woman who has come
from Galway. She says she has not long to live, and with the help of
half-a-crown a day cares nothing for the Landleaguers. I wish someone
would pay me half-a-crown a day, and perhaps I should not care."

Then Frank passed on through the house to find his sisters, or Flory
as it might be. He had said not a word to his father in regard to
Florian, fearing to touch upon a subject which, as he well knew, must
be very sore. Had Florian told the truth when the deed was done, Pat
Carroll would have been tried at once, and, whether convicted or
acquitted, the matter would have been over long ago. In those days
Pat Carroll had not become a national or even a county hero. But now
he was able to secure the boycotting of his enemy even as far distant
as Ballyglunin or Tuam. In the kitchen he found Ada and Edith, who
had no comfort in these perilous days except when they could do
everything together. At the present moment they were roasting a
leg of mut