much more delicacy than honest Peter could have displayed.

"Thrue for you, Pether," she added; "there is not a kinder family to
the poor, nor betther landlords in the country they live in. Pether an'
myself, your honor, on layin' both our 'heads together, found that he
offered more rint for the land nor any! tenant could honestly pay. So,
sir, where's the use of keepin' back God's truth--Pether, sir"--

Peter here trembled from an apprehension that the wife, in accomplishing
some object of her own in reference to the land, was about to undeceive
the landlord, touching the lie which he had so barefacedly palmed upon
that worthy gentleman for truth. In fact, his anxiety overcame his
prudence, and he resolved to anticipate her.

"I'd advise you, sir," said he, with a smile of significant good-humor,
"to be a little suspicious of her, for, to tell the truth, she draws
the"--here he illustrated the simile with his staff--"the long bow of an
odd time; faith she does. I'd kiss the book on the head of what I tould
you, sir, plase your honor. For the sacret of it is, that I tuck the
moistare afore she left her bed."

"Why, Peter, alanna," said Ellish, soothingly, "what's comin' over you,
at all, an' me; goin' to explain to his honor the outs and ins I of our
opinion about the land? Faix, man, we're not thinkin' about you, good or
bad."

"I believe the drop has scarcely left your head yet, Peter," said the
landlord.

"Bud-an'-age, your honor, sure we must have our joke, any how--doesn't
she deserve it for takin' the word out o' my mouth?"

"Whisht, avillish; you're too cute for us all, Pether. There's no use,
sir, as I was sayin', for any one to deny that when they take a farm
they do it to make by it, or at the laste to live comfortably an it.
That's the thruth, your honor, an' it's no use to keep it back from you,
sir."

"I perfectly agree with you," said the landlord. "It is with these
motives that a tenant should wish to occupy land; and it is the duty of
every landlord who has his own interest truly at heart, to see that
his land be not let at such a rent as will preclude the possibility of
comfort or independence on the part of his tenantry. He who lets his
land above its value, merely because people are foolish enough to offer
more for it than it is worth, is as great an enemy to himself as he is
to the tenant."

"It's God's thruth, sir, an' it's nothin' else but a comfort to hear
sich words comin' from the l