ecomes
them--sits very badly on them, itself, when everything knows that their
father an' mother begun the world wid a bottle of private whiskey an'
half a pound of smuggled tobaccy."

"Poor Pether will break his heart, any way. Oh, man, but she was the
good wife. I'm livin' wid them going an seven year, an' never hard a
cross word from the one to the other. It's she that had the sweet tongue
all out, an' did manage him; but, afther all, he was worth the full o'
the Royal George of her. Many a time, when some poor craythur 'ud come
to ax whiskey on score to put over* some o' their friends, or for a
weddin', or a christenin', maybe, an' when the wife 'ud refuse it,
Pether 'ud send what whiskey they wanted afther them, widout lettin' her
know anything about it. An', indeed, he never lost anything by that; for
if they wor to sell their cow, he should be ped, in regard of the kindly
way he gave it to them."

* To put over--the corpse of a friend, to be drunk at
the wake and funeral.

"Well, we'll see how they'll manage now that she's gone; but Pether an'
the youngest daughter, Mary, is to be pitied."

"The sarra much; barrin' that they'll miss her at first from about the
place. You see she has left them above the world, an' full of it.
Wealth and substance enough may they thank her for; and that's very good
comfort for sorrow, Risthard."

"Faith, sure enough, Larry. There's no lie in that, any way!"

"Awouh! Lie! I have you about it."

Such was the view which had been taken of their respective characters
through life. Yet, notwithstanding that the hearts of their
acquaintances never warmed to her--to use a significant expression
current among the peasantry--as they did to Peter, still she was
respected almost involuntarily for the indefatigable perseverance with
which she pushed forward her own interests through life. Her funeral was
accordingly a large one; and the conversation which took place at it,
turning, as it necessarily did, upon her extraordinary talents and
industry, was highly to the credit of her memory and virtues. Indeed,
the attendance of many respectable persons of all creeds and opinions,
gave ample proof that the qualities she possessed had secured for her
general respect and admiration.

Poor Peter, who was an object of great compassion, felt himself
completely crushed by the death of his faithful partner. The reader
knows that he had hitherto been a sober, and, owing to Ellish's prud