emara cabin. It is only one storey high. The ground floor is
occupied by two parlours, a kitchen, and offices; the bedrooms being
upstairs. There are curious signs of better times about the place. My
bed was far too short, but by the side of it was an old-fashioned
square pianoforte. There was no carpet on the floor, but the lamp was
a very good one, and well trimmed. The fire was entirely of turf, but
of enormous size, and on the mantelpiece were some excellent
photographs. Hens clucked as they hopped on to the table, and a
red-headed colleen was perpetually chasing a cat of almost equally
ruddy hue, but everybody was mightily civil and kindly. The room was
full of peat-smoke, but the eggs were undeniably fresh; so that there
were compensations on every side. The widow, her step-daughter, and
the colleen before mentioned did all the work. They made my bed, what
there was of it, they tended the fire with unflagging zeal, they
brought water in very limited quantity for the purposes of ablution,
they dried my boots and clothes with almost motherly care and
tenderness when I came in out of the pouring rain. In fact, nobody
could have been kinder or more attentive, and when Major Coghill was
laid up by his accident their sympathy was almost overwhelming. Yet I
believe that we annoyed them and deranged the tenor of their lives by
our matutinal habits. Perhaps they might have been strong enough to
resist my desperate efforts to get a cup of tea at some time before
nine o'clock in the morning, but the officers' servants were too
strong for them. They came and knocked the house up betimes, and then
the bustle of the day began.

Now, I have been assured by the Irish priests and people that whatever
faults your Commissioner may have, prejudice against Ireland and the
Irish is not one of them. But at the risk of being thought a
censorious Saxon I must confess that I am quite at issue with Western
Ireland on the question of early rising. It is impossible to get
anybody out of bed in the morning except the Boots at an hotel, and
then the chances are that no hot water is to be obtained.

A housemaid in one of the Mayo hotels on coming up to make a fire
complained bitterly, not of the toil of coming up stairs, but of the
early hour of ten, and do what I would I could get nothing done
earlier. On another occasion I was told that people out West rose late
because the "day is long enough for hwhat we have got to do." I
retorted that th