He went
out to America. But he didn't like it."

"Why not?" I asked.

"Oh, he didn't like it. He could get no work, but to be a porter, and it
was too hard. So he came back in three months' time, and then he 'listed
for a soldier. He's over in England now. He likes it very well. He's
getting very good pay. They pay the soldiers well. There's a troop of
Hussars here now. They bring a power of money to the place."

"What do they do with the wheat lands now?"

"Oh, they're for sheep; they do very well. Were you ever in Australia,
sorr?" pointing to a place we were passing. "There was a man came here
from Australia with a pot of money, and he bought that place; but he
thought he was a bigger man than he was, and now he's found himself out.
I think he would have done as well to stay in Australia where he was."

In quite a different vein he spoke of the landlord of another large
seat, and of the way in which the people, some of them, had
misbehaved--breaking open the graves of the family on the place, "and
tossing the coffins and the bones about, and all for what?"

The view as we crossed the long and very fine bridge over the Shannon
after dusk was very striking. It was not too dark to make out the course
of the broad gleaming river, and the lights of the town made it seem
larger, I daresay, than it really is. As we drove up the main street I
told my jarvey to take me to the Castle.

"To the Castle, is it?" he replied, looking around at me with an
astonished air.

"Yes," I said, "I am going to see Mr. Tener, the agent, who lives there,
doesn't he?"

"Oh, the new agent? Oh yes; I believe he's a very good man."

"You don't expect to be 'boycotted' for going to the Castle, do you?"

"And why should I be? But I haven't been inside of the Castle gates for
twenty years. And--here they are!" he cried out suddenly, pulling up his
horse just in time to avoid driving him up against a pair of iron gates
inhospitably closed. It was by this time pitch dark. Not a light could
we see within the enclosure. But presently a couple of shadowy forms
appeared behind the iron gates; the iron gates creaked on their hinges,
a masculine voice bade us drive in, and a policeman with a lantern
advanced from a thicket of trees. All this had a fine martial and
adventurous aspect, and my jarvey seemed to enjoy it as much as I.

We got directions from the friendly policeman as to the roads and the
landmarks, and after once nearly running int