ask the shild would n't she come home wit' me an'
ate her dinner," said Patrick. "Herself sent me; she's got a great
wash the day, last week being so rainy, an' we niver got word of Nora
being here till this morning, and then everybody had it that passed by,
wondering what got us last night that we were n't there."

"'T was on the quarter to nine she come," said Uncle Mike, taking up
the narrative with importance. "Herself an' me had blown out the
light, going to bed, when there come a scuttlin' at the door and I
heard a bit of a laugh like the first bird in the morning"--

"'Stop where you are, Bridget,' says I," continued Mr. Quin, without
taking any notice, "'an' I 'll take me third leg and walk over and
bring Nora down to you.' Bridget's great for the news from home now,
for all she was so sharp to be l'aving it."

"She brought me a fine present, and the mate of it for yourself," said
Mike Duffy. "Two good thorn sticks for the two of us. They 're inside
in the house."

"A thorn stick, indeed! Did she now?" exclaimed Patrick, with unusual
delight. "The poor shild, did she do that now? I 've thought manny 's
the time since I got me lameness how well I 'd like one o' those
old-fashioned thorn sticks. Me own is one o' them sticks a man 'd
carry tin years and toss it into a brook at the ind an' not miss it."

"They 're good thorn sticks, the both of them," said Mike complacently.
"I don't know 'ill I bring 'em out before she comes."

"Is she a pritty slip of a gerrl, I d' know?" asked Patrick, with
increased interest.

"She ain't, then," answered his companion frankly. "She does be thin
as a young grasshopper, and she 's red-headed, and she 's freckled,
too, from the sea, like all them young things comin' over; but she 's
got a pritty voice, like all her mother's folks, and a quick eye like a
bird's. The old-country talk's fresh in her mouth, too, so it is; you
'd think you were coming out o' mass some spring morning at home and
hearing all the girls whin they'd be chatting and funning at the boys.
I do be thinking she's a smart little girl, annyway; look at her off to
see the town so early and not back yet, bad manners to her! She 'll be
wanting some clothes, I suppose; she's very old-fashioned looking; they
does always be wanting new clothes, coming out," and Mike gave an
ostentatious sigh and suggestive glance at his brother-in-law.

"'Deed, I 'm willing to help her get a good start; ain't she me o