ng on in his mind all the while: "What's the good of
us tryin' to live at all?" he said. "Is livin' any use to us? We do
nothin' but work all day, and eat a little to give us the strength to
work the next day, and then we sleep all night, if we can sleep. And
it's that and nothing else all the year through. Are we any better
when the year ends than we were when it began? If we've paid the
rent, we've done well. We never do more."

"John," the old woman answered, "it's not for us to say why we're here
or what for we're living. It's God that put us here, and He'll keep us
here till it's our time to go. He has made it the way of all His
creatures to provide for themselves and for their own, and to keep
themselves alive while they can. When He's ready for us to die, we
die. That's all we know. The rest is with Him."

"I know all that's true, mother," said John; "but what is there for us
to hope for, that we'ld wish to live? It's nothing but work to keep
the roof over us. We don't even eat for any pleasure that's in
it--only so that we can work. If we rested for a day, we'ld be driven
out of our house. If we rested for another day, we'ld starve. Is there
any good to be hoped for such as us? Will there ever be any good times
for Ireland? I mean for all the people in it."

"There will," the old woman said. "Everything has an end, and so these
troubles of ours will end, and all the troubles of Ireland will end,
too."

"And why should we believe that?" John asked again. "Wasn't Ireland
always the poor, unhappy country, and all the people in it, only the
landlords and the agents, and why should we think it will ever be
better?"

"Everything has an end," the old woman repeated. "Ireland was not
always the unhappy country. It was happy once and it will be happy
again. It's not you, John O'Brien, that ought to be forgetting the
good days of Ireland, long ago though they were. For you yourself are
the descendant of King Brian Boru, and you know well, for it's many
times I've told you, how in his days the country was happy and
peaceful and blessed. He drove out the heathen and saved the country
for his people. He had strict laws, and the people obeyed them. In his
days a lovely girl, dressed all in fine silk and gold and jewels,
walked alone the length of Ireland, and there was no one to rob her or
to harm her, because of the good King and the love the people had for
him and for his laws. And you, that are descended from King Br