ne from me, I've a feeling
like it was something more than the name of a woman--like it was
something holy, like the name of the blessed Mother of God. When I
think of that name now, I want to think only of her, and I wouldn't
like to be calling even her own child by it. It's Kathleen I'll call
her--nothing else."

"You're right about all that, no doubt," said Peter; "but I can't be
staying here, and Ellen and the child at home the way they are. You
have your child left, and you say it's healthy--thank God for that
same!--but it looks like I might have neither wife nor child."

"Don't say that, man alive," said John; "what's the matter at all
then?"

"I can't stop discoursin' here," Peter answered. "I came to ask would
your mother, being a knowledgable woman, step over for a bit and see
can she tell at all what's the matter with Ellen and the child. There
was a doctor there, but he seemed to do no good, and Ellen said your
mother would know more than all the doctors, so I came to ask would
she come. And if you care to come yourself, I'll be telling you how
they are as we go along, but I can't stay here; it's too long to be
away from them."

"Mother is with the child," said John; "I'll speak to her."

He went into another room, where the baby was sleeping and his mother
was sitting beside her. He told her why Peter had come. "Step
downstairs," said Mrs. O'Brien, "and ask Mrs. Mulvey will she sit by
the baby till I'm back. Then I'll go with him. And you'd better come,
too, John; the air will do you good."

John went down to another of the tenements in the house and came back
with their neighbor, Mrs. Mulvey. "If you'll be so kind," Mrs. O'Brien
said, "sit here by the baby till I'm back, and I'll not be long. And
mind you keep everything as it is, unless she wakes, and then you'll
know what to do as well as I, for you've children of your own. But
don't disturb the pair of scissors that's there beside her, and don't
take off the horseshoe nail that's hung round her neck."

"And what's them things for?" Mrs. Mulvey asked, with wonder in her
eyes.

"Why, to keep the Good People from stealing the child," Mrs. O'Brien
answered. "Did you never hear of those things? Don't you know the Good
People can't stand the touch of iron, or even to be near it? And
especially a horseshoe nail they can't stand. And the scissors, too,
they couldn't come near, and then leaving them open they make a cross,
and that keeps the child all