rs had belonged to all, and little enough
there was of it. It is well for you young people to talk of these
times being hard. Harder than some they may be, but good and easy
compared with those days of '47 and '48. You talk of injustice and
wrong to Ireland! What think you of those times, when every day great
ships sailed away from Ireland loaded down with food--corn and bacon,
and beef and butter--and Ireland's own people left without the bit of
food to keep the life in them? All summer long was the horrible wet
weather, and the potatoes rotting in the ground before they'ld be
ripe, and never fit to eat. To add to all that was the fever, that
killed its thousands, and then the cold. And when the days came again
that the crops would grow, many and many of the people were so weak
with the hunger and the sickness that they could not work in the
fields. Ah! and you call these hard times!

"Those were the bad days for Ireland, those days of '47. Not even the
luck of O'Donoghue could make us prosper or give us comforts then. But
we lived through the time, as many others did. The poor helped those
who were poorer than themselves; the sick tended those who were
sicker; the cold gave clothes and fire to those who were colder. The
little money that we had saved helped us and some of our neighbors.
And we lived through it all.

"Better times came, though never again so good as the old. We worked
again and we saved a trifle. Then you were born to us, John. We had a
worse landlord now. He was of the kind that cared nothing for his
tenants and nothing for his land, but to get the last penny off it.
The rent was raised, and we never could have paid it but for the care
and the skill and the hard work of your father. And then, John, you
know that when you were hardly old enough to take his place with the
work, let alone knowing how to work as well as he, he died and left
us--Heaven rest his soul!"

For a long time the old woman said no more, and neither of the others
spoke. Then she said: "John, the country is in trouble enough and the
times are hard enough for you and for Kitty, here, and for all of us,
I know. But don't be cast down. There have been worse days than these;
there have been better days, too, and there will be better again."

[Illustration: ]

II

THE BIG POOR PEOPLE

There was a knock at the door, and John opened it. "God save all here
except the cat!" said a voice outside.

"God save you kindly!" Joh