oked to him for counsel in everything,
and he did not know how to counsel her. Arrangements were to be made
for an auction in the house as soon as she should be able to move;
but would it not be a thousand pities to sell all the furniture if
there was a prospect of the family returning? And so he waited for
Mr. Prendergast's letter with an uneasy heart and vexation of spirit.

But still he attended the relief committees, and worked at the
soup-kitchens attached to the estate, as though he were still the
agent to Castle Richmond; and still debated warmly with Father
Barney on one side, and Mr. Townsend on the other, on that vexatious
question of out-door relief. And now the famine was in full swing;
and, strange to say, men had ceased to be uncomfortable about
it;--such men, that is, as Mr. Somers and Mr. Townsend. The cutting
off of maimed limbs, and wrenching out from their sockets of smashed
bones, is by no means shocking to the skilled practitioner. And dying
paupers, with "the drag" in their face--that certain sign of coming
death of which I have spoken--no longer struck men to the heart. Like
the skilled surgeon, they worked hard enough at what good they could
do, and worked the better in that they could treat the cases without
express compassion for the individuals that met their eyes. In
administering relief one may rob five unseen sufferers of what would
keep them in life if one is moved to bestow all that is comfortable
on one sufferer that is seen. Was it wise to spend money in
alleviating the last hours of those whose doom was already spoken,
which money, if duly used, might save the lives of others not yet
so far gone in misery? And so in one sense those who were the best
in the county, who worked the hardest for the poor and spent their
time most completely among them, became the hardest of heart, and
most obdurate in their denials. It was strange to see devoted women
neglecting the wants of the dying, so that they might husband their
strength and time and means for the wants of those who might still be
kept among the living.

At this time there came over to the parish of Drumbarrow a young
English clergyman who might be said to be in many respects the very
opposite to Mr. Townsend. Two men could hardly be found in the
same profession more opposite in their ideas, lives, purposes, and
pursuits;--with this similarity, however, that each was a sincere,
and on the whole an honest man. The Rev. Mr. Carter was