before ye
know where yez are an' maybe they wouldn't keep him in it at all."

"'Deed then they had a right to let him out at wanst," groaned Mrs.
Clancy from beneath her apron. "The Lord knows he never done what
they're afther sayin' he done."

"Hothen, indeed, I wouldn't make too sure of that," put in Pat. "Why
wouldn't he do it? Bedad, he'ud have done well if he done twice as
much. No, but he had a right to have burnt the ould villain in his bed
an' got shut of him out-an'-out--the on'y mistake the poor fellow
made, was lettin' him off so aisy."

"Whisht, whisht! in the name of goodness! God bless us! what is it
ye're sayin' at all? Sure, poor Mike's as innocent as a lamb."

"Heth, he's the fine lamb!" retorted the father sarcastically. "Well,
I believe they have everything now, down to the little creepy. Good
luck to ye, Jack McEvoy; mind how ye go takin' it up the road--don't
be dhroppin' any of it out o' the cart. Give me compliments to Mr.
Rorke, and tell him I hope he'll enjoy my iligant furnitur, an' much
good may it do him!"

Jack McEvoy, one of Peter's men, climbed into the cart sheepishly
enough and drove off. Once more the neighbours pressed round the
homeless old pair, quarrelling for the honour of harbouring them.

"It's coming along wid me they are," cried one, "aren't yez now? sure
of course they are. Isn't mine the biggest house anywhere in
Donoughmor?"

"Ah, but it's that far off," argued another. "Look at the length of
time it 'ud take them to be gettin' there, an' the two of them so wake
on their legs, God help them! No, but it'll be betther for them step
down to my little place that's handy. An' it ud' take them no time at
all to get there."

"Good gracious, woman, where would ye put them in that little
shebeen--sure there isn't room in it for your own childer. God bless
them! the fine childer they are too--but where in the world would you
find a corner for Misther and Mrs. Clancy?"

"Troth, I'll find a corner aisy enough; and it wouldn't do a ha'porth
of harm to the two little fellows if they were to sleep for a few
nights undher the turf stack outside. It's grand warm weather we are
havin', Glory be to Goodness, an' they'd sleep as sound as a bell by
the side of it."

"Oh, not at all, ma'am," put in Mrs. Clancy, "we wouldn't dhrame to be
puttin' ye about that much; the poor little fellows might be gettin'
their deaths o' cold on ye. Indeed it doesn't matther where we go; we
are a thr