ther left her a power o' money--'deed an' he did, a power o'
money!"

"Bedad, he must have left her a good bit," agreed Pat meditatively,
"and she desarves it all. 'Pon me word, I wisht Mike had left that
ould rick alone. Sure, it's her that's the loser now. It's into her
pocket all that fine money 'ud be comin'."

"Musha," exclaimed "Herself," "I declare I am sick an' tired hearing
ye goin' on that way, an' me tellin' ye twenty times a day that it is
the last thing poor Mike 'ud do. He would never dhrame o' such a
thing, him that wouldn't hurt a fly. Many a time I seen him drivin'
home the sheep, an' he'd have his heart scalded wid them runnin' this
way an' that, an' he'd niver offer to rise a stick to them, or so much
as to peg a stone at them."

"Ah, ha! then, maybe he didn't!" cried Pat triumphantly; "I know me
own son as well as ye do, ma'am, an' he has a fine sperrit of his own
as quiet as he is. There now! Who done it if he didn't? Tell me that
if ye plase."

"Sure them hayricks often and often goes on fire of themselves,"
retorted Mrs. Clancy, flushed and tearful; "ye know that as well as
me, Pat. Weren't they at the loss of a lovely stack down there at
McEvoy's, four year ago? No, it was five, I believe--look at that
now."

Pat laughed derisively. "'Pon me word, Mary, you have no more sense
nor herself there," nodding towards Judy. "Sure, McEvoy's rick took
fire because they were afther stackin' it, an' it wet. Whoever heard
of a three-year-old rick takin' fire of itself, an' every bit of it as
dry as a bone?"

"Troth it was," put in Judy, "powerful dry, ma'am. Sure, when a little
spark got on it out o' me pipe it burnt up the same as if it was
tindher."

As she spoke she drew her stool up to the table; she was unusually
loquacious and sensible that day. The potations in which she, in
common with the other members of Roseen's establishment at Monavoe,
had indulged having apparently at once loosened her tongue and
brightened her wits.

Pat's face suddenly changed; his eyes flashed, and his voice shook
when next he spoke, though he endeavoured to assume a casual air.

"An' was it smokin' alongside o' the rick you were, Judy? When was
that, agrah?"

"Sure, it was the very night I lost me pipe," replied Judy. "Roseen
bid me go out an' watch for Mike an' tell him the Masther had her
locked in an' she couldn't get out to spake to him."

The Clancys looked at each other; the old man making an imperativ