like
Another, might without difficulty find entrance there.

I am not wise enough to say how much of all this squalor and
wretchedness and hunger is the fault of the people themselves, how much
of it belongs to circumstances and environment, how much is the result
of past errors of government, how much is race, how much is religion. I
only know that children should never be hungry, that there are ignorant
human creatures to be taught how to live; and if it is a hard task,
the sooner it is begun the better, both for teachers and pupils. It is
comparatively easy to form opinions and devise remedies, when one knows
the absolute truth of things; but it is so difficult to find the truth
here, or at least there are so many and such different truths to weigh
in the balance,--the Protestant and the Roman Catholic truth, the
landlord's and the tenant's, the Nationalist's and the Unionist's truth!
I am sadly befogged, and so, pushing the vexing questions all aside, I
take dark Timsy, Bocca Lynch, and Omadhaun Pat up on the green hillside
near the ruined fort, to tell them stories, and teach them some of the
thousand things that happier, luckier children know.

This is an island of anomalies: the Irish peasants will puzzle you,
perplex you, disappoint you with their inconsistencies, but keep from
liking them if you can! There are a few cleaner and more comfortable
homes in Lisdara and Knockcool than when we came, and Benella has
been invaluable, although her reforms, as might be expected, are of
an unusual character, and with her the wheels of progress never move
silently, as they should, but always squeak. With the two golden
sovereigns given her to spend, she has bought scissors, knives, hammers,
boards, sewing materials, knitting needles, and yarn,--everything to
work with, and nothing to eat, drink, or wear, though Heaven knows there
is little enough of such things in Lisdara.

"The quicker you wear 'em out, the better you'll suit me," she says to
the awestricken Lisdarians. "I'm a workin' woman myself, an' it's my
ladies' money I've spent this time; but I'll make out to keep you in
brooms and scrubbin' brushes, if only you'll use 'em! You mustn't take
offence at anything I say to you, for I'm part Irish--my grandmother was
Mary Boyce of Trim; and if she hadn't come away and settled in Salem,
Massachusetts, mebbe I wouldn't have known a scrubbin' brush by sight
myself!"

Chapter XXI. Lachrymae Hibernicae.

'What