f hogs, the cackling of geese, the quacking
of ducks, and all the various other sounds which proceeded from what at
first sight might have appeared to be rather a scene of confusion, but
which, on closer inspection, would be found a rough yet well--regulated
system, in which every person had an allotted duty to perform. Here
might Bodagh Buie be seen, dressed in a gray broad-cloth coat, broad
kerseymere breeches, and lambs' wool stockings, moving from place to
place with that calm, sedate, and contented air, which betokens an easy
mind and a consciousness of possessing a more than ordinary share
of property and influence. With hands thrust into his small-clothes
pockets, and a bunch of gold seals suspended from his fob, he issued his
orders in a grave and quiet tone, differing very little in dress from an
absolute _Squireen_, save in the fact of his Caroline hat being rather
scuffed, and his strong shoes begrimed with the soil of his fields or
farm-yard. Mrs. O'Brien was, out of the sphere of her own family, a
person of much greater pretension than the Bodagh her husband; and,
though in a different manner, not less so in the discharge of her duty
as a wife, a mother, or a mistress. In appearance, she was a large, fat,
good-looking woman, eternally in a state of motion and bustle, and, as
her education had been extremely scanty, her tone and manner, though
brimful of authority and consequence, were strongly marked with that
ludicrous vulgarity which is produced by the attempt of an ignorant
person to accomplish a high style of gentility. She was a kind-hearted,
charitable woman, however; but so inveterately conscious of her station
in life, that it became, in her opinion, a matter of duty to exhibit
a refinement and elevation of language suitable to a matron who could
drive every Sunday to Mass on her own jaunting car. When dressed on
these Occasions in her rich rustling silks, she had, what is called in
Ireland, a comfortable _flaghoola_ look, but at the same time a carriage
so stiff and rustic, as utterly overcame all her attempts, dictated
as they were by the simplest vanity, at enacting the arduous and awful
character of a Squireen's wife. Their family consisted of a son and
daughter; the former, a young man of a very amiable disposition, was, at
the present period of our story, a student in Maynooth College, and
the latter, now in her nineteenth year, a promising pupil in a certain
seminary for young ladies, conducted