r
blessed presence, with a heart--with a happy heartens day, to return you
thanks in the name of myself and the beloved partner you have given me
through the cares and thrials of this world, to give you our heart's
best thanks for graciously permittin' us to see this day! It is to you
we owe it, good Father of Heaven! It is to you we owe this--an' him--my
heart's own son, that kneels before me to be blessed by my lips!
Yes--yes, he is--he is the pride of our lives!--He is the mornin' star
among us! he was ever a good son; and you know that from the day he was
born to this minute, he never gave me a sore heart! Take him under your
own protection! Oh, bless him as we wish, if it be your holy will to
do so!--Bless him and guard him, for my heart's in him: it is--he knows
it--everybody knows it;--and if anything was to happen him----"

He could proceed no further: the idea of losing his son, even in
imagination, overpowered him;--he rose, locked him to his breast, and
for many minutes the grief of both was loud and vehement.

Denis's uncle now interposed: "The horses," said he, "are at the door,
an' time's passin'."

"Och, thrue for you, Barny," said old Denis; "come, _acushla_, an'
let me help you on your horse. We will go on quickly, as we're to meet
Father Finnerty at the crass-roads."

Denis then shook hands with them all, not forgetting honest Phadrick
Murray, who exclaimed, as he bid him farewell, "Arrah! Misther Denis,
aroon, won't you be thinkin' of me now an' thin in the College? Faix,
if you always argue as bravely wid the Collegians as you did the day you
proved me to be an ass you'll soon be at the head of them!"

"Denis," said the uncle, "your father excuses me in regard of havin' to
attend my cattle in the fair to-day. You won't be angry wid me, dear,
for lavin' you now, as my road lies this other way. May the blessin'
of God and his holy mother keep you till I see you agin! an', Denis, if
you'd send me a scrape or two, lettin' me know what a good parish 'ud be
worth; for I intend next spring to go wid little Barny to the Latin!"

This Denis promised to do; and after bidding him farewell, he and
his friends--some on horseback and numbers on foot--set out on their
journey; and as they proceeded through their own neighborhood, many
a crowd was collected to get a sight of Denis O'Shaughnessy going to
Maynooth.

*****

It was one day in autumn, after a lapse of about two years, that the
following convers