THE DAWN VOtfE. $43 



sipped the beverage " that cheers;" but yet the spirit of determined 

 will shone through all such impatience. 



Wrapping her cloak firmly about her, and rejecting all aid, as if 

 she feared there was something of betrayal of intention in mere con*; 

 tact, she took her golden-headed walking-stick ; but ere her majestic 

 figure disappeared from the eyes of the inquisitive rather than won- 

 dering group, she pronounced her usual solemn -benediction, " May 

 God bless you all, and, with his blessing, I hope soon to return.'* 



Winding her way down the long avenue which fronted the old 

 fashioned dwelling-house, she often had to stop and prop herself as 

 she encountered the sudden gust. As her gray hair escaped and her 

 noble countenance was for the moment displayed, one might almost 

 fancy that the old trees bent down their heads in homage to the old- 

 est of her house. 



On arriving at the high road which bordered on the avenue, there 

 might be observed a countryman attired in a loose jock coat, with 

 a whip under his arm, blowing at his fingers and beating his hands 

 against his sides. " Och then it is mortal cowld, Father Flannery. 

 Is the dhrop all gone?" 



" Patience, Mickey Brien, you that people call daicent Mickey 

 Brien, for no other raison, that I can see, but because you have a 

 daicent slip of a wife to keep you out of harm's way but, daicent or 

 not, you shall not make a bafete of yourself, and the Bawn Vone de- 

 pending on you for a sarvice," 



The voice proceeded from our old friend the friar, who, ensconced 

 in a low car, to which his favourite ass was harnessed, was partially 

 concealed by the shade of the trees and the wall. 



'* Why then, Father," says the daicent one, " you never were con- 

 sidered a bad fellow at the bottle, either to share or to take it. How- 

 somdever, as you have your own raisons for denying me the sup this 

 cowld night, I must only put up with them, although I doant know 

 what they are, and may be you'd be afther telling them to a body." j 



" Be whisht, Mick, you are as curious as a woman." 



" Och, aye, sour grapes. You're always a running down the women 

 and their curiosity." 



" Me! I neither meddle nor make with them. I am married, you 

 know, long ago to holy mother church.'' 



" Faix, then, may be your mother, as you call her, may sue for a 

 divorce, on the score of relationship." 



" By my soul, Mickey, I'll tell the wife on you." 



" Tell her what ye likes." 



And Mickey whistled a tune with an air of the most provoking 

 independence, during which he thought he heard a smack of the lips 

 and a certain deep drawing of the breath, very like that which a man 

 gives in acknowledgment of the satisfaction he inhales from the po- 

 tency of a cordial. 



" By my sowl," says Mickey, " that's stronger than wather, and 

 better too, or may I be made a bishop." 



" If you prayed that for me,'' replied the friar, " I'd give you a 

 charm better than holy wather itself against the cowld and the blue 

 devils." 



