238 A TEAR OF LIBERTY ; OR, 



line now, won't you ? We're going to Keel, you know. Mamma 

 is packing up such a cake, and won't we have a jolly day !" 



Any vague ideas previously entertained of personal adornment 

 were of necessity abandoned ; the razor fell back into its case, and 

 soon I was doing suit and service at the bidding of the juvenile 

 tyrants who had thus taken forcible possession of me. 



One reason for leaving Newport was the pleasure we anticipated 

 from wandering over this wild region ; another, a wish to see an old 

 friend who had located himself and family in this Ultima Thule of 

 civilised life. I found him as men who steadily do their duty 

 always are found ^bright and cheerful, without an idle hour or an 

 unsatisfied wish. After a prolonged chat on the previous evening, 

 he proposed to lionise us on the following day over the west or most 

 primitive portion of the island, in order to give us some idea of its 

 condition, before the Saxon, backed by a whole aimy of good inten- 

 tions, invaded it. 



The young tyrants who surprised me in a defenceless condition, 

 held me in bondage till pater and mater came to the rescue some 

 three hours after, and set me at liberty. 



As we drove down the level road which led from Dugurth to Keel, 

 I could not but feel how dreary it was. The tallest green thing to 

 be seen was the Osmunda regalis the only shrub the bog myrtle. 

 Peat swamps, intersected with watercourses and dotted with innu- 

 merable pools of black stagnant water, fonned the chief features in 

 the landscape. Here and there patches of potatoes, laid out in the 

 usual lazy beds, with the intervening furrows full of water, or a 

 small inclosure, said to contain oats, relieved the monotony. So 

 disguised, however, was ''the farm" with marigolds, polygonum, 

 and divers other natural productions of the soil, that I should 

 scarcely have recognised the crop had I been left to the unassisted 

 exercise of my own genius. As we approached the sea, my philan- 

 thropic spirit felt quite revived by the sight of a considerable 

 number of small circular ricks, apparently thatched with more 

 regard to neatness and security than is generally found in regions 

 even better cultivated than Achil. Here at least was corn stored up 



