270 A YEAR OF LIBERTY ; OR, 



the pleasure now came back to me with whicli, on the following 

 morning, I saw for the first time the river, the mountains, and the 

 glen ! Again I seemed walking homewards over the moor in a 

 deluge such as was now falling. It appeared but yesterday that, 

 confused by the storm, I took a wrong turn in the road, and should 

 in due time have found myself once more in Dunfanaghy, had it not 

 been for a little white-haired peasant, spiced with a concentrated 

 essence of peat-smoke 50 per cent, over proof. Poor old Dan ! my 

 comrade for many a day afterwards, how I bawled at you, roared at 

 you, spoke slowly, confidentially, soothingly ; and how your answer 

 was always the same gentle, patient smile ! You never knew that I 

 felt disposed to strangle you, nor how ashamed I was when, in the 

 extremity of your distress, you faltered out, '* No Engleesh." Do I 

 forget the five salmon you gaffed for me on the following day in 

 little more than an hour, out of a single pool at the bottom of that 

 boggy inclosure yonder, which was to have been called " Leech 

 Park ?" No, of course not ; no man ever does forget such things. 



It was just such an evening as this, old comrade long dead, that 

 we walked home together. To-morrow I shall think of the reverend 

 locks that streamed from under your old blue bonnet as we sat 

 triumphant on the heathery rock by that round pool. Ah, me ! how 

 happy I was ! Such joy comes but once. You cannot share the 

 sport I hope again to meet there, yet you will be with me, for I shall 

 sit a few minutes where we sat, and dream once more of " the days 

 that are gone." 



