232 LOUGH DERG. 



age in the broad stains of blood among the 

 trampled weeds." 



" I wonder," said the Captain, " what the 

 great Maguire says about the agitators of 

 the present day ? One would think they 

 must cost the poor fellow many a weary 

 tramp. But how on earth do you pick up 

 all these stories ? People never tell them 

 to me." 



" Because vou laugh at them," said the 

 Parson. " An Irishman is very sensitive to 

 ridicule. Perhaps he has a secret conscious- 

 ness that some of these stories of his require 

 a little faith in the hearer, and he will not 

 subject his cherished belief to the test of an 

 unfriendly one. One thing is quite certain, 

 — if you ask an Irishman a direct question 

 about any thing, you will not get a direct 

 answer. Did I never tell you about Inglis 

 and his book ? " 



" No," said the Captain. " I have read 

 his book, and a nice, pleasant, lively, well- 

 written book it is, but singularly inaccurate 

 whenever you come to detail." 



" And well it may be," said the Parson, 

 " and I will tell you how it happens that it is 

 so. In the course of his travels Master Inglis 



