AND HOW I HAVE CAUGHT MY FISH 183 



I must quote him, as his words, uttered in the 

 presence of the two Irish waiting-maids, who 

 listened with crimson angry faces, are burnt into 

 my memory with the shame I felt. " I came here 

 with quite an open mind. Indeed I was more than 

 prepared to be pleased with the Irish people ; but 

 their poverty, their indolence, and their filthy, 

 unfloored cabins, filled, crowded I should say, with 

 pigs, fowls, and dirty, ragged children, have dis- 

 gusted me." 



I heard all this and wondered who would offer 

 protest. A voice I knew quite near me whispered 

 "Bless their little hearts." I had heard the same 

 man use those words long years before when two 

 baby boys were placed upon his knees with their 

 white draperies trailing to his feet. The mother 

 had died that day leaving him in charge of them 

 with other children that made up just half a score. 

 Since then his charges have grown to men and 

 women, and he has been heard to say " Bless their 

 little hearts," to grandchildren. 



Would he not cause the roof to shake with his 

 displeasure at hearing children spoken of in such 

 a manner ? He did not speak. I was too full of 

 shame and anger. I should have been worsted 

 in an instant by the semi-pious, smooth-tongued 

 talker, 



" Whose native cheek, where facts are weak, 

 In triumph brings him through ! " 



Then I thought kindly of the little red-haired, fiery- 



