THREENEHEILA WITHIN DRUM. 25 



parish. There are eight or ten men in the 

 place besides the brawny Leum (William) him- 

 self, and one woman. The woman is a brazen, 

 hard-looking wench, a female pedlar, who 

 hawks needles, thread, cheap looking-glasses, 

 pious pictures, almanacs, hair-pins, ballads, of 

 the most humble pattern, through the coun- 

 try. The lady is known as " Biddy the Ram- 

 bler," and is not popular, despite the conve- 

 nience of her calling, with the honest wives of 

 the neighbourhood. Biddy has a pair of bold 

 black eyes, and smokes a dhudeen with evi- 

 dent and quite unaffected pleasure in the weed. 

 Tom Dwyer and his guest are tempted to 

 linger for a quarter of an hour in this strange 

 company, whose shyness at their advent wore 

 off after a hearty exchange of Irish phrases of 

 welcome with the former. Biddy presses some 

 of her wares on the stranger, who offers to buy 

 a dozen of the ballads if any one present will 

 sing a sample from the collection for him. 

 Leum Gow was appealed to by Biddy as a 

 boy that could u rise it," and Leum was no- 

 thing loth. The smoke and ashes of his trade 

 had not in the least impaired a voice that was 



