WILD LIFE ON THE WING 
Cornelius, for forty years ; and now, pensioned 
off, kept the " rides " in the woods pruned, 
and stopped the " earths " against the visits of 
the Ballyoughter Hunt. 
But in course of time, Thomas Geoghegan 
died childless, and the " ass-cairs " of the 
whole countryside followed his funeral. Cor- 
nelius, his cousin, whom he had not seen for 
twenty years, was his heir. They buried 
Thomas in the little cemetery in the demesne, 
among the crooked tombstones of the old 
Geoghegans he himself had made a fox- 
earth just outside the place. Cornelius Geo- 
ghegan walked behind the coffin as chief 
mourner, decorously valuing the timber and 
pasturage as he went. It was quite natural 
that he should not testify much grief for the 
demise of a relative whom he had seldom seen, 
and always disliked, but his future tenants, 
most of whom had tears running down their 
faces, loved him none the better for it. 
Later what respect they had for their landlord, 
for his name's sake, vanished, when they 
found that he not only pulled down the 
kennels at Ballongarry House to make room 
for his new garage, but did not even ride to 
hounds himself. (Thomas had held the mas- 
tership of the Ballyoughter Hunt for twenty 
years, and only gave it up when his rents 
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