you're crushin' the _blanter_* anyhow, and that looks well."

* Blantur, a well-known description of oats. It was so
called from having been originally imported from Blantire in
Scotland.

"We must live, Barney; 'tis a poor shift we'd make 'idout the praties
and the broghan," (meal porridge).

"What news from the big house?"

"News, is it? Come, Corney, come, girls, bounce; news is it? O, faitha',
thin it's I that has the news that will make you all shake your feet
to-night."

"Blessed saints, Barney what is it?"

"Bounce, I say, and off wid ye to gather brusna (dried and rotten
brambles) for a bonfire in the great town of Rathfillan."

"A bonfire, Barney! Arra, why, man alive?"

"Why? Why, bekaise the masther's stepson and the misthress's own pet has
come home to us to set the counthry into a state o' conflagration wid
his beauty. There won't be a whole cap in the barony before this day
week. They're to have fiddlers, and pipers, and dancin', and drinkin'
to no end; and the glory of it is that the masther, God bless him, is to
pay for all. Now!"

The younger of the two girls sprang to her feet with the elasticity and