"Pooh, Nancy, you speak like a woman who never looked beyond the range
of the kitchen and larder, or thought beyond the humdrum prayers of your
Manual. I wish to see my children established; I wish to see them gain
station in the world; I wish to make them the first of their family; and
I do assure you, Nancy, that it is not such a trifle as the difference
between popery on the one hand, and Protestantism on the other, that I'd
suffer--that is, if they will be guided by me--to stand between them and
the solid advantages of good connection, and a proper standing in the
world. I say, then, boys and girls, don't be fools; for, as for my part,
I scarcely think, to tell God's truth, that there's to the value of
sixpence between the two creeds."

"Father," said Mary, laughing, "you're a man of a truly liberal
disposition in these matters."

"But, papa," said Julia, with an arch look, "if there be not the value
of sixpence between the two creeds, perhaps there is more than that
between the two clergy?"

The proctor shook his head and laughed.

"Ah, Judy, my girl, you have me there," he replied; "that goes home
to the proctor, you baggage. Devil a thing, however, like an endowed
church, and may God keep me and all my friends from the voluntary
system!--ha! ha! ha! Come, now, for that same hit at the old proctor,
you must walk over here and play me my old favorite, the 'Cannie
Soogah,' just to pull down your pride. The 'Cannie Soogah,' you know, is
the Irish for Jolly Pedlar, and a right jolly pedlar your worthy father
was once in his days."