watching the success of this innocent frolic. In this situation we must
now leave them, to follow Peety, who is on his way to deliver the other
letter to Bryan M'Mahon.

Our little black Mercury was not long in arriving at the house of Tom
M'Mahon, which he reached in company with that worthy man himself, whom
he happened to overtake near Carriglass where he lived. M'Mahon seemed
fatigued and travel-worn, and consequently was proceeding at a slow pace
when Peety overtook him. The latter observed this.

"Why, thin, Tom," said he, after the first salutations had passed, "you
look like a man that had jist put a tough journey over him."

"An' so I ought, Peety," he replied, "for I have put a tough journey
over me."

"Musha where were you, thin, if it's fair to ax?" inquired Peety; "for
as for me that hears everything almost, the never a word I heard o'
this."

"I was in Dublin, thin, all the way," replied the farmer, "strivin' to
get a renewal o' my laise from ould Squire Chevydale, the landlord; an'
upon my snuggins, Peety, you may call a journey to Dublin an' home agin
a tough one--devil a doubt of it. However, thank God, here we are at
home; an' blessed be His name that we have a home to come to; for,
afther all, what place is like it? Throth, Peety, my heart longed for
these brave fields of ours--for the lough there below, and the wild
hills above us; for it wasn't until I was away from them that I felt how
strong the love of them was in my heart."