"Mother, dear," said the son, "I wouldn't wish to go agin what you'd
say; but I made a promise to myself to 'rise yez out of your poverty if
I can, an' my mind's made up on it; so don't cross me, or be the manes
of my havin' bad luck on my journey, in regard of me goin' aginst yer
will, when you know 'twould be the last thing I wish to do."

"Let the gossoon take his way, Vara. Who knows but it was the Almighty
put the thoughts of it into his head. Pasthorini says that there
will soon be a change, an' 'tis a good skame it 'ill be to have him
a _sogarth_ when the fat living will be walkin' back to their ould
owners."

"Oh, an' may the Man above grant _that_, I pray Jamini this day! for are
not we harrished out of our lives, scrapin' an' scramblin' for the black
thieves, what we ought to put on our backs, an' into our own mouths.
Well, they say it's not lucky to take money from a priest, because
it's the price o' sin, an' no more it can, seein' that they want it
themselves; but I'm sure it's _their_ (* The Protestant clergy) money
that ought to carry the bad luck to them, in regard of their gettin' so
many bitter curses along wid it."

When a lad from the humblest classes resolves to go to Munster as a poor
scholar, there is but one course to be pursued in preparing his outfit.
This is by a collection at the chapel among the parishioners, to whom
the matter is made known by the priest, from the altar some Sunday
previous to his departure. Accordingly, when the family had all given
their consent to Jemmy's project, his father went, on the following day,
to communicate the matter to the priest, and to solicit his co-operation
in making a collection in behalf of the lad, on the next Sunday but one:
for there is always a week's notice given, and sometimes more, that the