"Yes; I saw you smiling. Is it because you think there isn't a
brooding hin in January?"

It had not occurred to the lecturer that hens might not be
brooding so early in the year, and she waited anxiously. At last
Biddy said:--

"Well, your reverence, it isn't because there are no hins
brooding. You'll get brooding hins at every time in the year; but,
you see, you can't rear chickens earlier than March. The end of
February is the earliest I have ever seen. But, of course, if you
could rear them in January, all that the young lady said would be
quite right. I have nothing to say agin it. I have no fault to
find with anything she says, your reverence."

"Only that it can't be done." said the priest. "Well, you ought to
know, Biddy."

The villagers were laughing.

"That will do," said the priest. "I don't mind your having a bit
of amusement, but you're here to learn."

And as he looked round the room, quieting the villagers into
silence, his eyes fell on Kate. "That's all right," he thought,
and he looked for the others, and spied Pat Connex and Peter
M'Shane near the door. "They're here, too," he thought. "When the
lecture is over I will see them and bring them all together. Kate
Kavanagh won't go home until she promises to marry Peter. I have