ax uv any one. Now, Teddy b'y, isn' all I've towld ye God's truth?
and haven't ye heerd it as many times as yees are days owld out uv
yer own moother's lips?"

"Faith and I have, mother."

"An' wud yer moother till yees a lie, or bid yees do what wasn't
plazin' to God, Teddy?"

"Sure she wouldn't; and I'll lick the first fellow that'll say she
would, if he was as big as Goliah in the Bible," said Teddy,
doubling up his fist, and nodding fiercely.

"Thin, Teddy Ginniss, we cooms to this; an' it's not the first time,
nor yet the last, we'll coom to it. If iver ye can do yer masther a
service, be it big or be it little; if iver the stringth, or the
coorage, or the life itself, of yees, or thim as is dear to yees, ud
sarve him or plaze him,--I bid yees now to give it him free an'
willin' as ye'd give it to God. An' so ye mind me, it's my blissin'
an' the blissin' uv yer dead father that's iver wid ye; an' so ye
fail me, it's the black curse uv disobedience, an' yer moother's
brukken heart, that shall cling to yees for iver and iver, while
life shall last. Do ye mind that, b'y?"

"I mind it, and I'll heed it, mother, as I've promised you before,"
said Teddy solemnly; and mother and son exchanged as tender and as
true a kiss as young Bayard and his lady-mother could have done when
she gave him to be a knight and chevalier.

All through this long conversation, which had been carried on in a