the most tiresome girl in the world. I have been two hours trying to
get a wink of sleep, and just when I succeed you come in and wake
me."

"It's sorry I am to my heart's core," said Nora. She went up to her
mother, dropped on one knee, and looked with her rosy face into the
worn and faded one of the elder woman. "Here I am, mammy," she said
again, "your own little Nora; let me sit with you a bit--may I?"

Mrs. O'Shanaghgan smiled faintly. She looked all over the girl's
slim figure, and finally her eyes rested on the laughing, lovely
face. Then a cloud crossed her forehead, and her eyes became dim
with tears.

"Have you heard the last thing, Nora?"

"There are so many last things, mother," said Nora.

"But the very last. Your father has to pay back the money which
Squire Murphy of Cronane lent him. It is the queerest thing; but the
mortgagee means to foreclose, as he calls it, within three months if
that money is not paid in full. I know well what it means."

Nora smiled. She took her mother's hand in hers, and began to stroke
it gently.

"I suppose," she said, "it means this. It means that we must part
with a little more of the beloved land, every sod of which I love.
We certainly do seem to be getting poorer and poorer; but never
mind--nothing will ever alter the fact that--"