man, and, like the soldier, unmarried; although the heart of the
latter had gone forth and was in the safe keeping of a charming young
cousin of "mine host," who had emigrated to America some time
previously, and who now resided with her friends in the city of
Buffalo. Tom had preceded his relatives by some years, and had
sojourned, up to the period of their landing, in the United States
also; but taking a sudden notion, as it would seem, he pulled up his
stakes, and, like other adventurers, settled down, apparently
haphazard, in the town in which he now lived; and where he had
already been upwards of two years; having bought out the "Sign of the
Harp," as we shall call it, with all its appointments, from another
Son of the Sod, who had made up his mind to go West.

Before the soldier, whom we shall name Nicholas, or Nick Barry, had
finished his glass, Greaves entered into conversation with him in
relation to the strength of the fort, and the nationality of the
regiment that garrisoned it; observing, at the same time, that, of
course, as usual, a fair sprinkling from the Emerald Isle was to be
found among them.

"Yes," said Barry, "go where you may throughout the empire, and
whenever you meet a red coat you will be right in four cases out of
six in putting it down as belonging to an Irishman; that is, provided
its precise color and texture are like mine; but you would not be so
safe in applying the same rule wherever you chanced to encounter the
clear, bright flash of the genuine scarlet."

"And why?" returned Greaves, with an inquiring air which seemed to be
quite at sea upon the subject; although up to that moment, his
conversation was such as to lead one to infer that he could scarcely