ords:

"A PUBLIC MEETING,"

Then, in quite small letters:

"WILL BE HELD ON TUESDAY NEXT AT 3 P. M.
IN THE MARKET SQUARE, OPPOSITE THE 'IMPERIAL HOTEL.'"

Mr. Billing read on and learned that Father McCormack would take the
chair, that several distinguished Members of Parliament would address
the meeting, that Mr. T. Gallagher, Chairman U. D. C., would also speak,
and that--here the letters became immense--Mr. Horace P. Billing, of
Bolivia, would give an account of the life of General John Regan, in
whose honour it was proposed to erect a statue in Ballymoy.

Mr. Billing smiled. Then he turned and walked briskly to the hotel. He
found Doyle and Thady Gallagher seated together on the bench outside the
door. He addressed them cheerfully:

"Say, gentlemen," he said, "that doctor of yours seems to have got a
move on this locality. The announcement of the meeting is a good thing,
sure."

"The doctor," said Doyle, "is a fine man; but it would be better for him
if he'd pay what he owes. I'm tired, so I am, of trying to get my money
out of him."

"The doctor," said Gallagher, "has the good of the locality at heart,
and whatever it might be that he takes in hand will be carried through.
You may rely on the doctor."

Thady Gallagher had not yet been paid for printing the green posters.
But he had every hope he would be when Mr. Billing handed over his
subscription to the statue fund. He felt, it right to do all in his
power to encourage Mr. Billing. Doyle, on the other hand, was becoming
despondent. He did not like to see money which ought to be his frittered
away on posters and the other necessary expenses of a public meeting. He
was much less inclined to admire, the doctor's enterprise.

"I guess," said Mr. Billing, "that these Congressmen will draw some."

"If you mean the Members of Parliament," said Doyle, "the doctor told me
this morning that they said they'd more to do than to be attending his
meetings."

"It could be," said Gallagher hopefully, "that one of them might."

"They will not," said Doyle.

"We'll do without them," said Mr. Billing.

"That's what the doctor said to me," said Gallagher. "'We'll do without
them, Thady,' said he, 'so long as we have Mr. Billing and Father
McCormack and yourself,' meaning me, 'we'll have a good meeting if there
never was a Member of Parliament near it.' And that's true too."

"If the doctor," said Doyle, "would pay what he owes