wish to show this portrait to your mother?" observed Lady Sophy,
in a kind tone. "I cannot trust you with it, but if you will tell me
her name and where she lives, we will ride over some day and pay her a
visit."

"My mother is Ellen O'Neil, the Widow O'Neil, she is generally called,
for my father is dead. She is a kind mother to me, and there are not
many like her," answered the boy with a proud tone, showing how highly
he prized his remaining parent. "But our hut is not fit for such noble
ladies as you are to enter," he added, now gazing round the hall and for
the first time comparing it with his own humble abode. "It is but a
fisherman's hut, and my mother and I live there alone. You could
scarcely indeed ride down to it without the risk of your horses falling.
If you will let me have the picture I will promise you faithfully that
I will bring it back."

"No, no!" answered the young lady, laughing; "perhaps your mother might
keep it, and I want to have an excuse for paying her a visit. So we
will come, tell her, and we shall not mind how small the hut may be."

Dermot was at length compelled to explain where his mother's hut was to
be found, though he again warned the ladies that the approach to it was
dangerous, and entreated them to keep well to the right away from the
sea as they crossed the downs.

They promised to follow his injunction, and at length allowed him to
take his departure. This he was anxious to do, as he knew that it was
time to put off, to haul the nets which had been laid down in the
morning.

Day after day, while the fine weather lasted and fish were to be
procured, Dermot paid a visit to the castle, and each morning after
breakfast was over, the young ladies insisted on giving him his reading
lesson. He made rapid progress, and after a few days, they gave him a
book that he might take home and study by himself.

Hitherto Lady Sophy and her friends at the castle, had not paid their
promised visit to the fisherman's cottage. At length, however, one
evening just as Dermot and his mother had landed, they heard voices on
the downs above their hut, and looking up Dermot espied the party from
the castle. They were standing irresolute what path to take. He
instantly climbed up the cliff by a pathway which speedily placed him by
their side. He begged them to dismount, and undertook to conduct Lady
Sophy and the little girl, whom he heard addressed as Lady Nora, down to
the hut.

"I h