t wouldn't. No, he's
only just gone, an' I didn't hear from him yet. I didn't tell ye where
he'd be, for I wouldn't know meself. But me other boys is goin', for
they tell me things will be afther getting worse. God help us, an'
stand betune us an harm! Did ye hear of the Home Rule Bill? What does
it mane at all, at all? Not one of us knows, more than that lump of
stone ye sit on. Will it give us the land for nothin'? for that's all
we hear. We'd be obliged av ye could axplain it a thrifle, for sorra
a one but's bad off, an' Father O'Baithershin says, Howld yer whist,
says he, till ye see what'll happen, says he. Will we get the bit o'
ground without rint, yer honner's glory?"

Philip was dressed for agricultural work in the following style, which
is clearly considered the correct thing in Galway. One tall "top-hat,"
with a long fur like that of a mangy rabbit, waving to the jocund
zephyrs of Carnaun; one cut-away coat of very thick homespun cloth,
having five brass buttons on each breast; breeches and leggings and
stout boots completed the outfit, which fitted like a sentry-box, and
bore a curiously caricatured resemblance to the Court suit of a
Cabinet Minister in full war-paint. The spades with which the
labourers till the ground are strange to the English eye, and seem
calculated to get through the smallest amount of work with the
greatest amount of labour. That they were spades at all was more than
I could make out. "What are those implements?" I asked, to which the
answer came, "Have ye no shpades in England thin!"

The business end is about two feet long and not more than three inches
broad, with a sort of shoulder for the foot. The handles are about six
feet long and end like a mop-stick, without any crossbar. A slight
alteration would turn these tools into pikes, a much more likely
operation than the beating of swords into plough-shares and spears
into pruning-hooks. Meanwhile the length of the handle keeps the
worker from too dangerous proximity to his work. There is a broader
pattern of blade, but the handle is always of the same sanitary
length. The children of the soil turn it over at a wholesome distance.
They keep six feet of pole between the earth and their nobility. Small
blame to them for that same! Shure the wuruld will be afther thim.
Shure there's no sinse at all, at all, in workin' life out to kape
life in.

"Ah, no," said Misther Fahy. "That tobacky has no strinth in it. We
get no satisfaction