ack," said the old gentleman, "you don't probably know the history
and character of the Tubber Derg M'Carthys so well as I do. No man ever
required the written bond of a M'Carthy; and it was said of them, and
is said still, that the widow and orphan, the poor man or the stranger,
never sought their assistance in vain. I, myself, will go security, if
necessary, for Owen M'Carthy."

"Sir," replied Owen, "I'm thankful to you; I'm grateful to you. But
I wouldn't take the farm, or bid for it at all, unless I could bring
forrid enough to stock it as I wish, an' to lay in all that's wantin' to
work it well. It 'ud be useless for me to take it--to struggle a year
or two--impoverish the land--an' thin run away out of it. No, no; I have
what'll put me upon it wid dacency an' comfort."

"Then, since my father has taken such an interest in you, M'Carthy,
you must have the farm. We shall get leases prepared, and the business
completed in a few days; for I go to Dublin on this day week. Father,
I now remember the character of this family; and I remember, too, the
sympathy which was felt for one of them, who was harshly ejected
about seventeen or eighteen years ago, out of the lands on which his
forefathers had lived, I understand, for centuries."

"I am that man, sir," returned Owen. "It's too long a story to tell now;
but it was only out o' part of the lands, sir, that I was put. What
I held was but a poor patch compared to what the family held in my
grandfather's time. A great part of it went out of our hands at his
death."

"It was very kind of you, Misther Rogerson, to offer to go security for
him," said Frank; "but if security was wantin, sir, Id not be willin' to
let anybody but myself back him. I'd go all I'm worth in the world--an'
by my sowl, double as much--for the same man."

"I know that, Frank, an' I thank you; but I could put security in Mr.
Rogerson's hands, here, if it was wanted. Good-mornin' an' thank you
both, gintleman. To tell yez the thruth," he added, with a smile, "I
long to be among my ould friends--manin' the people, an' the hills, an'
the green fields of Tubber Derg--agin; an' thanks be to goodness, sure I
will soon."

In fact, wherever Owen went, within the bounds of his native parish,
his name, to use a significant phrase of the people, was before him.
His arrival at Frank Farrel's was now generally known by all his
acquaintances, and the numbers who came to see him were almost beyond
belief. Durin