" with a comical leer in
his eye, would shove him into his vehicle; remarking--
"Bedad, let nobody say you're a poor scholar now, an' you goin' to
school in a coach! Be the piper that played afore Moses, if ever any
rascal upraids you wid it, tell him, says you--'You damned rap,' says
you, 'I wint to school in a coach! an' that,' says you, 'was what
none o' yer beggarly gin oration was ever able to do,' says you; 'an'
moreover, be the same token,' says you, 'be the holy farmer, if you
bring it up to me, I'll make a third eye in your forehead wid the butt
o' this whip,' says you. Whish! darlins! That's the go! There's drivin',
Barny! Eh?"
At length, after much toil and travel, he reached the South, having
experienced as he proceeded a series of affectionate attentions, which
had, at least, the effect of reconciling him to the measure he had
taken, and impressing upon his heart a deeper confidence in the kindness
and hospitality of his countrymen.
Upon the evening of the day on which he terminated his journey, twilight
was nearly falling; the town in which he intended to stop for the night
was not a quarter of a mile before him, yet he was scarcely able to
reach it; his short, yielding steps were evidently those of a young and
fatigued traveller: his brow was moist with perspiration: he had just
begun, too, to consider in what manner he should introduce himself to
the master who taught the school at which he had been advised to stop,
when he heard a step behind him, and on looking back, he discovered a
tall, well-made, ruddy-faced young man, dressed in black, with a book in
his hand, walking after him.
"_Unde et quo viator?_" said the stranger, on coming up to him.
"Oh, sir," replied Jemmy, "I have not Latin _yet_."
"You are on your way to seek it, however," replied the other. "Have you
travelled far?"
"A long way, indeed, sir; I came from the County ------, sir--the upper
part of it."
"Have you letters from your parish priest?"
"I have, sir, and one from my father's landlord, Square Benson, if you
ever heard of him."
"What's your object in learning Latin?"
"To be a priest, wid the help o' God; an' to rise my poor father an'
mother out of their poverty."
His companion, after hearing this reply, bent a glance upon him, that
indicated the awakening of an interest in the lad much greater than he
probably otherwise would have felt.
"It's only of late," continued the boy, "that my father an' mothe
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