its one-slated house and its square chapel,
there are people who live there; and, stranger still, some of those who
have left it, and seen other places, are going back there again, to drag
on life as before. But the plot is thickening: the large brass bell at
the stern of the boat is thundering away with its clanging sound; the
banks are crowded with people; and as if to favour the melodramatic
magic of the scene, the track-rope is cast off, the weary posters
trot away towards their stable, and the stately barge floats on to its
destined haven without the aid of any visible influence. He who watches
the look of proud, important bearing that beams upon 'the captain's'
face at a moment like this, may philosophise upon the charms of that
power which man wields above his fellow-men. Such, at least, were some
of my reflections; and I could not help muttering to myself, if a man
like this feel pride of station, what a glorious service must be the
navy!

Watching with interest _the_ nautical skill with which, having fastened
a rope to the stern, the boat was swung round, with her head in the
direction from whence she came, intimating thereby the monotonous
character of her avocations, I did not perceive that one by one the
passengers were taking their departure.

'Good-bye, Captain,' cried Father Tom, as he extended his ample hand to
me; 'we'll meet again in Loughrea. I'm going on Mrs. Carney's car, or
I'd be delighted to join you in a conveyance; but you'll easily get one
at the hotel.'

I had barely time to thank the good father for his kind advice, when
I perceived him adjusting various duodecimo Carneys in the well of the
car, and then having carefully included himself in the frieze coat that
wrapped Mrs. Carney, he gave the word to drive on.

As the day following was the time appointed for naming the horses and
the riders, I had no reason for haste. Loughrea, from what I had heard,
was a commonplace country town, in which, as in all similar places
every new-comer was canvassed with a prying and searching curiosity. I
resolved, therefore, to stop where I was; not, indeed, that the scenery
possessed any attractions. A prospect more bleak, more desolate, and
more barren, it would be impossible to' conceive--a wide river with low
and reedy banks, moving sluggishly on its yellow current, between broad
tracts of bog or callow meadow-land; no trace of cultivation, not even a
tree was to be seen.

Such is Shannon Harbour. N