appy Irish fashion regarded her shortcomings as a joke rather than a
misfortune. "Seen that youngster of mine?" the Major would cry genially
to his friends. "She's worth a visit, I tell you! Ugliest child in
Galway, though I say it that shouldn't." And Pixie's company tricks
were all based on the subject of personal shortcomings.

"Show the lady where your nose ought to be, darling," her mother would
say fondly, and the baby fingers would point solemnly to the flat space
between the eyes.

"And where's the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, sweetheart?" would be the
next question, when the whole of Pixie's fat fist would disappear bodily
inside the capacious mouth.

"The Major takes more notice of her than he did of any of the others,"
Mrs O'Shaughnessy would tell her visitor. "He is always buying her
presents!"

And then she would sigh, for, alas! the Major was one of those careless,
extravagant creatures, who are never restrained from buying a luxury by
the uninteresting fact that the bread bill is owing, and the butcher
growing pressing in his demands. When his wife pleaded for money with
which to defray household bills, he grew irritable and impatient, as
though he himself were the injured party. "The impudence of the
fellows!" he would cry. "They are nothing but ignorant upstarts, while
the O'Shaughnessys have been living on this ground for the last three
centuries. They ought to be proud to serve me! This is what comes of
educating people beyond their station. Any upstart of a tradesman
thinks himself good enough to trouble an O'Shaughnessy about a trumpery
twenty or thirty pounds. I'll show them their mistake! You can tell
them that I'll not be bullied, and indeed they might as well save their
trouble, for, between you and me, there's not a five-pound note in my
pocket between now and the beginning of the year." After delivering
himself of which statement he would take the train to the nearest town,
order a new coat, buy an armful of toys for Pixie, and enjoy a good
dinner at the best hotel, leaving his poor wife to face the irate
tradesmen as best she might.

Poor Mrs O'Shaughnessy! She hid an aching heart under a bright
exterior many times over, as the pressure for money grew ever tighter
and tighter, and she saw her children running wild over the countryside,
with little or no education to fit them for the battle of life. The
Major declared that he could not afford school fees, so a daily
governes