not
heard of his son's misfortune until long after they quitted the fair.
The door was hasped and fastened with a stick; precaution enough in such
a place, and for all that it contained, too. Opening this, they carried
the young man in, and laid him upon the bed; and, while some busied
themselves in kindling a fire upon the hearth, the others endeavoured,
with such skill as they possessed, to dress his wounds, an operation
which, if not strictly surgical in all its details, had at least the
recommendation of tolerable experience in such matters.

"It's a nate little place when you're at it, then," said one of them, as
with a piece of lighted bog-pine he took a very leisurely and accurate
view of the interior.

The opinion, however, must be taken by the reader, as rather reflecting
on the judgment of him who pronounced it, than in absolute praise of the
object itself. The cabin consisted of a single room, and which, though
remarkably clean in comparison with similar ones, had no evidence of
anything above very narrow circumstances. A little dresser occupied
the wall in front of the door, with its usual complement of crockery,
cracked and whole; an old chest of drawers, the pride of the house,
flanked this on one side; a low settle-bed on the other; various prints
in very florid colouring decorated the walls, all religious subjects,
where the Apostles figured in garments like bathing-dresses; these
were intermixed with ballads, dying speeches, and suchlike ghostly
literature, as form the most interesting reading of an Irish peasant;
a few seats of unpainted deal, and a large straw chair for the old man,
were the principal articles of furniture. There was a gun, minus the
lock, suspended over the fireplace; and two fishing-rods, with a gaff
and landing-net, were stretched upon wooden pegs; while over the bed was
an earthenware crucifix, with its little cup beneath, for holy water;
the whole surmounted by a picture of St. Francis Xavier in the act of
blessing somebody: though, if the gesture were to be understood without
the explanatory letter-press, he rather looked like a swimmer preparing
for a dive. The oars, mast, and spritsail of a boat were lashed to the
rafters overhead; for, strange as it may seem, there was a lake at that
elevation of the mountain, and one which abounded in trout and perch,
affording many a day's sport to both Owen and his father.

Such were the details which, sheltered beneath a warm roof of