n; while in their reformed
habits it might be seen how thoroughly they felt that their own hour
might be a brief one. Among these was Owen Connor. From the day the
malady appeared in the neighbourhood, he never entered the public-house
of the village, but, devoting himself to the work of kindness the
emergency called for, went from cabin to cabin rendering every service
in his power. The poorest depended on him for the supply of such little
comforts as they possessed, for at every market-day he sold a sheep or
a lamb to provide them; the better-off looked to him for advice and
counsel, following his directions as implicitly as though he were a
physician of great skill. All recognised his devotedness in their cause,
and his very name was a talisman for courage in every humble cabin
around. His little ass-cart, the only wheeled vehicle that ever ascended
the mountain where he lived, was seen each morning moving from door to
door, while Owen brought either some small purchase he was commissioned
to make at Oughterarde, or left with the more humble some offering of
his own benevolence.

"There's the salt ye bid me buy, Mary Cooney; and here's fourpence out
of it,--do ye all be well, still?"

"We are, and thank ye, Owen." "The Lord keep ye so!" "How's Ned Daly?"
"He's off, Owen dear; his brother James is making the coffin; poor boy,
he looks very weak himself this morning."

The cart moved on, and at length stopped at a small hovel built against
the side of a clay ditch. It was a mere assemblage of wet sods with the
grass still growing, and covered by some branches of trees and loose
straw over them. Owen halted the ass at the opening of the miserable
den, through which the smoke now issued, and at the same moment a
man, stooping double to permit him to pass out into the open air, came
forward: he was apparently about fifty years of age--his real age was
not thirty; originally a well-formed and stout-built fellow, starvation
and want had made him a mere skeleton. His clothes were, a ragged coat,
which he wore next his skin, for shirt he had none, and a pair of worn
corduroy trousers; he had neither hat, shoes, nor stockings; but still,
all these signs of destitution were nothing in comparison with the
misery displayed in his countenance. Except that his lip trembled with
a convulsive shiver, not a feature moved--the cheeks were livid and
flattened--the dull grey eyes had lost all the light of intelligence,
and stared vaca