see what more he says." Jack read on:--

"I confess, however, that the sooner I am away and afloat again, the
better for the rest of the family. How they all manage to exist is to
me a puzzle. To be sure there are fish in the streams and
neighbouring lakes, and game in abundance, which we retain the right
of shooting; and sheep on the hills, which, as my father does not
attempt any new-fangled plans for improving the condition of the
people, are allowed to exist; and there are praties in the fields, and
fruit and vegetables in the garden; but there is a scarcity of flour
and groceries, and instead of the claret which, in the good old days,
flowed freely at table, we are reduced to drink whisky, of which the
excise has not always had an opportunity of taking due cognisance. My
father does not quite see the matter in the light I do, and was
inclined to be offended when I ordered down a cask of the cratur from
Dublin, as a salve to my conscience, and a few dozen of claret, as a
remembrance of days gone by; but as the latter went in about as many
evenings, we shall have to stick to the whisky in future. However, if
the house holds together till the _Plantagenet_ is paid off, I can
promise you plenty of amusement of one sort or another, and the
enjoyment of magnificent scenery, if you, my dear Jack, will pay a
visit to Ballymacree. You may depend, too, on as hearty a welcome as
I am sure I should have received by your family had I been able to
avail myself of your invitation. To be sure we muster somewhat
stronger than you do, I suspect, and, might possibly exhibit, what
with your sedate English ideas you would consider an exuberance of
spirits, and I am almost afraid that you would think my five fair
young sisters rather hoydenish young ladies, compared to your own.
One of them, Kathleen, is looking over my shoulder and exclaims,
`Arrah, now Terence, don't be after saying that same, or Leeftenant
Rogers will be thinking us a set of wild Irish girls, with no more
civilisation than a family of gipsies;' but I tell her I won't scratch
out what I have written, but I'll add that she's not the ugliest of
the lot; so, dear Jack, when you do come, you can form your own
opinion; I only wish that I had the chance of making some prize-money
for their sakes. By-the-bye, the eldest of them, Nora, who, at
sixteen, married Gerald Desmond, has got a son called af