rice for the article, but that was his own affair.
And now, begging your lordship's pardon, for proposing such a thing as
your kissing the stone after a tailor, shall I have the pleasure of
suspending your lordship over the wall, this morning?"

"No, Rooney, you must excuse me. But here is your half crown, all the
same," said Lord Clare, with a good-humored smile.

Just at this moment, Fanny called the attention of the party to a
little girl, about her own age, who had just ascended the tower, and
was standing near them, looking about her curiously and wistfully. She
was evidently one of the poorest class of peasants, for her dress was
coarse and patched, though clean and tidy. But she was a beautiful
child. She had large, dark, tender eyes, and soft curling, brown hair;
her arms and hands, though much sunburnt, and her feet, which were
bare, were small and gracefully formed. Her face wore now a weary and
troubled look, so little befitting a child, that it touched the hearts
of all that gay company. One of the gentlemen asked very kindly what
it was she wanted. She courtesied, as she answered timidly, "Sure, yer
honor, it's the Blarney Stone I'm after. Will you tell me, plase,
where I can find it?"

"Why, child," said Lord Clare, "what do you want of the Blarney Stone?"

"Only to kiss it, yer honor. I've come all the way from Bantry, on my
two feet, barring a lift now and then on a car, just to do that
same--all for the sake of poor Phin."

"And who is Phin?"

"He is my brother, sir--my own brother, and he has gone and 'listed,
and it's breaking my mother's heart; and sure, yer honor, if he goes
away for a soldier, she will die, and it's all alone in the world I'll
be." With that, her little red lips began to quiver, and the tears to
fall from her soft, brown eyes.

"But what good will it do Phin, for you to kiss the Blarney Stone?"
asked one of the ladies.

"Whist!" said the child, looking about her, and speaking low, as though
afraid of being overheard by some one unfriendly to Phin, "it's just a
little plot of my own. I was told that the new lord-lieutenant was
coming to Cork, and I knew he could let poor Phin off from being a
soldier; so I said nothing to nobody, but came up to entrate him. You
see I had often heard how this same Blarney Stone would give people an
ilegant and moving discoorse; and sure I thought I'd need to kiss it,
before I could stand up forninst a great lord, and say my story