ow her from the road the poor
place they now live in, God help them."

"To be sure," replied the other, "an' the house where they did live when
they wor as themselves, full, an' warm, an' daicent; an' it is a hard
case on them, God knows, to be turned out like beggars from a farm that
they spent hundreds on, and to be forced to see the landlord, ould Dick
o' the Grange, now settin' it at a higher rent and putting into his
own pocket the money they had laid out upon improvin' it an' makin' it
valuable for him and his; troth, it's open robbery an' nothin' else."

"It in a hard case upon them, as every body allows," said Mave, "but
it's over now, and can't be helped. Good-bye, Nelly, an' God bless you;
an' God bless you too," she added, addressing the strange woman, whose
hand she shook and pressed. "You are a great deal oulder than I am,
an' as I said, every one may read care an' sorrow upon your face. Mine
doesn't show it yet, I know, but for all that the heart within me is
full of both, an' no likelihood of its ever bein' otherwise with me."

As she spoke, the tears again gushed down her cheeks; but she checked
her grief by an effort, and after a second hurried good-bye, she
proceeded on her way home.

"That seems a mild girl," said the strange woman, "as she is a lovely
creature to look at."

"She's better than she looks," returned the prophet's wife, "an' that's
a great deal to say for her."

"That's but truth," replied the stranger, "and I believe it; for indeed
she has goodness in her face."

"She has and in her heart," replied Nelly; "no wondher, indeed, that
every one calls her the _Gra Gal_, for it's she that well deserves it. I
You are bound for Condy Dalton's, then?" she added, inquiringly. "I
am," said the other. "I think you must be a stranger in the country,
otherwise I'd know your face," continued Nelly--"but maybe you're a
relation of theirs."

"I am a stranger," said the other; "but no relation."

"The Daltons," proceeded Nelly, "are daicent people,--but hot and hasty,
as the savin' is. It's the blow before the word wid them always."

"Ah, tut they say," returned her companion, "that a hasty heart was
never a bad one."

"Many a piece o' nonsense they say as well as that," rejoined Nelly; "I
know them that 'ud put a knife into your heart hastily enough--ay,
an' give you a hasty death, into the bargain. They'll first break
your head--cut you to the skull, and then, indeed, they'll give you a
p