ed to turn you out."

"I was thinking so," said Tom, moodily.

"I did my best. I told them you had been many years on the estate--"

"Forty-two."

"Just so. I said forty and upwards--that your children had grown up on
it--that you were actually like a part of the property. I spoke of the
hardship of turning a man at your time of life, with a helpless family
too, upon the wide world. I even went so far as to say that these were
not the times for such examples; that there was a spirit abroad of
regard for the poor man, a watchful inquiry into the evils of his
condition, that made these 4 clearances,' as they call them, unwise and
impolitic, as well as cruel."

"An' what did they say to that?" asked Tom, abruptly.

"Laughed--laughed heartily."

"They laughed?"

"No--I am wrong," said Linton, quickly. "Kennyfeck did not laugh; on
the contrary, he seemed grave, and observed that up at Drumcoologan--is
there such a name?"

"Ay, and nice boys they 're in it," said Tom, nodding.

"'Well, up at Drumcoologan,' said he, 'such a step would be more than
dangerous.'

"'How do you mean?' said Mr. Cashel.

"'They 'd take the law into their own hands,' replied Kennyfeck. The man
who would evict one of those fellows might as well make his will, if
he wished to leave one behind him. They are determined fellows, whose
fathers and grandfathers have lived and died on the land, and find it
rather hard to understand how a bit of parchment with a big seal on it
should have more force than kith and kindred."

"Did ould Kennyfeck say that?" asked Tom, with a glance of unutterable
cunning.

"No," replied Linton; "that observation was mine, for really I was
indignant at that summary system which disposes of a population as
coolly as men change the cattle from one pasturage to another. Mr.
Cashel, however, contented himself with a laugh, and such a laugh as,
for his sake, I am right glad none of his unhappy tenantry were witness
to."

"'You may do as you please down here, sir,' said Kenny-feck--who, by
the way, does not seem to be any friend of yours--'but the Drumcoologan
fellows must be humored.'

"'I will see that,' said Mr. Cashel, who, in his own hotheaded way,
actually likes opposition, 'but we 'll certainly begin with this fellow
Keane.'

"'I suppose you'll give him the means to emigrate?' said I, addressing
Kennyfeck.

"'We generally do in these cases,' said he.

"'I'll not give the scoundrel a farthing,' broke in