e Army, when he had a right
to be home looking after Hughie and Larry. "'Tis not much the Army
gives you, and you giving it the best years of your life," he said.
"I'd be better out of it, and home with me boys."

"Then you wouldn't let them go to the war, if they were old enough?"
Jim asked.

"If they were old enough 'twould not be asking my liberty they'd be,"
rejoined Mr. Callaghan proudly. "Is it _my_ sons that 'ud shtand out
of a fight like this?" He glared at Jim, loftily unconscious of any
inconsistency in his remarks.

"Well, there's plenty of your fellow-countrymen that won't go and
fight, Cally!" said the man beyond him--a big Yorkshireman.

"There's that in all countries," said Callaghan calmly. "They didn't
all go in your part of the country, did they, till they were made?
Faith, I'm towld there's a few there yet in odd corners--and likely to
be till after the war." The men round roared joyfully, at the
expense of the Yorkshireman.

"And 'tis not in Ireland we have that quare baste the con-sci-en-tious
objector," went on Callaghan, rolling the syllables lovingly on his
tongue. "That's an animal a man wouldn't like to meet, now! Whatever
our objectors are in Ireland, they're surely never con-sci-en-tious!"

Jim gave a crack of laughter that brought the roving grey eye squarely
upon him.

"Even in Australia, that's the Captain's country," said the soft Irish
voice, "I've heard tell there's a boy or two there out of khaki--maybe
they're holding back for conscription too. But wherever the boys are
that don't go, none of them have a song and dance made about them,
barring only the Irish."

"What about your Sinn Feiners?" some one sang out. Callaghan's face
fell.

"Yerra, they have the country destroyed," he admitted. "And nine out
of every ten don't know annything about politics or annything else at
all, only they get talked over, and towld that they're patriots if
they'll get howld of a gun and do a little drilling at night--an'
where's the country boy that wouldn't give his ears for a gun! An'
the English Gov'mint, that could stop it all with the stroke of a pen,
hasn't the pluck to bring in conscription in Ireland."

"You're right there, Cally," said some one.

"I know well I'm right. But the thousands and tens of thousands of
Irish boys that went to the war and fought till they died--they'll be
forgotten, and the Sinn Fein scum'll be remembered. If the Gov'mint
had the pluck of a m