ys Tom himself; but he adds: "There's no time to be
lost; for once it gets about how Gladstone's going to deal with land, and
what Bright has in his head for eldest sons, you might as well whistle as
try to dispose of that property." To be sure, he says,' added he, after a
pause--'he says, "If you insist on holding on--if you cling to the dirty
acres because they were your father's and your great-grandfather's, and if
you think that being Kearney of Kilgobbin is a sort of title, in the name
of God stay where you are, but keep down your expenses. Give up some of
your useless servants, reduce your saddle-horses"--_my_ saddle-horses,
Dick! "Try if you can live without foxhunting." Foxhunting! "Make your
daughter know that she needn't dress like a duchess"--poor Kitty's very
like a duchess; "and, above all, persuade your lazy, idle, and very
self-sufficient son to take to some respectable line of life to gain his
living. I wouldn't say that he mightn't be an apothecary; but if he liked
law better than physic, I might be able to do something for him in my own
office."'

'Have you done, sir?' said Dick hastily, as his father wiped his
spectacles, and seemed to prepare for another heat.

'He goes on to say that he always requires one hundred and fifty guineas
fee with a young man; "but we are old friends, Mathew Kearney," says he,
"and we'll make it pounds."'

'To fit me to be an attorney!' said Dick, articulating each word with a
slow and almost savage determination.

''Faith! it would have been well for us if one of the family had been
an attorney before now. We'd never have gone into that action about the
mill-race, nor had to pay those heavy damages for levelling Moore's barn.
A little law would have saved us from evicting those blackguards at
Mullenalick, or kicking Mr. Hall's bailiff before witnesses.'

To arrest his father's recollection of the various occasions on which his
illegality had betrayed him into loss and damage, Dick blurted out, 'I'd
rather break stones on the road than I'd be an attorney.'

'Well, you'll not have to go far for employment, for they are just laying
down new metal this moment; and you needn't lose time over it,' said
Kearney, with a wave of his hand, to show that the audience was over and
the conference ended.

'There's just one favour I would ask, sir,' said Dick, with his hand on the
lock.

'You want a hammer, I suppose,' said his father, with a grin--'isn't _that_
it?'

With som