ed liberty to cut his turf
on a distant bog, as he was up to his knees in water, in the place
allotted to him.

Some came with odd shillings due on the last rent-day, and anxious to
get leave to send their children to the school without payment.

Every one had some favour to look for--some mere trifle to the granter;
the whole world to him who asked--and, for these, many had come miles
away from homes far in the mountains; a glimmering hope of succour, the
only encouragement to the weary journey.

As Sir Marmaduke listened with a feigned composure to narratives, at
which his very heart bled, he chanced to observe a strange-looking
figure, in an old scarlet uniform, and a paper cap, with a cock's
feather stuck slantwise in the side of it. The wearer, a tall, bony
youth, with yellow hair, carried a long wattle over his shoulder, as
if it were a gun, and when the old baronet's eye fell upon him, he
immediately stood bolt upright, and held the sapling to his breast, like
a soldier presenting arms.

"Shoulder hoo!" he cried, and as the words were heard, a hearty burst
of laughter ran through the crowd; every grief and sorrow was at once
forgotten; the eyes wet with tears of sadness, were now moistened with
those of mirth; and they laughed like those whose hearts had never known
suffering.

"Who is this fellow?" said Sir Marmaduke, half doubting how far he might
relish the jest like the others.

"Terry the Woods, your honour," replied a score of voices together.

"Terry the Woods!" repeated he, "and is Terry a tenant of mine?"

"Faix, I am proud to say I am not," said Terry, grounding his weapon,
and advancing a step towards him, "divil a farthin' of rent I ever paid,
nor ever will. I do have my health mighty well--glory be to God!--and
sleep sound, and have good clothes, and do nothing for it; and they say
I am a fool, but which of us is the greatest fool after all."

Another outbreak of laughter was only quelled by Sir Marmaduke asking
the reason of Terry's appearance there, that morning--if he had nothing
to look for.

"I just came to pay my respects," said Terry composedly, "to wish you a
welcome to the country. I thought that as you might be lading the same
kind of life as myself, we wouldn't be bad companions, you see, neither
of us having much on our hands; and then," continued he, as he took off
his paper bonnet and made a deep reverence, "I wanted to see the young
lady there, for they tould me she was a b