ies part of it, into a sort of reading-room with a
green table. A rather slatternly but very active girl soon converted
this into a neat breakfast-table, and gave me an excellent breakfast.
The landlord found me a good car, and off I set for the residence of
Father Maher, the curate of whom I had heard as one of the most fiery
and intractable of the National League priests in this part of Ireland.

My jarvey was rather taciturn at first, but turned out to be something
of a politician. He wanted Home Rule, one of his reasons being that then
they "wouldn't let the Americans come and ruin them altogether, driving
out the grain from the markets." About this he was very clear and
positive. "Oh, it doesn't matter now whether the land is good or bad,
America has just ruined the farmers entirely."

I told him I had always heard this achievement attributed to England.
"Oh! that was quite a mistake! What the English did was to punish the
men that stood up for Ireland. There was Mr. O'Brien. But for him there
wasn't a man of Lord Lansdowne's people would have had the heart to
stand up. He did it all; and now, what were they doing to him? They were
putting him on a cold plank-bed on a stone floor in a damp cell!"

"But the English put all their prisoners in those cells, don't they?" I
asked.

"And what of it, sir?" he retorted. "They're good enough for most of
them, but not for a gentleman like Mr. O'Brien, that would spill the
last drop of his heart's blood for Ireland!"

"But," I said, "they're doing just the same thing with Mr. Gilhooly, I
hear."

"And who is Mr. Gilhooly, now? And it's not for the likes of him to
complain and be putting on airs as if he was Mr. O'Brien!"

"Yes, it is a fine country for hunting!"

"Was it ever put down here, the hunting?"

"No, indeed! Sure, the people wouldn't let it be!"

"Not if Mr. O'Brien told them they must?" I queried.

"Mr. O'Brien; ah, he wouldn't think of such a thing! It brings money all
the time to Athy, and sells the horses."

As to the troubles at Luggacurren, he was not very clear. "It was a
beautiful place, Mr. Dunne's; we'd see it presently. And Mr. Dunne, he
was a good one for sport. It was that, your honour, that got him into
the trouble"--

"And Mr. Kilbride?"

"Oh, Mr. Kilbride's place was a very good place too, but not like Mr.
Dunne's. And he was doing very well, Mr. Kilbride. He was getting a good
living from the League, and he was a Member of Parliamen