night on this
subject. "An' the ould mistress, God have mercy on her; she'd have
blankets an' flannel petticoats, an' dear knows what all, for the women
an' childer; I'm sayin' Rowallan was the full an' plenty house wanst."

"Well, I wisht it was now," said Mick. "I met Anne M'Farlane on the
road the day, an' ye could see the bones of her through her poor ould
duds."

"Ah, I thought a quare pity a' her myself," said Patsy; "the teeth was
rattlin' in her head."

"That'll make me cry when I'm in bed the night," said Honeybird
sorrowfully.

It was then that the idea of a Dorcas Society, such as their mother had
told them of, came to Jane, and was taken up enthusiastically by the
others. "Ye get ould clothes, an' mend them, an' fix them for people,"
she explained to Lull. "We could have a brave one with all them things
in the blue-room cupboards."

"Is it the clothes of your ould ancestry ye're for givin' away? I'm
thinkin' ye'll get small thanks for that rubbidge," said Lull.

"Why, they're beautiful things, that warm an' thick," Jane protested,
"an' we'd fix them up first." Lull looked at the five eager faces
watching hers. She hated to damp their ardour, but she knew what the
village would think of such gifts.

"Say yes, plaze," Honeybird begged, "or I'll be awful sorry ivery time
I mind Anne M'Farlane shiverin'."

"Go on, Lull; many's the time I can hardly sleep when I think the
people's cowld," said Mick.

"We'd begin at wanst," said Fly eagerly, and Lull weakly gave in. "God
send they don't be makin' scarecrows a' the poor," she murmured when
the children had departed in joyful haste to begin their Dorcas
Society. For three days they could think and talk of nothing else.
Lull, watching them, regretted that she had not the heart to discourage
them at the first, for they took such pleasure and pride in their
society that she could not disappoint them now. She did drop a few
hints, but nobody took any notice. The clothes from the blue-room
cupboards represented the fashions for the past fifty
years--full-skirted gowns, silk and satin, tarlatan, and bombazine
calashes, areophane bonnets, Dolly Varden hats, pelerines, burnouses,
shawls, tippets. At these Fly and Jane sewed from morning till night.
Fly saw the hand of Providence in an attack of rheumatism that kept Mr
Rannigan in bed and put off lessons for a week. The boys were at
school, but directly they came home they sat down by the schoolroom