s dirt," said Patsy.

"Sez I: 'He can't come, Aunt Charlotte, 'cause he can't get off the
dickey.' 'What's the matter with him?' sez she. I was afraid I'd tell
a lie, but I thought a bit, an' then I sez: 'He's disable.'"

"Good for you, Mickey Free!" Jane shouted.

"But it wasn't good, for when we started she begun astin' Andy what
ailed him. Andy didn't know, so he said he was in the best of good
health. Sez she: 'My nephew tould me you had been disabled.' 'Divil a
fut, mem,' sez Andy; 'I'm as well as ye are yerself.' She got as red
as fire, an' sez she: 'No gentleman tells lies, Michael!" Mick's face
was white with anger.

"But ye tould no lie, Mickey dear," said Fly.

"An' ye couldn't tell her Andy had no white breeches," said Patsy.

"Dear forgive her," said Jane bitterly, "an' we thought she was an
aunt."

They did not go home till it was getting dark. When they went into the
kitchen Lull was sitting by the fire. "Well," she said, "did ye see
yer Aunt Charlotte; she's out lukin' for ye?"

"She can luk till she's black for all I care," said Jane.

Their mother was sitting up in bed when they went in to say good-night,
and they saw she had been crying.

"You are the best children in the world," she said, "but your Aunt
Charlotte thinks you are barbarians."

"She's an ould divil, an' we just hate the sight a' her," said Patsy.

"'Deed, an' there's more than yous does that," said Lull.

"Hush, Lull," said their mother; "she is my sister, after all."

"Purty sister," Lull snorted, "comin' where she's not wanted, upsettin'
everybuddy with her talk a' ruination."

"It's true, it's true," Mrs Darragh wailed, and began to cry again.

Lull hurried the children out of the room; they heard her comforting
their mother as they went down the passage. They went to bed with
heavy hearts. Jane said her prayers three times over, then cried
herself to sleep.

Next morning Aunt Charlotte was down early. Fly and Patsy, who had
been out to see if the gooseberries were ripe, met her in the hall as
they came back.

"Good morning," she said. "I don't think I saw you yesterday. What
are your names?"

"I am Fly, an' he is Patsy," Fly answered.

"What?" said Aunt Charlotte.

"Fly an' Patsy," Fly repeated, and was going past, but Aunt Charlotte
pounced on some gooseberries Fly had in her pinafore. "What are you
going to do with these?" she said.

"Ripe them," said Patsy, trying to get past.

"You can