are to be found in literature.

When, my worthy reader, we shall have become better acquainted, there will
be little necessity for my insisting upon a fact which, at this early
stage of our intimacy, I deem it requisite to mention; namely, that my
native modesty and bashfulness are only second to my veracity, and that
while the latter quality in a manner compels me to lay an occasional
stress upon my own goodness of heart, generosity, candor, and so forth, I
have, notwithstanding, never introduced the subject without a pang--such a
pang as only a sensitive and diffident nature can suffer or comprehend;
there now, not another word of preface or apology!

I was born in a little cabin on the borders of Meath and King's County; it
stood on a small triangular bit of ground, beside a cross-road; and
although the place was surveyed every ten years or so, they were never
able to say to which county we belonged, there being just the same number
of arguments for one side as for the other--a circumstance, many believed,
that decided my father in his original choice of the residence; for
while, under the "disputed boundary question," he paid no rates or county
cess, he always made a point of voting at both county elections!

This may seem to indicate that my parent was of a naturally acute habit;
and indeed the way he became possessed of the bit of ground will confirm
that impression.

There was nobody of the rank of gentry in the parish, nor even "squireen";
the richest being a farmer, a snug old fellow, one Henry McCabe, that had
two sons, who were always fighting between themselves which was to have
the old man's money. Peter, the elder, doing everything to injure Mat, and
Mat never backward in paying off the obligation. At last Mat, tired out in
the struggle, resolved he would bear no more. He took leave of his father
one night, and next day set off for Dublin, and 'listed in the "Buffs."

Three weeks after, he sailed for India; and the old man, overwhelmed by
grief, took to his bed, and never arose from it.

Not that his death was anyway sudden, for he lingered on for months
longer; Peter always teasing him to make his will, and be revenged on "the
dirty spalpeen" that disgraced the family; but old Harry as stoutly
resisting, and declaring that whatever he owned should be fairly divided
between them.

These disputes between them were well known in the neighborhood. Few of
the country people passing the house at nig