lloy and Shawn Brady; they two do
be over us, but they knows nothin' o' such jobs as this."

Thady Molloy and Shawn Brady had with the others moved up so as
to be close to Herbert's horse, but they said not a word towards
vindicating their own fitness for command.

"And it's mortial cowld standing here thin," said another, "without
a bit to ate or a sup to dhrink since last night, and then only a
lump of the yally mail." And the speaker moved about on his toes and
heels, desirous of keeping his blood in circulation with the smallest
possible amount of trouble.

"I'm telling the boys it's home we'd betther be going," said a
fourth.

"And lose the tizzy they've promised us," said he of the hoe.

"Sorrow a tizzy they'll pay any of yez for standing here all day,"
said an ill-looking little wretch of a fellow, with a black muzzle
and a squinting eye; "ye may all die in the road first." And the man
turned away among the crowd, as an Irishman does who has made his
speech and does not want to be answered.

"You need have no fear about that, my men," said Herbert. "Whether
you be put to work or no you'll receive your wages; you may take my
word for that."

"I've been telling 'em that for the last half-hour," said the man
with the hoe, now rising to his feet. "'Shure an' didn't Mr. Somers
be telling us that we'd have saxpence each day as long we war here
afore daylight?' said I, yer honer; 'an' shure an' wasn't it black
night when we war here this blessed morning, and devil a fear of the
tizzy?' said I. But it's mortial cowld, an' it'd be asier for uz to
be doing a spell of work than crouching about on our hunkers down on
the wet ground."

All this was true. It had been specially enjoined upon them to be
early at their work. An Irishman as a rule will not come regularly to
his task. It is a very difficult thing to secure his services every
morning at six o'clock; but make a special point,--tell him that you
want him very early, and he will come to you in the middle of the
night. Breakfast every morning punctually at eight o'clock is almost
impossible in Ireland; but if you want one special breakfast, so that
you may start by a train at 4 A.M., you are sure to be served. No
irregular effort is distasteful to an Irishman of the lower classes,
not if it entails on him the loss of a day's food and the loss of a
night's rest; the actual pleasure of the irregularity repays him for
all this, and he never tells you that this o