in
the world could she tell, an' it afther bein' written in America?--God
bless us! let her have a look at the letther anyhow."

"'My dear uncle and aunt,'" began Maggie, slowly spelling out.

[Illustration: THE FLITTING OF THE OLD FOLKS
"My dear Uncle and Aunt," began Maggie]

Mrs. Brophy uttered a shrill scream, and clapped her hands together.
"It's from Larry! Lord bless an' save us! it's Larry himself, him that
I thought in his grave this fifteen year! God bless us, it's dramin' I
am--it can't be true! Dan, d'ye hear that? Good gracious, what's the
man thinkin' of, stan'in' there, lookin' about him, the same as if he
never heard a thing at all. _Dan_" (with an impatient tug at his
sleeve), "d'ye hear what I'm tellin' you? Larry isn't dead at all, an'
he's afther writin' to us from America."

"Well, to be sure," cried Mrs. Kinsella. "Your sister's son, wasn't
he, ma'am? La'rence Kearney. A fine young fellow he was, too. He went
an' listed on yez, didn't he?"

"Aye, an' she was near breakin' her heart when he done it," chimed in
Peggy Murphy; "sure, I remember it well."

Several other bystanders remembered it too, and expressed their
sympathy by divers nods and groans; old Dan at last impatiently
throwing out his hands for silence.

"Whisht! whisht! we can't be sure whether himself's in it at all yet.
Let the poor little girl be gettin' on wid the letther, can't yez?
Sure maybe it isn't Larry at all."

"Listen to the man, an' him the only nephew that ever we had," began
"herself" shrilly; but Maggie's childish pipe, proceeding with the
reading, drowned the rest of her remonstrance.

"'I hope you are quite well, as this leaves me at present. You will be
very much astonished to get this letter, but when we meet, as I trust
we soon shall, I hope to have the pleasure of explainin' to you all
that has befell me since I left yous an' my happy home to join her
Majesty's corpse!'"

"What's that?" cried Dan in alarm. "Corpse! Didn't I tell yez he was
dead?"

"Sure how could he be dead," put in Mrs. Brophy, "when it was himself
that wrote the letther? There isn't anythin' about a corpse in it,
Maggie asthore, is there?"

"'C-o-r-p-s,' spelled out Maggie, "corpse; yes, there it is, as plain
as print."

"Sure he manes 'rig'ment,' "shouted out some well-informed person from
the background. "'Corpse'--that's what they do be callin' the army."

"Oh, that indeed?" resumed Dan, much relieved. "Go on, Maggie."

"'I