uld ye have goold letthers on it, ma'am?" put in Peggy Murphy
admiringly. "I seen wan at Kilpedder wan time that I went up when a
cousin o' me own was buried, an' it was the loveliest ye ever seen.
There was goold letthers, an' a crass on the top, an' at the four
corners of it there was a kind of an ornamentation the same as a
little skull--'pon me word, the natest thing ye could see! No bigger
nor me fist, ye know; but all set out elegant with little
weeshy-dawshy teeth, all as perfect as ye could imagine. It was some
rale grand ould gentleman that was afther puttin' it up for his wife.
I wondher if yez 'ud have had wan made anything that shape."

Dan looked pensive, and rubbed his hands slowly together, tantalised
perhaps by the magnificence of the vision; but "herself" shook her
head with a proud little smile.

"There's no knowin' what we'd have had," she observed. "Larry said
he'd have axed Father Taylor to choose us the best, an' I b'lieve his
reverence has very good taste."

"'Deed an' he has, ma'am. But will yez be goin' off wid yourselves to
America out o' this?"

"Aye will we," responded Mrs. Brophy, with spirit. "Bedad, if Dan an'
me is ever to see the world it's time we started."

"It's very far off," said poor old Dan nervously; "it's a terrible
long way to be goin', alanna. If it wasn't for Larry expectin' us over
beyant--"

"What would ye do, then?" interrupted his energetic little wife
fiercely. "Stop at home, perishin' wid the cold an' hunger, an' the
rain droppin' down on us while we're atin' our bit o' dinner; me that
bad wid the rheumatiz I can hardly move hand or fut, an' yourself
taken wid them wakenesses so that it's all ye can do to lift the
potaties."

"Dear knows, it's himself that ought to leppin' mad wid j'y," cried
one of the neighbours. "To get such a chance! Isn't it in the greatest
good luck ye are, Dan, to be goin' off to that beautiful place, where
ye'll be livin' in the heighth o' comfort an' need never do another
hand's turn for yourselves? Troth, I wish it was me that had the offer
of it."

Many murmurs of approval greeted this sally; every one being convinced
that Dan was indeed in luck's way, while his wife wrathfully opined
that he didn't know when he was well off.

Poor old Dan hastened to assure them that he was "over-j'yed."

"I suppose," he added, looking round deprecatingly, "they'll tell me
down at the railway station the way we'll have to go; or maybe Father
Ta