his master with a face of awful tenor:--"for God's sake,
sir," said he, "don't say a word that might cross him, sure he's the
great madman, _Raymond-na-hattha_. Just sit still, and let him take
his own way, and he'll do no harm in life; appear to listen to him, and
he'll be like a child--but, if you go to harshness, he'd tear you, and
me, and all that's in the house, into minced meat."

Once more did Lucre's countenance lose its accustomed hue; but, on this
occasion, it assumed the color of a duck egg, or something between a bad
white and a bad blue; "my good friend," said he, "will you please to take
a seat--John, stay in the room." This he said in a whisper.

"There," proceeded Raymond, who had been busily engaged in examining the
pages of the Bible, "there is the page where that's on--the puttin' out
in the clouds and storm of heaven--there it is on that page. Look at the
ould man and the ould woman there--see them tremblin'. Don't cry--don't
cry; but they are--see the widow there wid her orphans--there's a
sick boy in that house, and a poor sick girl in that other house--see,
they're all cryin'--all cryin'--for they must go out, and on sich a day!
All that, now, is upon these two other pages, bekaise, you see, no one
page would hould all that. But see here--here's a page wid only one
side of it covered--let vis see what's on it. Oh, ay--here's the poor
craythur's childre, wid the poor father and the poor mother; but they
have the one cow to give milk to moisten their bit. Ha--ha--look again,
there she goes off to the pound! Don't cry, poor helpless crathers; but
how can you help cryin' when your poor mother's cryin'. That's a bitther
thing, too, and it's on this page--see--that--that--that's it I've
between my fingers--look at it--'how wet it is wid the poor craythur's
tears; but there's no blood here--no, no--nothing but tears. Oh,
here--see here--a page as big as the rest, bat wid nothing on it. Ay,
I know that--that's an empty farm that nobody dare take, or woe be to
them. But here--I seen him "--here he shuddered strongly--"I seen him!
His father and mother were both standing undher him--that was the worst
of all. It's in this page. He was only one-and-twenty, and the eyes he
had; but how did it happen, that although they hanged him, every one
loved him? I seen his father and the poor mother looking up to the
gallows where he stood, and then she fainted, and she then got sick,
and poor ould Brian has nobody now