Scarcely have you time to be holding out the fist to them--
Down by the fireside you're sitting in the midst of them.'
Francis Fahy.

Roothythanthrum Cottage,
Knockcool, County Tyrone.

Of course, we have always intended sooner or later to forsake this life
of hotels and lodgings, and become either Irish landlords or tenants,
or both, with a view to the better understanding of one burning Irish
question. We heard of a charming house in County Down, which could be
secured by renting it the first of May for the season; but as we
could occupy it only for a month at most we were obliged to forego the
opportunity.

"We have been told from time immemorial that absenteeism has been one of
the curses of Ireland," I remarked to Salemina; "so, whatever the charms
of the cottage in Rostrevor, do not let us take it, and in so doing
become absentee landlords."

"It was you two who hired the 'wee theekit hoosie' in Pettybaw," said
Francesca. "I am going to be in the vanguard of the next house-hunting
expedition; in fact, I have almost made up my mind to take my third of
Benella and be an independent householder for a time. If I am ever to
learn the management of an establishment before beginning to experiment
on Ronald's, now is the proper moment."

"Ronald must have looked the future in the face when he asked you to
marry him," I replied, "although it is possible that he looked only at
you, and therefore it is his duty to endure your maiden incapacities;
but why should Salemina and I suffer you to experiment upon us, pray?"

It was Benella, after all, who inveigled us into making our first
political misstep; for, after avoiding the sin of absenteeism, we fell
into one almost as black, inasmuch as we evicted a tenant. It is part of
Benella's heterogeneous and unusual duty to take a bicycle and scour the
country in search of information for us: to find out where shops are,
post-office, lodgings, places for good sketches, ruins, pretty roads for
walks and drives, and many other things, too numerous to mention. She
came home from one of these expeditions flushed with triumph.

"I've got you a house!" she exclaimed proudly. "There's a lady in it
now, but she'll move out to-morrow when we move in; and we are to pay
seventeen dollars fifty--I mean three pound ten--a week for the house,
with privilege of rene