se themselves to Irish rain without due consideration."

He agreed with her, glancing over his spectacles to see if she by any
possibility could be amusing herself at his expense--good, old, fussy,
fault-finding Veritas; but indeed Francesca's eyes were so soft and
lovely and honest that the more he looked at her, the less he could do
her the injustice of suspecting her sincerity.

But mind you, although I would never confess it to Veritas, because he
sees nothing but flaws on every side, the Irish pig is, to my taste, a
trifle too much in the foreground. He pays the rent, no doubt; but
this magnificent achievement could be managed from a sty in the rear,
ungrateful as it might seem to immure so useful a personage behind a
door or conceal his virtues from the public at large.

Chapter XXIV. Humours of the road.

'Cheerful at morn, he wakes from short repose,
Breasts the keen air, and carols as he goes.'
Oliver Goldsmith.

If you drive from Clifden to Oughterard by way of Maam Cross, and then
on to Galway, you will pass through the O'Flahertys' country, one of
whom, Murrough O'Flaherty, was governor of this country of Iar (western)
Connaught. You will like to see the last of the O'Flaherty yews,
a thousand years old at least, and the ruins of the castle and
banqueting-hall. The family glories are enumerated in ancient Irish
manuscript, and instead of the butler, footman, chef, coachman, and
gardener of to-day we read of the O'Flaherty physician, standard-bearer,
brehon or judge, master of the revels, and keeper of the bees; and the
moment Himself is rich enough, I intend to add some of these picturesque
personages to our staff.

We afterwards learned that there was formerly an inscription over the
west gate of Galway:--

'From the fury of the O'Flaherties,
Good Lord, deliver us.'

After Richard de Burgo took the town, in 1226, it became a flourishing
English colony, and the citizens must have guarded themselves from
any intercourse with the native Irish; at least, an old by-law of 1518
enacts that 'neither O' nor Mac shalle strutte ne swaggere thro' the
streetes of Galway.'

We did not go to Galway straight, because we never do anything straight.
We seldom get any reliable information, and never any inspiring
suggestions, from the natives themselves. They are all patriotically
sure that Ireland is the finest counthry in the world, God bless her