acre, and no rent was to be paid for the first five years. Many
of these great 'undertakers,' as they were called, were English noblemen
who never saw Ireland; but among them were Raleigh and Spenser, who
received forty-two thousand and twelve thousand acres respectively, and
in consideration of certain patronage 'undertook' to carry the business
of the Crown through Parliament.

Francesca was greatly pleased with this information, culled mostly from
Joyce's Child's History of Ireland. The volume had been bought in Dublin
by Salemina and presented to us as a piece of genial humour, but it
became our daily companion.

I made a rhyme for her, which she sent Miss Peabody, to show her that we
were growing in wisdom, notwithstanding our separation from her.

'You have thought of Sir Walter as soldier and knight,
Edmund Spenser, you've heard, was well able to write;
But Raleigh the planter, and Spenser verse-maker,
Each, oddly enough, was by trade 'Undertaker.''

It was in 1589 that the Shepherd of the Ocean, as Spenser calls him,
sailed to England to superintend the publishing of the Faerie Queene:
so from what I know of authors' habits, it is probable that Spenser did
read him the poem under the Yew Tree in Myrtle Grove garden. It seems
long ago, does it not, when the Faerie Queene was a manuscript, tobacco
just discovered, the potato a novelty, and the first Irish cherry-tree
just a wee thing newly transplanted from the Canary Islands? Were our
own cherry-trees already in America when Columbus discovered us, or did
the Pilgrim Fathers bring over 'slips' or 'grafts,' knowing that they
would be needed for George Washington later on, so that he might furnish
an untruthful world with a sublime sentiment? We re-read Salemina's
letter under the Yew Tree:--

Coolkilla House, Cork.
MY DEAREST GIRLS,--It seems years instead of days since we parted, and
I miss the two madcaps more than I can say. In your absence my life
is always so quiet, discreet, dignified,--and, yes, I confess it, so
monotonous! I go to none but the best hotels, meet none but the
best people, and my timidity and conservatism for ever keep me in
conventional paths. Dazzled and terrified as I still am when you
precipitate adventures upon me, I always find afterwards that I
have enjoyed them in spite of my fears. Life without you is like a
stenographic report of a dull sermon; with you it is by turn