e me soul an' he ought to be proud out of you, Connor, whether you're
in arnest or not," observed the mother, "an' to stretch out wid the
_arrighad_ too if you want it."

"Folly on, Connor, folly on! your mother'll back you, I'll go bail, say
what you will; but sure you know all I have must be yours yet, acushla."

Connor now sat down, and his mother stirred up the fire, on which she
placed additional fuel. After a little time his manner changed, and a
shade of deep gloom fell upon his manly and handsome features. "I don't
know," he at length proceeded, "that, as we three are here together,
I could do betther than ask your advice upon what has happened to me
to-night."

"Why, what has happened you, Connor?" said the mother alarmed; "plase
God, no harm, I hope."

"Who else," added the father, "would you be guided by, if not by your
mother an' myself?"

"No harm, mother, dear," said Connor in reply to her; "harm! Oh! mother,
mother, if you knew it; an' as for what you say, father, it's right;
what advice but my mother's an' yours ought I to ask?"

"An' God's too," added the mother.

"An' my heart was nevir more _ris_ to God than it was', an' is this
night," replied their ingenuous boy.

"Well, but what has happened, Connor?" said his father; "if it's
anything where our advice can serve you, of coorse we'll advise you for
the best."

Connor then, with a glowing heart, made them acquainted with the
affection which subsisted between himself and Una O'Brien, and ended by
informing them of the vow of marriage which they had that night solemnly
pledged to each other.

"You both know her by sight," he added, "an' afther what I've sed, can
you blame me for sayin' that I found this a pleasant and a happy night?"

The affectionate mother's eyes filled with tears of pride and delight,
on hearing that her handsome son was loved by the beautiful daughter of
Bodagh Buie, and she could not help exclaiming, in the enthusiasm of the
moment,

"She's a purty girl--the purtiest indeed I ever laid my two livin' eyes
upon, and by all accounts as good as she's purty; but I say that, face
to face, you're as good, ay, an' as handsome, Fardorougha, as she is.
God bless her, any way, an' mark her to grace and happiness, _ma colleen
dhas dhun_."

"He's no match for her," said the father, who had listened with an
earnest face, and compressed lips, to his son's narrative; "he's no
match for her--by four hundred guineas."

Honora, wh