mane?"

"Why, I suppose in spite of Flanagan and thim that found him guilty,"
replied his wife.

"Well, but what else did she say, mother?"

"She axed me if marriages warn't made in heaven; and I tould her that
the people said so; upon that she said she'd meet him there, and then
she complained of her head. The trewth is, she has a heavy load of
sickness on her back, and the sorra hour should be lost till we get a
docthor."

"Yes, that is the truth, mother; I'll go this moment for Dr. H----.
There's nothing like taking these things in time. Poor Una! God knows
this trial is a sore one upon a heart so, faithful and affectionate as
hers."

"John, had you not betther ait something before you go?" said his
father; "you want it afther the troublesome day you had."

"No, no," replied the son; "I cannot--I cannot; I will neither eat nor
drink till I hear what the doctor will say about her. O, my God!" he
exclaimed, whilst his eyes filled with tears, "and is it come to this
with you, our darling Una?--I won't lose a moment till I return,"
he added, as he went out; "nor will I, under any circumstances, come
without medical aid of some kind."

"Let these things be taken away, Bridget," said the Bodagh; "my appetite
is gone, too; that last news is the worst of all. May the Lord of heaven
keep our child's mind right! for, oh, Bridget, wouldn't death itself be
far afore that?"

"I'm going up to her," replied his wife; "and may God guard her, and
spare her safe and sound to us; for what--what kind of a house would it
be if she----but I can't think of it. Oh, wurrah, wurrah, this night!"

Until the return of their son, with the doctor, both O'Brien and his
wife hung in a state of alarm bordering on agony over the bed of
their beloved daughter. Indeed, the rapidity and vehemence with which
incoherence, accompanied by severe illness, set in, were sufficient to
excite the greatest alarm, and to justify their darkest apprehensions.
Her skin was hot almost to burning; her temples throbbed terribly, and
such were her fits of starting and raving, that they felt as if every
minute were an hour, until the physician actually made his appearance.
Long before tins gentleman reached the house, the son had made him
fully acquainted with what he looked upon as the immediate cause of her
illness; not that the doctor himself had been altogether ignorant of
it, for, indeed, there were few persons of any class or condition in the
neighborhoo