as
well do that now: but I'll be down, never fear."

"In throth the boy was always bright!--ha, ha, ha!--and he sobered
Dixon?"

"Had him like a judge in no time."

"Oh, he would do it--he could do that, at all times. God be wid you,
Darby, till I see you in the evenin'.

"_Bannaght lhath_, Denis, an' I'm proud we're as we ought to be."

About four o'clock, the expected guests began to assemble at Denis's;
and about the same hour one might perceive Susan O'Shaughnessy running
out to a stile a little above the house, where she stood for a few
minutes, with her hand shadingher eyes, looking long and intensely
towards the direction from which she expected her brother to return.
Hitherto, however, he could not be discovered in the distance, although
scarcely five minutes elapsed during the intervals of her appearance
at the stile to watch him. Some horsemen she did notice; but after
straining her eyes eagerly and anxiously, she was enabled only to
report, with a dejected air, that they were their own friends coming
from a distant part of the parish, to be present at the dinner. At
length, after a long and eager look, she ran in with an exclamation of
delight, saying--

"Thank goodness, he's comin' at last; I see somebody dressed in black
ridin' down the upper end of Tim Marly's boreen, an' I'm sure an'
certain it must be Denis, from his dress!"

"I'll warrant it is, my colleen," replied her father; "he said he'd be
here before the dinner would be ready, an' it's widin a good hour of
that. I'll thry myself."

He and his daughter once more went out; but, alas! only to experience a
fresh disappointment. Instead of Denis, it was Father Finnerty; who,
it appeared, felt as anxious to be in time for dinner, as the young
candidate himself could have done. He was advancing at a brisk trot,
not upon the colt which had been presented to him, but upon his old nag,
which seemed to feel as eager to get at Denis's oats, as its owner did
to taste his mutton.

"I see, Susy, we'll have a day of it, plase goodness," observed Denis
to the girl; "here's Father Finnerty, and I wouldn't for more nor I'll
mention that he had staid away: and I hope the coidjuther will come as
well as himself. Do you go in, aroon, and tell them he's comin', and
I'll go and meet him."

Most of Denis's friends were now assembled, dressed in their best
apparel, and Raised to the highest pitch of good humor; no man who knows
the relish with which Irishmen