Mr. O'Shaughnessy
may not be here this hour to come; and you may be sure, the Bishop,
meeting such a bright boy, wouldn't make it a short one. As for Father
Molony, he'll be here time enough, so I move again that we attack the
citadel."

"Well, well, never say it again--the sarra one o' me will keep it back,
myself bein' as ripe as any of you, barrin' his Reverence, that we're not
to take the foreway of in anything. Ha! ha! ha!"

Whilst Mave and her daughters were engaged in laying dinner, and in
making all the other arrangements necessary for their comfort, the
priest took Denis aside, and thus addressed him:--

"Denis, I need scarcely remark that this meeting of our friends is upon
no common occasion; that it's neither a wedding, nor a Station, nor a
christening, but a gathering of relations for a more honorable purpose
than any of them, excepting the Station, which you know is a religious
rite. I just mention this privately, lest you might not be properly on
your guard, and to prevent any appearance of maneness; or--in short, I
hope you have abundance of everything; I hope you have, and that, not
for your own sake so much as for that of your son. Remember your boy,
and what he's designed for, and don't let the dinner or its concomitants
be discreditable to him; for, in fact, it's his dinner, observe, and not
yours."

"I'm thankful, I'm deeply thankful, an' for ever oblaged to your
Reverence for your kindness; although, widout at all makin' little of
it, it wasn't wanted here; never fear, Docthor, there'll be lashings and
lavins."

"Well, but make that clear, Denis; here now are near two dozen of us,
and you say there are more to come, and all the provision I see for
them is a shoulder of mutton, a goose, and something in that large pot
on the fire, which I suppose is hung beef."

"Thrue for you, sir, but you don't know that we've got a tarin' fire
down in the barn, where there's two geese more and two shouldhers of
mutton to help what you seen--not to mintion a great big puddin', an'
lots of other things. Sure you might notice Mave and the girls runnin'
in an' out to attind the cookin' of it."

"Enough, Denis, that's sufficient; and now, between you and me, I say
your son will be the load-star of Maynooth, winch out-tops anything I
said of him yet."

"There's a whole keg of whiskey, Docthor."

"I see nothing, to prevent him from being a bishop; indeed, it's almost
certain, for he can't be kept back."

"