During all this time Katty was in the plenitude of her authority, and her sense of importance manifested itself in a manner that was by no means softened by having been that morning at her duty.  Her tones were not so shrill, nor so loud as they would have been, had not their Reverences been within hearing; but what was wanting in loudness, was displayed in a firm and decided energy, that vented, itself frequently in the course of the day upon the backs and heads of her sons, daughters, and servants, as they crossed her path in the impatience and bustle of her employment.  It was truly ludicrous to see her, on encountering one of them in these fretful moments, give him a drive head-foremost against the wall, exclaiming, as she shook her fist at him, “Ho, you may bless your stars, that they’re under the roof, or it wouldn’t go so asy wid you; for if goodness hasn’t said it, you’ll make me lose my sowl this blessed and holy day:  but this is still the case—­the very time I go to my duty, the devil (between us and harm) is sure to throw fifty temptations acrass me, and to help him, you must come in my way—­but wait till tomorrow, and if I, don’t pay you for this, I’m not here.”

That a station is an expensive ordinance to the peasant who is honored by having one held in his house, no one who knows the characteristic hospitality of the Irish people can doubt.  I have reason, however, to know that, within the last few years, stations in every sense have been very much improved, where they have not been abolished altogether.  The priests now are not permitted to dine in the houses of their parishioners, by which a heavy tax has been removed from the people.

About four o’clock the penitents were at length all despatched; and those who were to be detained for dinner, many of whom had not eaten anything until then, in consequence of the necessity of receiving the Eucharist fasting, were taken aside to taste some of Phaddhy’s poteen.  At length the hour of dinner arrived, and along with it the redoubtable Parra More Slevin, Captain Wilson, and another nephew of Father Philemy’s, who had come to know what detained his brother who had conducted the auxiliary priest to Phaddhy’s.  It is surprising on these occasions, to think how many uncles, nephews, and cousins, to the forty-Second degree, find it needful to follow their Reverences on messages of various kinds; and it is equally surprising to observe with what exactness they drop in during the hour of dinner.  Of course, any blood-relation or friend of the priests must be received with cordiality; and consequently they do not return without solid proofs of the good-natured hospitality of poor Paddy, who feels no greater pleasure than in showing his “dacency” to any one belonging to his Reverence.