This to him was the greatest trial he had yet felt; long and heartrending was their embrace.  Jemmy soothed and comforted his beloved brother, but in vain.  The lad threw himself on the spot at which they parted, and remained there until Jemmy turned an angle of the road which brought him out of his sight, when the poor boy kissed the marks of his brother’s feet repeatedly, and then returned home, hoarse and broken down with the violence of his grief.

He was now alone, and for the first time felt keenly the strange object on which he was bent, together with all the difficulties connected with its attainment.  He was young and uneducated, and many years, he knew, must elapse e’er he could find himself in possession of his wishes.  But time would pass at home, as well as abroad, he thought; and as there lay no impediment of peculiar difficulty in his way, he collected all his firmness and proceeded.

There is no country on the earth in which either education, or the desire to procure it, is so much reverenced as in Ireland.  Next to the claims of the priest and schoolmaster come those of the poor scholar for the respect of the people.  It matters not how poor or how miserable he may be; so long as they see him struggling with poverty in the prosecution of a purpose so laudable, they will treat him with attention and kindness.  Here there is no danger of his being sent to the workhouse, committed as a vagrant, or passed from parish to parish until he reaches his own settlement.  Here the humble lad is not met by the sneer of purse-proud insolence, or his simple tale answered only in the frown of heartless contempt.  No—­no—­no.  The best bit and sup are placed before him; and whilst his poor, but warm-hearted, entertainer can afford only potatoes and salt to his own half-starved family, he will make a struggle to procure something better for the poor scholar; ‘Becase he’s far from his own, the craihur! An’ sure the intuition in him is good, anyhow; the Lord prosper him, an’ every one that has the heart set upon the larnin’!’

As Jemmy proceeded, he found that his satchel of books and apparel gave as clear an intimation of his purpose, as if he had carried a label to that effect upon his back.

“God save you, a bouchal!” said a warm, honest-looking countryman, whom he met driving home his cows in the evening, within a few miles of the town in which he purposed to sleep.

“God save you kindly!”

“Why, thin, ’tis a long journey you have before you, alanna, for I know well it’s for Munster you’re bound.”

“Thrue for you; ‘tis there, wid the help of God, I’m goin’.  A great scarcity of larnin’ was in my own place, or I wouldn’t have to go at all,” said the boy, whilst his eyes filled with, tears.

“’Tis no discredit in life,” replied the countryman, with untaught natural delicacy, for he perceived that a sense of pride lingered about the boy which made the character of poor scholar sit painfully upon him; “’tis no discredit, dear, nor don’t be cast down.  I’ll warrant you that God will prosper you; an’ that He may, avick, I pray this day!” and as he spoke, he raised his hat in reverence to the Being whom he invoked.  “An’ tell me, dear—­where do you intend to sleep to-night?”