“Arrah, what is it, Owen, jewel.  Sure if I know it, maybe when I’m sorrowful, that thinkin’ of it, an’ lookin’ forrid to it will make me happier.  An’ I’m sure, acushla, you would like that.”

“But maybe, Kathleen, if it wouldn’t come to pass, that the disappointment ’ud be heavy on you?”

“How could it, Owen?  Sure we can’t be worse nor we are, whatever happens?”

“Thrue enough, indeed, I forgot that; an’ yet we might, Kathleen.  Sure we’d be worse, if we or the childhre had bad health.”

“God forgive me thin, for what I said!  We might be worse.  Well, but what is the plan, Owen?”

“Why, when we got the childhre places, I’ll sthrive to take a little house, an’ work as a cottar.  Then, Kathleen, we’d have a home of our own.  I’d work from light to light; I’d work before hours an’ afther hours; ay, nine days in the week, or we’d be comfortable in our own little home.  We might be poor, Kathleen, I know that, an’ hard pressed too; but then, as I said, we’d have our own home, an’ our own hearth; our morsel, if it ’ud be homely, would be sweet, for it would be the fruits of our own labor.”

“Now, Owen, do you think you could manage to get that?”

“Wait, acushla, till we get the childhre settled.  Then I’ll thry the other plan, for it’s good to thry anything that could take us out of this disgraceful life.”

This humble speculation was a source of great comfort to them.  Many a time have they forgotten their sorrows in contemplating the simple picture of their happy little cottage.  Kathleen, in particular, drew with all the vivid coloring of a tender mother, and an affectionate wife, the various sources of comfort and contentment to be found even in a cabin, whose inmates are blessed with a love of independence, industry, and mutual affection.

Owen, in pursuance of his intention, did not neglect, when the proper season arrived, to place out his eldest children among the farmers.  The reader need not be told that there was that about him which gained respect.  He had, therefore, little trouble in obtaining his wishes on this point, and to his great satisfaction, he saw three of them hired out to earn their own support.

It was now a matter of some difficulty for him to take a cabin and get employment.  They had not a single article of furniture, and neither bed nor bedding, with the exception of blankets almost worn past use.  He was resolved, however, to give up, at all risks, the life of a mendicant.  For this purpose, he and the wife agreed to adopt a plan quite usual in Ireland, under circumstances somewhat different from his:  this was, that Kathleen should continue to beg for their support, until the first half-year of their children’s service should expire; and in the meantime, that he, if possible, should secure employment for himself.  By this means, his earnings and that of his children might remain untouched, so that in half a year he calculated upon being able to