“Bedad I won’t part wid it then.”

“I’d rather, I tell you, scower it myself—­an’ I will, too.  Sure if I renew the ould cough an me I’ll thry the Casharawan, (* Dandelion) that did me so much good the last time.”

“Well, that’s purty!  Ha, ha, ha! you to go!  Oh, ay, indeed—­as if I’d stand by an’ let you.  Not so bad as that comes to, either—­no.  Is the spade an’ shovel in the shed?”

“To be sure they are.  Throth, Art, you’re worth the whole o’ them—­the sorra lie in it.  Well, go, avillish.”

This was this fine boy’s weakness played upon by those who, it is true, were not at all conscious of the injury they were inflicting upon him at the time.  He was certainly the pride of the family, and even while they humored and increased this his predominant and most dangerous foible, we are bound to say that they gratified their own affection as much as they did his vanity.

His father’s family consisted, as we have said, of three sons and three daughters.  The latter were the elder, and in point of age Art, as we have said, was the youngest of them all.  The education that he and his brothers received was such as the time and the neglected state of the country afforded them.  They could all read and write tolerably well, and knew something of arithmetic.  This was a proof that their education had not been neglected.  And why should it?  Were they not the descendants of the great Maguires of Fermanagh?  Why, the very consciousness of their blood was felt as a proud and unanswerable argument against ignorance.  The best education, therefore, that could be procured by persons in their humble sphere of life, they received.  The eldest brother, whose name was Brian, did not, as is too frequently the case with the eldest sons of small farmers, receive so liberal a portion of instruction as Frank or Art.  This resulted from the condition and necessities of his father, who could not spare him from his farm—­and, indeed, it cost the worthy man many a sore heart.  At all events, time advanced, and the two younger brothers were taken from school with a view of being apprenticed to some useful trade.  The character of each was pretty well in accordance with their respective dispositions.  Frank had no enemies, yet was he by no means so popular as Art, who had many.  The one possessed nothing to excite envy, and never gave offence; the other, by the very superiority of his natural powers, exultingly paraded, as they were, at the expense of dulness or unsuccessful rivalry, created many vindictive maligners, who let no opportunity pass of giving him behind his back the harsh word which they durst not give him to his face.  In spite of all this, his acknowledged superiority, his generosity, his candor, and utter ignorance or hatred of the low chicaneries of youthful cunning, joined to his open, intrepid, and manly character, conspired to render him popular in an extraordinary degree.  Nay, his very failings added to this, and when the battle of his character was fought, all the traditionary errors of moral life were quoted in his favor.