Paisley shawl and ribboned cap on which a few pucecoloured poppies nodded-Mr Philp, with a handful of knitting, and a ball of worsted trailing at his feet. But it is impossible to construct a sentence which would do justice to Mr Philp as he loomed up and swam into ken through 'Bias's awed surmise; and the effort shall be abandoned.

Mr Philp slowly unwound the woollen wrap that had swathed his beard out of sight.

to regain its identity as the folds of the bandage dropped from him. "I wonder whether shavin' would help!... I don't like to be beat."

'Bias, who had come with that very intent, lifted a hand but let it fall again. No, he could not!

"Good Lord!" he ejaculated, and fled from the house. Outside, Fancy-who had seen all was executing fandago on the step.

a

One result of the paragraph in The Troy Herald' was to harden the two friends' estrangement just at the moment when it promised to melt. Troy, with its many amenities, has deplorable appetite for gossip; and to this appetite the contention of Captain Hocken and Captain Hunken for Mrs Bosenna's hand gave meat and drink. (There was, of course, no difficulty in guessing what Mr Shake Benny would have called "the inamorata's identity.") Malicious folk, after their nature, assumed the pair to be in quest of her money. The sporting ones laid bets. Every one discussed the item with that frankness which is so characteristic of the little town, and so engaging when you arrive at knowing us, though it not infrequently disconcerts the newcomer.

Barber Toy-having Cai at his mercy next morning, with a razor close to his throatheartily wished him success.

"Not," added Mr Toy, "that I bear any ill-will to Cap'n Hunken. But I back a shaved chin on principle, for the credit of the trade."

A sardonic and travelled seaman, waiting his turn in the corner, hereupon asked how he managed when it came to the Oxford and Cambridge boat-race.

"I'll tell you," answered Mr Toy. "I wasn't at Oxford myself - nor at Cambridge; and for years I'd back one or 'nother, 'cordin' to the newspapers. But that isn't a satis

factory way. When you're

dealin' with an honest eventhonest, mind you-as goes on year after year between two parties both ekally set on winnin', the only way to get

real satisfaction is to pick your fancy an' go on backin' it. That gives ye a different interest altogether, like with Liberal or Conservative at a General Election. If you don't win this time, you look forward to next. . . . Well, one day Mr Philp here came into the shop wearin' a dark-blue tie, and says I, 'You're Oxford.' 'Am I?' says he 'It's the first I've ever heard of it.' 'You're Oxford,' says I; and I'm Cambridge, for half a crown.' Odd enough, Cambridge won that year by eight lengths."

"I wonder you have the face to tell this story," put in Mr Philp.

The barber grinned. "Well, I thought as we'd both settled 'pon our fancy, in a neighbourly way. But be dashed if, soon after the followin' Christmas, Mr Philp didn't send his tie to the wash, and it came back any blue you pleased. 'Make it one or t'other-I don't care,' said I: and he weighed the choice so long, bein' a cautious man, that we missed to make up any bet at all. If you'll believe me, that year they rowed a dead heat."

"Very curious," commented

Cai.

"But that isn' the end," continued the barber. "Next year he'd washed his neck-tie again, and that 'twas Cambridge he couldn' dispute. So we put on another half-crown, and Oxford won by two lengths. ... 'Twas a pity I could never induce him to bet again, for his tie went on getting Cambridger and Cambridger, while

Oxford won four years out o' five."

"If you believe there was any honesty in it!" said Mr Philp. "Twas only my suspicious natur' as saved me."

The whole town, indeed, was watching the rivals, and with an open interest very difficult to resent. Nay, since it was impossible to tell every second man in the street to mind his own business, Cai and 'Bias accepted the publicity perforce and turned their resentment upon one another.

They continued, of course, to live apart, and Mrs Bowldler soon learned to avoid playing the intermediary, even to the extent of suggesting (say) some concerted action over the coal supplies. After the first fortnight no messages passed between them

scars re

"They stood aloof, the maining, Like cliffs that had been rent asunder."

If they met, in shop or roadway, they nodded, but exchanged no other greeting. They never met at Rilla Farm. How it was agreed I know not, though Mrs Bosenna must have contrived it somehow; but they now prosecuted their wooing openly on alternate days. Sunday she reserved for what Sunday ought to be-a day of rest.

"The artfulness!" exclaimed Mrs Bowldler on making discovery of this arrangement. "But the men are no match for us, my dear" this to Fancy-"an' the oftener they

"I heard Mr Rogers say t'other day, 'Never marry a widow unless her first husband was hanged.'' "Pray let us change the subjeck," said Mrs Bowldler hastily.

Why?... What did Mr Bowldler die of? I've often meant to ask," said Fancy, "and then again I've wondered sometimes if there ever was any such person."

"There was such a person." Mrs Bowldler half-closed her eyes in dreamy reminiscence. "Further than that I would not like to commit myself."

"He's dead, then?"

"He was a fitter in a ladies' tailorin', and naturally gay by temperament. It led to misunderstandin's.

Dead? No, not that I am aware of. For all I know he's still starrin' it somewhere in the provinces.'

She protested that for the moment she must drop the subject, which invariably affected her with palpitations; but promised to return to it in confidence when she felt stronger.

Throughout these days, however, and for many days to come, she discoursed at large on the diplomacy of widows; warning Palmerston to shape his course in avoidance of them. And that budding authorwho had already learnt to take his good things where he found them-boldly transferred her warnings to the pages of 'Pickerley,' which thereby arrived at resembling 'Pickwick' in one respect if in no other.

From these generalities she would hark back, at shortest notice, to the practical present.

"It behoves us seein' as how a tempory cloud has descended between these two establishments-it behoves us, I say, to watch out for its silver lining in one form or another. Which talking of silver reminds me of electro, and I'll ask you, Palmerston, if that's the way to leave a mustard-pot and call yourself an indoor male?"

IN our early days the recollections of '98 were still keen and vivid. Perhaps we heard so much of them because we had relatives who had espoused different sides in that disastrous struggle. It was frequently styled the League of the Bonnet and the Brogue, because of the remarkable and short-lived confederacy which the Presbyterian farmers and weavers of Ulster entered into with the Catholic masses of the south to overthrow the British domination and set up in place thereof an independent Irish republic. A favourite toast at revolutionary gatherings was, "May the skin of old Geordie [George III.] be a drumhead to rouse the Republicans to arms," and the would-be liberators promised the total abolition of rent, tithes, taxes, and some other vexatious imposts. Tobacco in particular, it was promised, should be reduced to one-fourth of the existing price; and whilst the whole machinery of the law -judges, lawyers, and magistrates-was to be summarily swept away, prompt and equal justice was to be administered gratis and to all alike.

An uncle of ours had in his youth openly avowed his sympathy with some at least of the republican tenets, though as far as I am aware he had never taken the United Irishman's oath or allied himself in any active fashion with the revolutionary party. A younger brother of his was going out to

seek his fortune in the New World. He sailed from Liverpool, and the ship which had the young emigrant on board was becalmed off the Antrim coast, almost within sight of his home. His brother rowed out to take a last leave of him on board, and on his return to land was arrested as soon as he set foot ashore and committed to the safe custody of Carrickfergus jail. He was charged with having been engaged in an examination of the coast to

discover a convenient spot where the French, whose coming was then hourly expected, might effect a landing. All his protests and explanations of the entirely harmless, and indeed commendable, nature of his boating expedition were disregarded, and he was kept in durance vile for nearly a year, till quiet had once more been restored. His captivity was not, however, rendered unnecessarily harsh, and he was even supplied with a valet in the person of Thanny M'Mullan, the hangman, who at an earlier period of his career had had his ears cropped for perjury, the loss of those outward appendages having, in former days, been the statutory penalty for that offence.

an

On the other hand, a more distant relative of ours, elderly man as we knew him, and a large landed proprietor, had by his own exertions raised and equipped a loyalist corps, which assembled and drilled

within his own demesne. was conscious all the while that those in his employment-his grooms, gardeners, and forth-were rebels to a man. There was only one of his dependants on whom he placed absolute reliance, his butler, who had been in the service of the family from childhood. Not till long afterwards did he discover that this man, after listening to the conversation at the dinner-table and the discussions incautiously carried on there, was wont nightly to mount a horse in his master's stable and to ride about the country to bring the rebels warning of any plans that were being concerted against them.

As is generally known, the most formidable encounter of the rebellion in Ulster was the battle fought in the town of Antrim. Lord O'Neill, the Governor of the county, who was himself in Dublin, sent

down summonses to all the magistrates to meet him in Antrim upon Thursday, the 7th of June, to consult upon what measures, in the very menacing conditions that prevailed, it was best to take for the preservation of law and order. He himself only reached Antrim at noon upon that day, not having been recognised upon the way, but his servants, who followed him, were stopped and robbed of their arms. Intelligence of the intended meeting was conveyed to Henry Joy M'Cracken, Commander-inChief of the United Irish Army of the North, as he was somewhat grandiosely styled,-a

ability and promise; and he determined by a bold stroke to capture the town and the whole body of the magistracy therein assembled. The rank and file of the rebel forces were induced to believe that only a threedays' campaign was required to ensure them of absolute victory. Each man was to provide his own commissariat for that period, which, for the large majority, consisted in nothing more than a stockingful of meal. The untrustworthiness of those who held post in this Army of the North was speedily proved, for of the "Colonels of Antrim," each of whom was expected to bring five hundred men to the appointed rendezvous, two, upon receiving M'Cracken's written order, made haste to send it to General Nugent, who commanded the King's troops in Belfast, whilst a third waited upon him in person with that document.

Our relative, riding into Antrim upon the morning of the 7th to take part in the conference, encountered the rebel army upon its march, and was promptly made prisoner, and conveyed to their encampment upon Donegore, the conical hill, crowned by an ancient Irish rath, that overlooks Antrim. Here he was held a hostage throughout the day, whilst the fiercelyfought struggle-in which Lord O'Neill was unhorsed and mortally wounded by a pike-thrust, given him, it is said, by one of his own retainers-was waged in the market-place and in the