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Rent Day

OH ullagone, ullagone ! this is a wide
world, but what will we do in it, or where will we go ?" muttered Bill
Doody, as he sat on a rock by the Lake of Killarney. " What will we do ?
tomorrow's rent-day, and Tim the Driver swears if we don't pay up our rent,
he'll cant every "ha'perth "we have; and then, sure enough, there's Judy
and myself, and the poor little "grawls "[children] will be turned out to
starve on the high road, for the never a halfpenny of rent have I ! - Oh hone,
that ever I should live to see this day !"

Thus did Bill Doody bemoan his hard fate,
pouring his sorrows to the reckless waves of the most beautiful of lakes,
which seemed to mock his misery as they rejoiced beneath the Cloudless sky of
a May morning. That lake, glittering in sunshine, sprinkled with fairy isles
of rock and verdure, and bounded by giant hills of ever-varying hues, might,
with its magic beauty, charm all sadness but despair; for alas,

"How ill the scene that offers
rest

And heart that cannot rest agree!"

Yet Bill Doody was not so desolate as he
supposed there was one listening to him he little thought of; and help was at
hand from a quarter he could not have expected.

"What's the matter with you, my poor
man ?" said a tall portly looking gentleman, at the same time stepping
out of a furze-brake. Now Bill was seated on a rock that commanded the view of
a large field. Nothing in the field could be concealed from him, except this
furze-brake, which grew in a hollow near the margin of the lake. He was,
therefore, not a little surprised at the gentleman's sudden appearance, and
began to question whether the personage before him belonged to this world or
not. He, however, soon mustered courage sufficient to tell him how his crops
had failed, how some bad member had charmed away his butter, and how Tim the
Driver threatened to turn him out of the farm if he didn't pay up every penny
of the rent by twelve o'clock next day.

"A sad story in deed," said the
stranger; "but surely, if you represented the case to your land-lord's
agent, he won't have the heart to turn you out."

"Heart, your honour ! where would an
agent get a heart ! " exclaimed Bill. "I see your honour does not
know him: besides, he has an eye on the farm this long time for a
fosterer of his own; so I expect no mercy at all at all, only to be turned
out."

"Take this my poor fellow, take
this,." said the stranger, pouring a purse full of gold into Bill's old
hat, which in his grief he had flung on the ground. "Pay the fellow your
rent, but I'll take care it shall do him no good. I remember the time when
things went otherwise in this country, when I would have hung up such a fellow
in the twinkling of an eye I"

These words were lost upon Bill, who was
insensible to every thing but the sight of the gold, and before he could unfix
his gaze, and lift up his head to pour out his hundred thousand blessings, the
stranger was gone. The bewildered peasant looked around in search of his
benefactor, and at last he thought he saw him riding on a white horse a long
way off on the lake.

"O'Donoghue, O'Donoghue !"
shouted Bill; "the good, the blessed O'Donoghue !" and he ran
capering like a madman to show Judy the gold, and to rejoice her heart with
the prospect of wealth and happiness.

The next day Bill proceeded to the agent's;
not sneakingly, with his hat in his hand, his eyes fixed on the ground, and
his knees bending under him; but bold and upright, like a man conscious of his
independence.

"Why don't you take off your hat,
fellow; don't you know you are speaking to a magistrate?" said the agent.

"I know I'm not speaking to the king,
sir," said Bill; "and I never takes off my hat but to them I can
respect and love. The Eye that sees all knows I've no right either to respect
or love an agent !"

"You scoundrel !" retorted the
man in office, biting his lips with rage at such an unusual and unexpected
opposition, "I'll teach you how to he insolent again - I have the power,
remember."

"To the cost of the country, I know
you have," said Bill, who still remained with his head as firmly covered
as if he was the lord Kingsale himself.

"But, come," said the magistrate;
"have you got the money for me? - this is rent-day. If there's one penny
of it wanting, or the running gale that's due, prepare to turn out before
night, for you shall not remain another hour in possession."

" There is your rent," said Bill,
with an unmoved expression of tone and countenance "you'd better count
it, and give me a receipt in full for the running gale and all."

The agent gave a look of amazement at the
gold; for it was gold - real guineas ! and not bits of dirty ragged small
notes, that are only fit to light one's pipe with. However willing the agent
may have been to ruin, as be thought, the unfortunate tenant, he took up the
gold, and handed the receipt to Bill, who strutted off with it as proud as a
cat of her whiskers.

The agent going to his desk shortly after,
was confounded at beholding. a heap of gingerbread cakes instead of the money
he had deposited there. He raved and swore, but all to no purpose; the gold
had become gingerbread cakes, just marked like the guineas, with the king's
head, and Bill had the receipt in his pocket; so he saw there was no use in
saying any thing about the affair, as he would only get laughed at for his
pains.

From that hour Bill Doody grew rich; all
his undertakings prospered; and he often blesses the day that he met with
O'Donoghue, the great prince that lives down under the lake of Killarney.

Like the butterfly, the spirit of Donoghue
closely hovers over the perfume of the hills and flowers it loves ; while, as
the reflection of a star in the waters of a pure lake, to those who look not
above, that glorious spirit is believed to dwell beneath.
grihya sutra| grihya sutra
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