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378 LADY MORGAN. arranged before they left to meet again a month later and celebrate the christening, one of them, Edward Lysaght, a noted lawyer and wit of that day, agreeing to stand sponsor. The party then broke up, and made the best haste they could to their several homes, for the night was cold and the snow was falling. Lysaght, who had the farthest to go, trudged steadily onward, his mind yet filled with thoughts of the feast just over and of the little baby who was to be his goddaughter, while the notes of a Christmas carol, sung by a child whose form he could dimly perceive some distance in advance, floated back to his ears and fell in pleasantly with his thoughts. Overtaking the child, he was enabled to catch the last words of her song. They were the well-known refrain : ' ' Christmas comes but once a year, And when it comes it brings good cheer." As the song died away the singer sank down suddenly upon the steps ' of a brilliantly lighted house resounding with music and laughter. He went up to her and found that she was dead, still grasping her ballad in her hand. This pathetic story of her birthnight was almost the first story told to Robert Owenson's little daughter, and a short poem upon the subject by Lysaght was the first thing she ever learned by heart. Her christening took place according to agreement, a month after her birth, and the occasion was one of rejoic- ings truly Irish in their character. A branch of shillalah graced the table, and Mr. Owenson, who was a fine musi- cian, sang, first in Irish and then in English, the famous song of " O'Rourke's Noble Feast," the whole company joining enthusiastically in the chorus : " Oh you are welcome heartily, Welcome, gramachree, Welcome heartily, Welcome joy ! "