them? Do you think I'm going round the country in the dead of night, with a pot of paste in one hand and a paint brush in the other?"
"If that's all that's troubling you, I'll send the girl to carry the paste. She's a half-witted creature, anyway, and she'd be afraid to speak, let alone that nobody would listen to her if she did itself."
"Give me a fiver for my exes, and I'll do it."
Mr. Patrick Sweeny extracted five greasy notes from a leather pocket-book, and handed them to his nephew.
III
Two days before the auction of the Widow Flanagan's farm, the people of the neighbourhood enjoyed a sensation. A number of notices appeared on the walls and gate-posts. They were very striking notices, printed on bright-green paper, which emphasised the fact that they were in the highest degree patriotic. They were headed with these words, which stood out in large characters:
TO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND.
Next, in smaller type, came a paragraph, beginning: "Whereas a heartless and abominable eviction." Then came a good deal of strong language, what English grammarians call extension of the subject, about tyrants, exterminators, Castle government,
