The Cross and the Shamrock

fter a few words of encouragement and advice spoken to Paul, Bridget, Patrick, and Eugene,-for so were widow O'Clery's children named,-they returned

ight pieces, or quarters, in silver, and the bill, and examining them by the candle, said, "O Bid, see how good the priest is! He has left u

l, darling, go on your knees, you and your sister and brothers, till I give

g to leave us orphans? May be you will

ng that her time was now short. "Paul, do you promise me y

, with God's

ith them to the priest, telling him not to forget that I gave ye

I wi

e, will ye obey, and be said

ey answered, amidst sobbing a

hat ye may preserve pure the faith of Saint Patrick. I bless ye. O, pray for me. Jesus, into thy hands-Jesus-Mary-Jesus--." There was a sigh, and by a single effort t

through several stages of trial, danger, and trouble, till they were now entirely stripped, like Job, of all but an existence to which death was preferable. Many are the phases of misery and crosses with which the life of man is surrounded in this vale of tears; but we think the condition of the orphan, deprived of both parents, and thrown for support or existence on a strange and selfish world, the most desolate of all. A policeman was the first who was attracted to the house of mourning by the wailing and cries of those whom this night saw alone and desolate. Mrs. Doherty, attended by an Irish servant maid from a neighboring house, were the next visitors; and, af

woman, in her day, God ble

," answered Norry. "I wonder

they always do, God bless 'em!-the landlord came down on Mr. O'Clery, sold out his sixty milch cows, after being twenty-one days in pound; and though the cows were worth ten pounds each, Lord Mandemon's agent sold them by auction, and he bought them back himself for two pounds each; and so the poor family was ruined. After that, O'Clery sold out another farm he had; and, collecting all that was due to him, he came to America, against the advice of the priest, his broth

res," said Norry. "I suppose they

ngerous place for Catholics. I heard the priest say he would

ovide for all that are i

ormasters, but especially that Van Stingey, whose great delight is, they say, to convart the children of Cat

est won't be able to call on to-morrow, a

a terrible night. Do ye hear

the roads will be blocked up, and hills an

to-night," said Mrs. Doherty. "I hope the L

He will have a hard night

ould not refuse going. The woman is just dying; and besi

nkees, although they are always ridiculing the clergy; yet, if one of them is going to die, t

h," said Mrs. Doherty. "It is not for them a

ow they are always ridiculing priests and nuns, and sees how th

but, unless we forgive them, God won't forgive us. The priest knows this well; and so, if there were two sick calls to co

n I would do, if I were the priest; for I know

'spoken evil of' like our Lord. He forgives all those whom God forgives; and so, if his enemy, the Protestant, falls sick,

this, and look on the priests and the church as their best friends, seeing that the p

against the church in the minds of their hearers? Wasn't our Lord himself hated by those whom he most loved, and put to

encontres with her mistress on such subjects as confession, priests' celibacy, purgatory, and other subjects too profound for the understanding of her mistress to know any thing about them, and too sacred in the eyes of Norry to allow them to be irreverently handled without saying something in their defence. It requires not only a perfect ac

es for several years; and that is why she considered "Peggy D

d myself would forgive any thing sooner than kidnappin' or stealing away t

id they take away or steal any of this poor wo

her, two months since, to rear her up along with her own children; and it was only about ten days since she got news of her death. When the p

" said Norry. "Did they send

ild, she comes out and tells me the child died, and was decently interred. When I told the mother,

ing wrong in the matter," said N

est when she told me of the child's death. 'Perhaps,' says I to myself, 'she is kidnapped.' And she was such a purty angel, with a face you would delight looking on;