My New Curate

house. What priest does not know that tocsin of the night, and the start from peaceful slumbers? I heard the housekeeper wake up Father Letheby; and

t Mass next day, and this was some consolation, as he could sleep a few hours in the morning. I met him

at night call," I said;

e replied, opening his egg; "'t was a

re very grateful. And they generally

lush

id, a little nettled. "I meant that I was repaid by

ait

ho rode side by side with me the whole way to the mountain, and then, when we had to dismount and climb up through the boulders of some dry torrent course, I had two linkme

ed a little, as if

said he, "is this the

t as a matter of course. Your pre

It must have been some tradition of the Church when she was free

ll it, very beautiful and picturesque. Our people will never allow

g me home from a night sick-call. I thought it was superfluous politeness, and often insisted on being alone, particularly as the streets were always well

was s

after a pause, "how he did pray,-and all in Irish. I could imagine the old Hebrew prophets talking t

stom introduced by the French refugee priests at the beg

't?" he aske

orthodox. Come, and if you are

iform in shagginess and savagery, against the cold, gray sky. The white balls of the bog cotton waved dismally in the light breeze, which curled the surface of a few pools, and drew a curlew or plover from his retreat, and sent him whistling dolefully, and beating the heavy air, as he swept towards mountain or lake. After half an hour's walking, painful to me, the ground gently rose, and down in the hollow a nest of poplars hid from the western gales. I took Father Letheby through a secret path in the planta

t is th

on line, where, down through a deep mine shaft in the clouds, the hidden sun was making a silent glory. It was a dead sea, if you will. No gleam of sail, near or afar, lit up its loneliness. No flash of sea bird, poised for its prey, or beating slowly over the desolate waste, broke the hea

ence over the solemn scene for some ti

s elation

in altis

"You see our great friend at a disadvantage. But

ite sympathize with that comparison of St. Augustine's where he detects a resemblance between yon spectra of purple and green and the plumage of a dove. What has a dove to do with suc

said I. "Not even

infinite and the eternal in it that appeals to us. When we were children, the infinite lay beyond the next mountain, because it was the unknown. We grew up and we got knowledge; and knowledge destroyed our dreams, and left us only the commonplace. It is the unknown and unlimited that still appeals to us,-the something behind the dawn, and bey

o fear this young enthusiast, "that you

augh, "but you must forgive my nonsense

that I was living at the bottom of a black chimney, in smoke and noise and fetor, material and spirit

we returned," I said. "It

to take a ten minutes' stroll through the villa

en away somewhere under my greeting, for I was t

reverence, he

ver saw his l

as plain and com

verence, that he's

ring gratitude for Father Laverty's sn

d be with poor Father Tom wherever he i

I have been pestered from deputations and speeches since

e agreeable to our what I may call unanimous intinsion of asking the new cojutor

they wished: and Father Letheby bec

the lips of men. I thought I had an excellent opportunity of eliciting my curate's proficiency in his classics. With a certain amount of timidity, for you never know when you are treading on a volcano with these young men, I drew t

ions at the time, ideas of corresponding with classical journals, and perhaps, sooner or later, of editing a classic myself. But Cui bono? paralyzed everything. That fatal

d sol

ed and asked

ase me? what m

urdened with c

from a wor

are burdene

re sown wi

hand of a pri

at in sin

I dread the d

e: I repin

: they darken t

: I'm in na

k wisdom; the

; but I shake

ld covet a sc

in this life

his? It is a loose tran

said Father Letheb

c, or sententious

Latin?"

I suc

rd his name be

aid he emp

d and r

you were a great Greek scholar, an

the best Greek scholar in Ireland, with the ex

sly into a fit of laughter, the likes of which

s Lordship's classical attainments

n a slated, one-storied cottage in the heart of the village. It was humb