“Yes, you gave me sixty,” said honest Jemmy, “but can’t I write and read, and isn’t all these bills made out by myself? and did I not set down all the time I worked? and sure I am that forty dollars is all I earned any how. There’s the twenty dollars, and they’re none of mine; but to be shared wid my two little boys—shame on me for spaking of my own first, and Bonny Betty’s little Ben, to say nothing of Petey and Ody Oram, them two good little fellows. When I could not work, your honour, they all fell to, and my little garding looked none the worse, I can tell you.” Sammy Oram came next—he could not bear to work next to Betty, so good natured Jemmy changed with him; and Sammy, after that, plucked up heart a little, offered himself to Lizzy Conolly, got married, and really improved wonderfully, for Lizzy was cheerful, and his children became very fond of her. He had forty dollars likewise. “And now, your honour, here’s my earnings, your honour,” said Bonny Betty, stepping forward with five healthy children at her side—poor little Christie having died about two weeks before. “Here is my money,” and she opened a little box, counting out one hundred and ten dollars, all in silver. “I’m thankful” said Larry, “that she’ll get the premium, any how.” “No, I’ve not earned all this money by my garden,” said honest Betty, “but by selling for the rest—I had that chance over ye all. If I could rightly tell how much I made by selling for you, you’d find I may be would be a great deal behind you all.” “I see, my friends,” said Mr. Price, “that it is difficult to tell which has made the most. I shall not give the premium to any one in particular. You have all done well. David Conolly is, certainly, most to be praised, because he has broken himself of an accursed vice.”—“I’ll never drink a drop, your honour, from this hour,” said David—“The boys,” continued Mr. Price—“but I dare not trust myself to speak of them—the gentlemen present will take care that they shall always have the best wages and the best places in their gift; they deserve it well; and, as I thought they would behave exactly as they have done, I have brought them each something suited to their present wants. As to you, Bonny Betty—seeing that you are a woman, by rights I ought to distinguish you beyond the others. You shall have your shanty and lot rent free; the rest shall pay into the hands of Daniel M’Leary ten dollars each, for the next year. I shall charge them nothing now. The gardens will be better, as the raspberries and strawberries will be ready for sale; and the year after, the asparagus will be large enough to cut. I shall then build a small market-house, and place Mr. M’Leary at the head of it. Make way there, Larry, and let the packages from the wagon be brought in.”