Thady Gallagher had not yet been paid for printing the green posters. But he had every hope he would be when Mr. Billing handed over his subscription to the statue fund. He felt, it right to do all in his power to encourage Mr. Billing. Doyle, on the other hand, was becoming despondent. He did not like to see money which ought to be his frittered away on posters and the other necessary expenses of a public meeting. He was much less inclined to admire, the doctor’s enterprise. “I guess,” said Mr. Billing, “that these Congressmen will draw some.” “If you mean the Members of Parliament,” said Doyle, “the doctor told me this morning that they said they’d more to do than to be attending his meetings.” “It could be,” said Gallagher hopefully, “that one of them might.” “They will not,” said Doyle. “We’ll do without them,” said Mr. Billing. “That’s what the doctor said to me,” said Gallagher. “‘We’ll do without them, Thady,’ said he, ‘so long as we have Mr. Billing and Father McCormack and yourself,’ meaning me, ‘we’ll have a good meeting if there never was a Member of Parliament near it.’ And that’s true too.” “If the doctor,” said Doyle, “would pay what he owes instead of wasting his time over public meetings and statues and the like it would be better. Not that I’d say a word against the statue, or, for the matter of that, against the doctor, who’s well liked in the town by all classes.” The Tuesday fixed for the meeting was a well chosen day. It was the occasion of one of the largest fairs held in Ballymoy during the year. The country people, small farmers and their wives, flock into the town whenever there is a fair. The streets are thronged with cattle lowing miserably. “Buyers,” men whose business it is to carry the half-fed Connacht beasts to the fattening pastures of Meath and Kildare, assemble in large numbers and haggle over prices from early dawn till noon. No better occasion for the exploitation of a cause could possibly be chosen. And three o’clock was a very good hour. By that time the business of the fair is well over. The buying and selling is finished. But no one has gone home, and no one is more than partially drunk. It is safe to expect that everybody will welcome the entertainment that a meeting affords during the dull time which must intervene between the finishing of the day’s business and the weary journey home.