“And what will this land be to you, Paddy dear, but a land of strangers—no mother, no father, no sister nor brother in it? Where’ll be the hearth side that you’ll find a home at? Come, brother, with the rest of us, where father will lift up his head again and mother be happy!” “Amen to their happiness, Ellen, and yours too. Go your ways without me. Sure I’ve given my word on it, and must tarry to take care of my _own home_, sister dear.” “Is it _that_ you mean!” cried Ellen, starting back indignant. “And shall we plough the seas while you cling to _her_ apron-string! Will you be as easy in your undutiful bed, while the mother that bore you is tossed on the ocean, and the sister that toiled for you is down, down in the deep sea, maybe? Oh, Patrick! by the days of your wee, wee childhood, come along with us now. Is it thus, selfish as you are, that you lose all natural affection? Didn’t the clargy tell us, only Sunday was a week, to honor father and mother?” “Thrue for you, Ellen. But who would be our father and mother, if our father had not left his father and mother to clave to his wife? Oh, go along with you, Ellen, to break my heart so, and my word of words given to Norah that I will stay with her and cherish her—for better for worse!” Ellen said no more. Patrick did not re-enter the house, but proceeded homeward—to the place which was now doubly home to him, since the home of his childhood was about to be broken up. But the efforts of his mother to change his determination did not cease, and many a half-altercation he had with his family in his now frequent visits. Still, though strongly tempted to yield, he never would give full consent, and the sight of Norah reassured him in his resistance. The few weeks that remained between the fixing upon the purpose of emigration and the day of departure, were a long, long time to Patrick, and a season of sad trouble; and he could not speak with freedom to any of his distress. Norah was high-spirited, and the bare suspicion of the manner in which her name was bandied, and her love for Patrick all but cursed at the house of his father, would have led her to forbid Patrick ever to speak on the subject to her again. With slow reluctance the family gave way to Patrick’s resolute determination, and ceasing unkind reproaches, loaded him with tenderness, that much more affected his determined spirit. The day of parting came at last, and Norah herself proposed that she should accompany her betrothed to take leave of his kindred. It was a dangerous thing for him to suffer, Patrick knew; but how could he avoid it? And what would he have thought of her, too, had she not proposed it?