"And so you may, Charlotte," said her husband. "I'm sure Gahan, with all his odd ways, is too sensible a fellow not to know how much it would be for his child's benefit to be brought up and educated by us, and the boy would be an amusement to us in this lonely house. I'll speak to him about it before he goes home. Billy, my fine fellow, come here," he continued, "jump up on my knee, and tell me if you'd like to live here always and learn to read and write." "I would, sir, if I could be with father, too." "So you shall; and what about old Peggy?" The child paused. "I like to give her a pen'north of snuff and a piece of tobacco every week, for she said the other day that _that_ would make her quite happy." Mr. Hewson laughed, and Billy prattled on, still seated on his knee; when a noise of footsteps on the ground, mingled with low suppressed talking, was heard outside. "James, listen! there's the noise again." It was now nearly dark, but Mr. Hewson, still holding the boy in his arms, walked toward the window and looked out. "I can see nothing," he said; "stay, there are figures moving off among the trees, and a man running round to the back of the house--very like Gahan he is, too." Seizing the bell-rope, he rang it loudly, and said to the servant who answered his summons, "Fasten the shutters and put up the bars, Connell; and then tell Gahan I want to see him." The man obeyed; candles were brought, and Gahan entered the room. Mr. Hewson remarked that, though his cheeks were flushed, his lips were very white, and his bold dark eyes were cast on the ground. "What took you round the house just now, Tim?" asked his master, in a careless manner. "What took me round the house, is it? Why, then, nothing in life, sir, but that just as I went outside the kitchen door to take a smoke, I saw the pigs, that Shaneen forgot to put up in their stye, making right for the mistress's flower-garden; so I just put my _dudheen_, lighted as it was, into my pocket, and ran after them. I caught them on the grand walk under the end window, and, indeed, ma'am, I had my own share of work turning them back to their proper spear." Gahan spoke with unusual volubility, but without raising his eyes from the ground. "Who were the people," asked his master, "whom I saw moving through the western grove?" "People! your honor--not a sign of any people moving there, I'll be bound, barring the pigs." "Then," said Mr. Hewson, smiling, to his wife, "the miracle of Circe must have been reversed, and swine turned into men; for, undoubtedly, the dark figures I saw were human beings." "Come, Billy," said Gahan, anxious to turn the conversation, "will you come home with me now? I am sure 'twas very good of the mistress to give you all them fine apples." Mrs. Hewson was going to propose Billy's remaining, but her husband whispered, "Wait till to-morrow." So Gahan and his child were allowed to depart.