Another of Mrs. Magovern's occasional visitors was Old Haley, who had regular employment upon our own place. Like Mike Quinlan, he rejoiced in a wife who was an ornament to her sex--a most respectable, handsome and intelligent woman, though education had done little to sharpen her wits or widen her experience. She could tell a one from a five dollar bill, as her husband would proudly inform you, and she could cook a dinner, do up a skirt or a frilled cap, keep a house or tend a sick friend, as well as any woman in the land. "Maggie's a janeous!" her husband would remark with a look of intense admiration. One evening Mrs. Haley made her appearance at our house, asking for an audience of my mother. The object was to inform her--these sympathetic people like to be advised in all their affairs--that being in need of various household supplies she proposed on the following day to go to the city and purchase them at the Washington Market. "I suppose you have been to the city before, Mrs. Haley?" remarked my mother. "I have not, ma'am," said Mrs. Haley. "Had you not better take some friend with you who has been there before, lest you should get lost?" "Faith, I had, ma'am: I had a right to have moor sinse an' think o' that." So Mrs. Haley departed, returning again in company with Mary Magovern: "Here's Mary Magovern, ma'am: she's goin' along wid me." "Ah, that's very well.--You know the city, Mary? you've been there?" "I have not, ma'am." "Why, what, then, is the use of your going with Mrs. Haley?" "We'll make a shtrict inquiry, ma'am." The next morning they started, and at four o'clock Old Haley came in much anxiety of mind to seek comfort of my mother: "Maggie's not come, ma'am. Faith, I'm throubled, for the city is a quare place." When it grew late Haley returned again and again, in ever-increasing anxiety, to be reassured. At last, when the family were retiring to bed, came Mrs. Haley and Mrs. Magovern to report their arrival. In spite of the lateness of the hour my mother received them, and in spite of their wearied and worn faces administered a gentle rebuke for the anxiety that Mrs. Haley had caused her spouse.