Hugh found Gallagher's cunning malignity harder to endure than the harsh cruelty of his uncle. The boy's clear instinct told him that Gallagher was a bad man, but sometimes his pent-up heart would overflow to the one human being near him in his working hours. When Gallagher had got all the secrets of the boy from him, he would denounce him to Welsh in such a way as to best stir up his cruelty; or he would mock at Hugh's rags, and tell him that all of his evils had come upon him because of his father's sins, assuring him that the Devil would carry him away from the barn some night, as he had often taken bad men's sons before. The cruelties practised upon the boy were Gallagher's base revenge for the whippings formerly administered to him by Hugh's father. Every means that cunning could devise was employed to render the boy's life miserable. He would purloin eggs, break the farming-tools, and maim the cattle in order to have him beaten by his uncle, a ceremony which he always managed to witness. CHAPTER IV. ESCAPE FROM CAPTIVITY. Nothing in Ireland is supposed to test a man's honesty so severely as a bog lying contiguous to his own land. "If a man escape with honor as a trustee, try him with a bit of bog," is an Irish proverb. This temptation had come in Welsh's way when a sub-agent. He had robbed the Brontës of their farm, why should he hesitate to add a slice of bog to it? The owner was known as an objectionable tenant who had dared to vote contrary to his landlord, and there was not likely to be any trouble, for the bog was of little use to anybody, all of the turf having been removed, leaving only a swamp covered with star-grass, and tenanted by water-hen, coots and snipe. The agent agreed to let Welsh have his neighbor's bog for a consideration. Welsh paid the sum demanded, but the tenant, being a cantankerous person, did not fall in pleasantly with this arrangement. Difficulties were raised. The plundering of the Brontës had been watched by their neighbors with sullen indignation, but, when it became known that the sub-agent was about to grasp the property of another farmer, the smouldering fire burst into a conflagration. At this crisis, the agent was murdered, and Welsh's house was burnt to the ground. The ownership of the bog now remained for a long time in a doubtful condition. Welsh lost his official position, and for years the new agent gave promises to both claimants, and accepted presents from both. The landlord would of course decide the matter upon his return to Ireland, but, in the meantime, both paid rent for the bog and then fought for the useless star-grass.