For two years things went on prosperously; but at the end of that time the lease expired through the failure of the last life on which it depended. This was a sudden and unlooked-for event; but as they had been regular tenants, they had never doubted for a moment that they would get their lease renewed. In this, however, the poor creatures were mistaken, for when Frank called on the agent, he found that unless he could raise twenty pounds in cash, to give by way of fine, the farm would be given to some person who would give it. Sorrowful enough he returned home, and communicated this intelligence to his mother and sisters, who were thunderstruck; for raising twenty pounds in cash was out of the question. Many plans were thought of, but none fully answered the purpose, for when all their efforts were exerted, they were only able to raise twelve pounds out of the twenty. The day on which Frank was to give in his answer was fast approaching, and as a last resource, it was determined that he should apply for the loan of the required sum to a gentleman, a friend of his father’s, who lived in an adjacent village; unluckily for poor Frank, when he went there, the gentleman was in Dublin, and was not expected home for a month. Depressed and melancholy, he was returning home, not knowing what to do, when he met a recruiting party beating up through the town. The thought struck him instantly that he might raise the necessary sum by enlisting, and acting from the impulse of the moment, without nicely weighing the consequences, he took the king’s money; and after he got his bounty, went and took up the lease. He had never mentioned the affair to his mother, and she believed that the money was received from his father’s friend. The truth, however, could not be long concealed, for the sergeant came out to inform him that he had orders to send his recruits to head-quarters, and it would be necessary for him to be in readiness to leave home in three days. He was, therefore, obliged to disclose what he had done to his mother. It was dreadful news to the poor woman, for, independent of her great affection for him, he was her principal dependence in cultivating the farm. ‘What use can the lease be to us,’ said she, ‘when we have nobody to mind it?’ Frank felt the truth of what she said; but he endeavoured to console her by saying, that as Tim Brachnie, their neighbour, was on the point of marrying his elder sister Sally, they would not miss him, for Tim was well able to manage the land. As for himself, he was happy at having it in his power to secure a living to the friends he loved so much, and he was sure that he would agree better with the life of a soldier than labouring at home; he might soon rise to be a sergeant, perhaps make his fortune in the East Indies, and come home and make them all happy.