Upon the evening of the day on which he terminated his journey, twilight was nearly falling; the town in which he intended to stop for the night was not a quarter of a mile before him, yet he was scarcely able to reach it; his short, yielding steps were evidently those of a young and fatigued traveller: his brow was moist with perspiration: he had just begun, too, to consider in what manner he should introduce himself to the master who taught the school at which he had been advised to stop, when he heard a step behind him, and on looking back, he discovered a tall, well-made, ruddy-faced young man, dressed in black, with a book in his hand, walking after him. “_Unde et quo viator?_” said the stranger, on coming up to him. “Oh, sir,” replied Jemmy, “I have not Latin _yet_.” “You are on your way to seek it, however,” replied the other. “Have you travelled far?” “A long way, indeed, sir; I came from the County ------, sir--the upper part of it.” “Have you letters from your parish priest?” “I have, sir, and one from my father's landlord, Square Benson, if you ever heard of him.” “What's your object in learning Latin?” “To be a priest, wid the help o' God; an' to rise my poor father an' mother out of their poverty.” His companion, after hearing this reply, bent a glance upon him, that indicated the awakening of an interest in the lad much greater than he probably otherwise would have felt. “It's only of late,” continued the boy, “that my father an' mother got poor; they were once very well to do in the world. But they were put out o' their farm in ordher that the agint might put a man that had married a _get_ (* A term implying illegitimacy) of his own into it. My father intended to lay his case before Colonel B------, the landlord; but he couldn't see him at all, bekase he never comes near the estate. The agint's called Yallow Sam, sir; he's rich through cheatery an' dishonesty; puts money out at intherest, then goes to law, an' brakes the people entirely; for, somehow, he never was known to lose a lawsuit at all, sir. They say it's the divil, sir, that keeps the lawyers on his side; an' that when he an' the lawyers do be dhrawin' up their writins, the devil--God betune me an' harm!--does be helpin' them!” “And is Colonel B------ actually--or, rather, was he your father's landlord?” “He was, indeed, sir; it's thruth I'm tellin' you.” “Singular enough! Stand beside me here--do you see that large house to the right among the trees?” “I do, sir; a great big house, entirely--like a castle, sir.” “The same. Well, that house belongs to Colonel B------, and I am very intimate with him. I am Catholic curate of this parish; and I was, before my ordination, private tutor in his family for four years.” “Maybe, sir, you might have intherest to get my father back into his farm?”