“Throth, hard enough we found it, sir, to do that same: but sure, whether or not, my Lord, we couldn't be sich nagers as to let him die all out, for want o' sometlrm' to moisten his throath wid.” “I hope,” inquired the other, “you had nothing to do in the milk-stealing which has produced such an outcry in this immediate neighborhood?” “Milk-stalin'! Oh, bedad, sir, there never was the likes known afore in the caunthry. The Lord forgive them, that did it! Be gorra, sir, the wickedness o' the people': mighty improving if one 'ud take warnin' by it, glory be to God!” “Many of the fanners' cows have been milked at night, Connor--perfectly drained. Even my own cows have not escaped; and we who have suffered are certainly determined, if possible, to ascertain those who have committed the theft. I, for my part, have gone even beyond my ability in relieving the wants of the poor, during this period of sickness and famine; I therefore deserved this the less.” “By the powdbers, your honor, if any gintleman desarved to have his cows _unmilked_, it's yourself. But, as I said this minute, there's no end to the wickedness o' the people, so there's not, although the Catechiz is against them; for, says it, 'there is but one Faith, one Church, an' one Baptism.' Now, sir, isn't it quare that people, wid sich words in the book afore them, won't be guided by it? I suppose they thought it only a _white_ sin, sir, to take the milk, the thieves o' the world.” “Maybe, your honor,” said another, “that it was only to keep the life in some poor sick crathur that wanted it more nor you or the farmers, that they did it. There's some o' the same farmers desarve worse, for they're keepin' up the prices o' their male and praties upon the poor, an' did so all along, that they might make money by our outlier destitution.” “That is no justification for theft,” observed the graver of the two. “Does any one among you suspect those who committed it in this instance? If you do, I command you, as your Bishop, to mention them.” “How, for instance,” added the other, “were you able to supply this sick boy with whey during his illness?” “Oh thin, gintlemen,” replied Connor, dexterously parrying the question, “but it's a mighty improvin' thing to see our own Bishop,--God spare his Lordship to us!--an the Protestant minister o' the parish joinin' together to relieve an' give good advice to the poor! Bedad, it's settin' a fine example, so it is, to the Quality, if they'd take patthern by it.” “Reply,” said the Bishop, rather sternly, “to the questions we have asked you.” “The quistions, your Lordship? It's proud an' happy we'd be to do what you want; but the sarra man among us can do it, barin' we'd say what we ought not to say. That's the thruth, my Lord; an' surely 'tisn't your Gracious Reverence that 'ud want us to go beyant that?”