Art, go an' help Tom Droogan to bring out the horses.
Rise your foot here, father, an' I'll put on your spur for you. We
may as well spake to Mr. Fethertonge, the agent, about the leases. I
promised we'd call on Gerald Cavanagh, to--an' he'll be waitin' for
us--hem!"
His eye here glanced about, but Dora was not visible, and he accordingly
seemed to be more at his ease. "I think, father," he added, "I must
trate you to a pair of spurs some of these days. This one, it's clear,
has been a long time in the family."
"Throth, an' on that account," replied M'Mahon, "I'm not goin' to part
wid it for the best pair that ever were made. No, no, Bryan; I like
everything that I've known long. When my heart gets accustomed to
anything or to anybody"--here he glanced affectionately at his wife--"I
can't bear to part wid them, or to think of partin' wid them."
The horses were now ready, and in a brief space he and his son were
decently mounted, the latter smartly but not inappropriately dressed;
and M'Mahon himself, with his right spur, in a sober but comfortable
suit, over which was a huge Jock, his inseparable companion in every
fair, market, and other public place, during the whole year. Indeed, it
would not be easy to find two better representatives of that respectable
and independent class of Irish yeomanry of which our unfortunate country
stands so much in need, as was this man of high integrity and his
excellent son.
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