It would indeed be difficult to find together such a group of happy
faces. Gerald Cavanagh and his wife, Tom M'Mahon and his better
half, and several of the neighbors, of every age and creed, were all
assembled; and, in this instance, neither gray hairs nor length of years
were looked upon as privileged from a participation in the festivities
of the evening. Among the rest, gaunt and grim, were the three Hogans,
looking through the light-hearted assemblage with the dark and sinister
visages of thorough ruffians, who were altogether incapable of joining
in the cheerful and inoffensive amusements that went forward around
them. Kate Hogan sat in an obscure corner behind the fiddler, where
she was scarcely visible, but from which she enjoyed a full view of
everything that occurred in the house.
A shebeen-man, named Parra Bradagh, father to Barney, whom the reader
has already met in the still-house, brought a cask of poteen to the
stable, where he disposed of it _sub silentio_, by which we mean without
the knowledge of Gerald Cavanagh, who would not have suffered any such
person about his place, had the circumstance been made known to him.
Among the rest, in the course of the evening, our friend O'Finigan the
Philomath made his appearance, and as was his wont very considerably
advanced in liquor.
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