There was no confiding twinkle in his eye,
no contented munching of his little fists. He gazed up at me with
wild alarm, and as I drove out of the gate, he burst forth into
such a yell that Lord Edward came bounding around the house to see
what was the matter. Euphemia suddenly appeared at an upper window
and called out to me, but I did not hear what she said. I whipped
up the horse and we sped along to New Dublin. Pat soon stopped
crying, but he looked at me with a tear-stained and reproachful
visage.
The good women of the settlement were surprised to see little Pat
return so soon.
"An' wasn't he good?" said Mrs. Hogan as she took him from my
hands.
"Oh, yes!" I said. "He was as good as he could be. But I have no
further need of him."
I might have been called upon to explain this statement, had not
the whole party of women, who stood around burst into wild
expressions of delight at Pat's beautiful clothes.
"Oh! jist look at 'em!" cried Mrs. Duffy. "An' see thim leetle
pittycoots, thrimmed wid lace! Oh, an' it was good in ye, sir, to
give him all thim, an' pay the foive dollars, too."
"An' I'm glad he's back," said the fostering aunt, "for I was a
coomin' over to till ye that I've been hearin' from owle Pat, his
dad, an' he's a coomin' back from the moines, and I don't know what
he'd a' said if he'd found his leetle Pat was rinted. But if ye
iver want to borry him, for a whoile, after owle Pat's gone back,
ye kin have him, rint-free; an' it's much obloiged I am to ye, sir,
fur dressin' him so foine.
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