by anonymous

“ This Bible that he frets about, what is it, Norah?"
"It's God's truth, mother, that he has given to teach us all; and a brave book it is. Father M'Clane has one himself; and what frets him is, that the heretics, as he calls them, can read it for themselves and find out God's will; for only the praste has it with us."
"Well, then, an' the praste tells us the same, it saves us a world o' bother, shure."
"But if the praste is not a good man, he can tell us whatever he likes; and how do we know what is God's Word? ”

“ She knew that she was hastening to a better land, even a heavenly; and she strove to improve every moment of the time that remained, in efforts to give stability to Annorah's religious feelings. Many were the conversations that they had together on the condition of the poor Irish people, and countless almost were the directions that Annorah received in regard to the best methods of winning their love and confidence. Young as she was, Annie had learned that all efforts to benefit the unfortunate or ignorant are vain so long as the cold shoulder is turned towards them. ”

“ Annorah saw the shadow raise its hand threateningly. "No, indade. Where's the use o' telling all ye know to an ould creature like him? Doesn't the blessed Book say that no man can come to the Father but only through Jesus Christ? An' shure, the great Father in heaven is angered to see me kneel down before that biggest o' scamps, when I should be praying to himself. I'll do it no more."
"I am glad to hear you say so, Annorah; I do so hope," said Annie, as the affectionate tears stole down her thin cheek, "that you are beginning to learn in the school of Christ. ”

“ There were not wanting those who pitied their low estate, and who would have sincerely rejoiced in their elevation; but until poor invalid Annie Lee began to instruct Annorah, no one had dreamed of winning them, by self-sacrifice and kindness, to a knowledge of the truth. Annie herself, while patiently explaining over and over again what seemed to her as simple and plain as possible, little imagined the glorious results that were indirectly to grow out of her feeble efforts. But God watches the least attempt to do good, and fosters the tiniest seed sown ”

“ It quiets the bad temper into perfect peace; and I love, as I never dreamed of doing before, all my friends and enemies too. It's little I know yet, Phelim, but all the gould in the world, and all the world's hate too, shall not hinder me from learning more o' God's wonderful way to save sinners. ”

“ O’er the land of the freed and the home of the brave.
Oh, such is the welcome the Southron bestows
On the minions who strive to make slaves of a nation,
We’ve a hand for our friends but the sword for our foes,
And the charge of our soldiers in fierce exultation;
Then again to the fight,
And God for the right,
And the Northmen shall shrink from our warrior’s might,
And the flag of secession in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the freed, but the home of the brave. ”

“ Now, mother, in all God's Word there is never a bit about confessing to a praste, but a great deal about praying and confessing to God himself. But, you see, if all our people knew that same, sorra a bit o' money would go to the praste's pocket in comparison to what he gets now. It's that, mother dear, that makes him so afraid we shall learn. He can't get the money from those who can read God's Word for themselves. ”

“ Ye've tried it yerself, father, and so ye know."
"It's a black heart ye have," said the priest, whose courage was hardly equal to his anger, and whose valour speedily cooled before resolute opposition. "It's blacker than ink ye are, Biddy Dillon, with the wicked heresy."
Like most Irish women, Biddy was well skilled in the art of scolding, and among her neighbours was considered rather more expert in the business than themselves. When angry, abusive epithets seemed to fall as naturally from her tongue as expressions of endearment when she was pleased. ”

“ All you who, though freemen, yet dare to be free,
Spite of tyrants and slaves, come and listen to me;
I sing how Conservative roguery mocks
All your honest intents by a Bribery Box.
⁠Derry down, down,
⁠down, derry down.
Independent and virtuous, you set at defiance
Dictation and bribes; with the strongest reliance
On victory, you went to the charge firm as rocks,
When the enemy set up a Bribery Box. ”

“ Everybody is invited to pray straight up to God himself."
The girl's downright heresy, and her contempt for the mummeries of the Romish communion, troubled her mother. But what could she do? The change for the better in the child's temper had prepared her to look favourably upon the change in her religion. She listened to Annorah's continued account of what she had learned from the Bible with the greatest interest, feeling every moment more and more disposed to accept its teaching, and less and less disposed to blindly submit to the priest. ”

“ It's a nation o' throuble I'd have with a pair o' ye at once; and ye're no earning money, Phelim, boy, to buy off the praste. Kape a still tongue, lad, an' ye bite it in two; an' don't go for to meddle wi' matters concerning yer sowl. The praste an' yer poor mother will kape a sharp look-out; an' it will go hard, shure, if between us ye are not saved at last."
"But, mother, where is the harm if I look for meself a bit? Who can see Norah, so gentle and loving, so careful o' you and me, so pleasant to every one, and not want to know more o' the way she has taken?" ”

“ Lee to Annorah, when, after an unusually restless and painful day, Annie had fallen asleep at last, and both left the room to breathe the fresh evening air. "When the weather gets settled so that she can let you draw her little carriage down by the mill-stream again, she will brighten up and get stronger. It is enough to make a well person ill, to be shut up so long." ”

“ I'll fight them all with pleasure—more especially the praste."
"But fighting is not the way to make them think well of the religion of Jesus. He was mild and gentle, patient under abuse and persecution; and he must be your pattern, if you desire to please God. You must pray to him, Annorah, for a new heart, so that none of these angry feelings will trouble you."
"Is it the new heart, miss, that makes you so sweet and patient?"
"If I have any goodness, Annorah, it is because God has changed my old heart, and made it better. It is his grace that enables me to suffer without complaining ”

“ Instead of being the industrious, ambitious, wide-awake boy of one year ago, he is now idle, careless, apathetic, enjoying nothing as much as what he calls a good smoke with some one as dull as himself. ”

“ Lee left them, and went down-stairs with a better opinion of the rough Irish girl than she had thought it possible to entertain an hour previous.
Left by themselves, the two girls began to form an acquaintance with each other. Two persons more unlike could not have been brought together. Annorah was evidently much interested in her young charge, and felt the most unbounded sympathy in her sufferings. Annie spoke first.
"Please draw my couch nearer the window, Annorah. That will do. Now, sit down on this low stool, and tell me how long it is since you left Ireland." ”

“ Now mind, once for all; ye're not to know it at all, if Norah brings home the Word o' the Lord to read to her ould ignorant mother (it's a swate voice she has) , and ye shall hear the big Book as well; only mind, Phelim, acushla, ye're to know nothing at all, let who will spake to ye o' the same."
"Yes; but, mother, what if I myself learn to--"
"Hush!--Is it o' me ye are spaking?" asked Biddy, turning to a cluster of people who had drawn near them. "It's no hearty I feel to-night, and poor lame Phelim is kaping me company. Is it room for the dance ye are wanting? ”

“ Annorah had lately added to her Scripture reading, "Kirwan's Letters to Archbishop Hughes." She read it to her mother whenever a spare hour enabled her to run home. Biddy had been greatly interested in the appeals and arguments of her talented countryman, and deeply impressed by his life-like delineation of the follies and superstitions of the Romish ritual.
"It's rasonable he is intirely," she said, "and a bright son o' the ould counthree, blessin's on it! It's him who spakes well o' the poor ruined crathers, and praises us all for the natural generous-sowled people we are. ”

“ We say this would be but fair, because the Tories, with as little reason, have a thousand times demanded, "What good has the Reform Bill done?"—knowing, full well, that no benefit could possibly result from that measure until a Parliament, chosen under the new system, had been elected, and that, even then, the results could only be slowly developed. But the effects of the dominance of Toryism, in our city, come more rapidly. ”

“ Sorra a bit do the most o' them care what becomes o' the sowl, an' the work be done to their liking. Our Lady be praised! it's to the far counthrees that the Protestant missionaries are sent, and the silver is given; for one-half o' the pains taken wi' the poor crathurs who work in their kitchens would have ruined us all."
"Yer riverence spakes thrue, to be shure," said Biddy; "but for all that, it will never be a bit o' use to thry to make a good Catholic o' Norah, now that she can read the big books and talk so bravely herself. ”

“ Nicotine poisoning shows itself in many forms, and often is not so quickly visible as in the cases I have mentioned; but you may be sure it is a viper that never forgets to bite. Like the alcohol curse there is no safety save in total abstinence from tobacco using. ”

“ What will become o' us then?"
"What can a wicked ould praste do to help us? It's God alone can strengthen us then. I wouldn't give a penny for the oil. It's a betther way, darlin', that God has provided for us. It's a brave story that Phelim is waiting to read to us. There's thruth and sense in it, too, ye will find.--It's a fine counthree is this, Masther Barry, and a free," added Biddy, turning to a stout man, who, with scarcely a whole article in his apparel, was lounging in the shade of a corner. ”

“ I thought the Irish people were too generous to act so low a part."
"An' so we are, shure. Sorra a bit will the praste get from me about you here."
"If he were a good man, a noble, honourable man," said Annie, "do you think he would ask you—"
"He's the praste!" interrupted Annorah, her eyes flashing; "the praste, is Father M'Clane. An' ye mind to spake well o' him, it's nought I've to say; an' the tongue is a heretic's that would spake ill o' him, and he laving the ould counthree to stay for our good in this haythen land. ”

“ But mayhap he will not be so willing to look upon me."
"In his holy Book we read that he is no respecter of persons, and that whosoever cometh unto him he will in no wise cast out."
"Why, then, I can coom as soon as the grandest. How shall I coom?" ”

“ It's a could night to be out wi' an empty stoomach."
"Stay till the morning, father," said Biddy, coming up to him with an anxious face; "we cannot kape peace an' ye do not bide wi' us; the frolic will be all the better an' ye stay to the orderin' o' it,--and the best bed is waitin' yer riverence's convanience. There's Sandy and Mike will fight an' ye lave, and Katy there is ready to tear out the eyes o' big Nelly Murphy. It's quarrelling they've been the whole blessed day. ”

“ Purpose Provides a link to Portal:Anonymous texts which lessens the opportunity to create wikilink to a separate Author page for Anonymous.
Note: While it could be used for the translator field, better options exist for handling unknown or unrecorded translators. ”

“ Master and Man.—When the freemen in the employ of a certain coppersmith, in this city, came up to the booth opposite the Bell-avenue, on the second day of the poll, to tender their votes for Vyvyan and Baillie, the first who voted, on being thanked on behalf of those gentlemen, replied, "Don't thank me, Sir! you should thank my employer: I vote against my will, and so do my shopmates"!!! Another of the party actually shed tears on giving his vote. ”

“ She was not quite so easily terrified by priestly wrath and authority as she had been in her own country; for she had the sense to know that the ghostly father's malediction did not, as in Ireland, entail a long course of temporal misfortunes upon the poor victims of his displeasure. ”

“ Sorra a hap'orth to spare will I find; it's no me two hands alone can find bread for the mouths o' all, and--"
"Stuff and nonsense!" interrupted the priest; "there's many another place can be had for a sthrong, likely lass like her. Good servants are not over plenty, and she can be better placed." ”

“ Och, but it was a sore time o' grief whin sorra a mouthful were left for the bit childer and the ould people who were weak before wi' ould age! In the worst time o' all, whin the need was the sorest, our Bessie got into disgrace, and came home from service wi' niver a penny to help herself or us. There was nought to do and nought to eat at all. The neighbours were faint wi' the hoonger; and so, before the worst came, we left all that was dear and came here."
"How many of you came, Annorah?" ”

“ The moon was up, and he could plainly see the traces of tears on her cheek, and the sad but loving expression of her eyes as she returned his gaze.
"An' it's the Protestant religion that makes you so good and kind, Norah," he said at length ”

“ One of the worthy farmers residing there, it appears, was especially worried to death by boreders [sic] . — They found fault with his table — this thing was bad and wasn't fit to eat — and at last the old fellow got so tired of trying to please them, that he undertook as the last resource to reason the matter with them.
"Darn it," said old Isaac, one day, "what a fuss you're making; I can eat anything." "Can you eat crow?" ”

“ During the summer vacation three boys but little older than you, began smoking them. Before the fall term of school ended two were obliged to leave, Charlie having convulsions, and Edward, sore throat, both caused by tobacco poisoning, the doctors said. A few weeks later Charlie died; while Edward, in spite of the most skilful care and nursing that love and money could supply only lingered till early spring. ”

“ The wealthy owners of the iron-works and factories in the vicinity were glad to secure their labour, because of its cheapness, and never troubled themselves about an occasional noise, if the general interests of their business were not neglected. ”

“ They are, unhappily, not quite in accordance with the delusion held forth; on the contrary, they furnish a proof that that delusion never will be realised, and that the insolence of the Tory faction, inflated by its late success, is calculated rather to drive property away from the city, than to extend its commercial intercourse. ”