ing gentry; and it is chiefly the upper class who would be for some time the supporters of the co-operative shop. Their example might gradually set the fashion of short accounts and pure groceries. All this is serious good work, though it is unpretending, and it is good for rich and poor in its reality. The brilliant secretary, it is true, cannot always repress her wit. When required to draw up rules and advertisements she breaks into poetry and art. Sugar was announced in the shop by a picture of two enormous loaves between which a child sat in ecstatic joy. A vast teapot advertised tea, while the head of Queen Elizabeth in a ruff of the period suggested starch. A bee and an ant of large dimensions illustrated the rules of work, but the artist was a trifle discouraged by an inquiry what the "cock roach" was meant to symbolise, her industrious ant having failed to explain itself to the un-entomological natives. And with all their sense of humour the Irish are inclined to resent aught like child's play, for to them life is grave enough, and they are sensitive on many points that require a nice tact to avoid. For nine years, however, the K. D. S. has done sound and earnest work. It is no light thing to influence the women in about fifty families towards self-respect. To give them work in winter time is an excellent charity, but to teach them how to do that work is yet better; and that such work should be of a kind unaffected by fashion and specially useful in home economy, is its best recommendation. The K. D. S. sticks to sound principles, and its progress has been very sure if not so rapidly brilliant as some lace-making and embroidery schools. A notable improvement has taken place in the manners of the Dorcas women. At first the committee had to bear occasional rough language and very unpleasant elbowing, while once or twice tipsey women appeared on the scene, for it is the very poorest and lowest that the Society invite to their house. But now there is seldom any attempt to break the by-laws and the members are ready to follow advice about their dropped stitches or untidy hems, and even to feel legitimate pride in a good deposit of money.

It would be affectation to say that a certain distrust and dislike of order and punctuality does not exist among both administrators and administratees; but good that is good has been done, and if no serious change occur in the elements of the committee, the work is likely to take root downwards and spread goodly branches upwards.

One of its offshoots, among others that I have not mentioned, is a humble flower-show, in which the poorer members are invited to compete. Each must produce three plants in pots that have been in her possession for six months. Prizes are also given for bouquets of wild flowers, in which considerable taste and knowledge of the neighbouring flora are shown.

The reader will think that the little income of the Charity, which is "passing rich on forty pounds a-year," is not ill applied; but the treasurer is sanguine of still greater things. With more orders from the outer world for its work-for instance from ladies charitably disposed for its poor clothes-with a better trade for its shop, the K.D.S. may become entirely self-supporting as to money.

But whether equally wise and energetic successors will be found for the actual committee is another thing. Meantime their attempt to

do good on wider principles and with larger aims than usual deserves mention. It need hardly be said that it is quite unsectarian, and Catholic and Protestant unite in the work. But, while we confess that no work is likely to prosper in Ireland that does not perfectly accord with the spiritual virtues of the nation, yet from various causes the practical qualities of character which improve the homes and so secure the national stability of a people need cultivation, and that may best be done by their social superiors. Many impediments have hitherto reversed the right action of society in Ireland. The effort I have sketched is on a small scale, but it should be matter of congratulation that it has been so far successful in a village of the common type, and one possessed of an absentee landlord, as well as of other Irish disabilities. To do good that does not harm the receiver, is a troublesome enigma now-a-days. Lessons in kindly sympathy and prudence are more needed by rich and poor than any amount of booklearning, and for these lessons the village system is better than any "national system" of education.

Above all, that the upper class should persevere, take personal trouble, and abstain from spasmodic generosity in their charities is gain. The ladies of the K. D. S., struggling against many discouragements, and the hints of candid friends and pick-hole neighbours, have, to some degree, shaken off the well-nigh incurable inertia common to high and low. Meantime there is little beggary in KFewer ragged figures lounge about. The church and convent flourish as they should, and it is well that by their side cottages should be happier homes, and that thrift and order should help to raise our fellow-countrymen to the place that ought to be theirs in the European world; which they have earned by many noble virtues, but just miss because of some too obvious errors of daily life.

I subjoin the last balance sheet of the K. D. S., which will more than confirm what I have written.

No need to seek Him far away,

He dwells where they remain,
With humble souls He loves to stay
'Mid sickness, want, and pain.

The poor, the friendless, and despised-
The outcast and the low:

Make these your friends, you'll be surprised
How holy soon you'll grow.

God bless the poor man and his home,
His little ones and all!

God bless his steps where'er he roam,
At Labour's ceaseless call.

God bless his toil and bless his rest,
His life and daily part:

'Tis such that Jesus loves the best,
The favourites of His Heart.

THE CHANCES OF WAR.

BY A. WHITELOCK.

CHAPTER XIX.

A MARAUDING PARTY,

"Whispering with white lips, "The foe-they come, they come !'"

Childe Harold.

FROM the apartment of O'Neill we pass to a council-chamber of a different character. It is not a very dignified one, albeit the members of the council are, some of them, of high military rank. It is, in fact, a cattle-shed from which the four-footed occupants have been lately ejected. There is neither chair nor table within it. The president of the council, a tall man, in the uniform of an officer of cuirassiers, is standing by the door, the polished surface of his pouldron indented in the moist earthen wall of the ricketty building, his eyes fixed on the streams of muddy water which a heavy shower had sent coursing across the farm-yard. His subordinates occupy the interior of the shed, seated or stretched on piles of straw in various attitudes of negligent

ease.

"What i' the devil's name tempted our worthy Lord President to send us on this fool's errand?" asked the officer by the doorway, in a fretful tone. "The cattle are not worth the trouble of driving away, and that old otter's den in the river is unreachable, and were not worth the trouble of rifling, could we get at it."

The question was not directed specially to any individual present. A gray-bearded veteran who was making futile attempts to maintain the dignity of a major of horse on a pile of litter, undertook the responsibility of answering.

"Not without deep reason have we been despatched hither, Major Ormsby," he said, gravely. "It hath gone abroad through the land that even within this house sojourneth a recusant priest-a minister

of false doctrine, who instructeth the people unto death, and doth mightily uphold the abominations of Baal against the light of the New Gospel."

The first speaker smiled grimly at the explanation of his superior's conduct suggested by his confederate.

"I deny not, Storey," he replied, with some irony, "that Sir Charles is a man of zeal exceeding great, and that he has laboured, not without fruit, for the spreading abroad of the truth. But I doubt if his zeal would induce him to send three squadrons of horse a distance of fifty miles, merely to deliver the true Church from the attacks of an old monk, whose most dangerous operations are the aves he recites for the downfall of heresy and the exaltation of the Pope."

"Thou dost measure the works of light by the erring standard of the wisdom of the flesh," responded the other, solemnly. "Better, yea, better far is he who hast destroyed even the least pillar of the great iniquity of Rome, than he who, in the power of the sword, shall have taken many walled cities."

"Your arguments have their plausibility," returned Ormsby, "and could, at the proper time, much comfort the hearts of our troopers to whom you break the bread of the Word. I am content, if you will, to believe that Sir Charles has sent us hither specially on the pious mission which you mention. I fear me, however, that we shall not be able to render to the Gospel the service demanded of us. The priest is just so far removed that our arms are not long enough to reach him. If it will make amends for this disappointment to know that this visit is likely to cause his reverence and his entertainers to enjoy an early Lent, I can promise you that their fasts will begin very soon. When we have rested long enough to go, we will not leave behind us on this spot food for a sparrow or shelter for a hound."

"Therein wilt thou have done a goodly work," answered the veteran. "Natheless, unwillingly do I forego the merit of cutting off another of them which scatter tares in the wheat-field of the Lord."

"And be there not treasures, too, within those ugly walls which might gladden carnal eyes that have not yet opened to the light ?" laughingly inquired a young cornet, stretched at full length on the straw. "I am yet of the unconverted, and I would venture on a raft across the flood to yon wild eyrie to get a glimpse of the doves that they say are caged within it. If thou wilt hazard for the uprooting of the congregation of Satan, as much as I will in a less holy cause, we may even yet compass the capture of the island. What say you, worthy Major?" asked the challenger, raising himself from his indolent posture. "Doth the Sampson of Israel shrink from the challenge of the Philistine? Has the mighty one of Judah been vanquished by the uncircumcised ?"

The challenge excited the attention and provoked the merriment of the officers assembled. The major was nettled by the tone of banter in which he was addressed, and piqued to observe that the profanity of his subordinate found favour in the eyes of his comrades. Twisting his gray moustaches, he answered:

"It is written that a stripling prevailed against the giant, yet did