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 Murtagh 'll play us such a trick! After all his straight up an' down promises that he'd never leave the place one minute! An' the cow, too!"

"Yes, I've had enough of Murtagh," assented the farmer, sharply, "an' I guess we'll find the obligations on our side, sir. Murtagh's a man we've had on the place to help us, an' he don't appear to have no more responsibleness than a grasshopper, let alone his drinking. Wife an' I've been in a worry the hull time we was obliged to stay across the strait. But we didn't look for his acting this way."

It appeared that the derelict Murtagh had indeed been left in charge by his master; and that that neglectful hireling of the household must have scarcely waited for his employers' backs to be turned than he had betaken himself to his own little skiff and gone off shoreward, too. "Most likely, on one of his regular high old sprees!" surmised the exasperated farmer. "This is the end of Pat Murtagh's working for me!"

"Well, come, come, don't let's stand another minute here," said Mrs. Probasco, realizing that the necessary explanations on both sides were