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78 see her than the scolding ceased. She hung down her head, and went into the house very slowly."

"And isn't it a great wonder." said his mother, "that you haven't bestirred yourself long ago to make a match for Shiana with her?"

"Why, that is the very point," said he. "I thought that you would have made it long ago, and that you would be far more correct and neat-handed at it than I would be."

"I am afraid," said his mother, "that you are mistaken in that. If there were a match of that sort to be made, I think there is no one who would make it better than yourself, especially as you are so anxious to see it made."

"Surely and certainly, mother," said he, "you are right in that much, at all events. I would rather see that match made than anything in the world. There never was a pair better suited to each other than that pair. It would be hard to outdo Mary's good qualities, and he is as good as she. I would like to make the match, but that I don't know how to set about it."

"How should you set about it but go west to John Kittach himself—to his house—and call the man aside and tell him your mind? Then, if what you say pleases him, he will himself lay the matter before his daughter, and if she likes the match, isn't that half the business done?"

"By the deer," said he, "you are right. I will go now at once."

And off he went.

"May you succeed better than I succeeded!" said she in her own mind.