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 "There's somethin' I was tould while I was away, that I think ye ought to know."

"Go on, Mr. Joyce!"

"Somebody has been sayin' hard things about Norah!"

"About Norah! Surely there is nobody mad enough or bad enough to speak evil of her."

"There's wan!" He turned as he spoke, and looked instinctively in the direction of Murdock's house.

"Oh, Murdock! as he threatened—what did he say?"

"Well, I don't know. I could only get it that somebody was sayin' somethin', an' that it would be well to have things so that no wan could say anythin' that we couldn't prove. It was a frind tould me—and that's all he would tell! Mayhap he didn't know any more himself; but I knew him to be a frind!"

"And it was a friendly act, Mr. Joyce. I have no doubt that Murdock has been sending round wicked lies about us all! But thank God! in a few days we will be all moving, and it doesn't matter much what he can do."

"No! it won't matter much in wan way, but he's not goin', all the same, to throw dirt on me child. If he goes on I'll folly him up!"

"He won't go on, Mr. Joyce. Before long, he'll be out of the neighbourhood altogether. To tell you the truth, I have bought the whole of his land, and I get possession of it to-morrow; and then I'll never let him set foot here again. When once he is out of this,