Page:The Wearing of the Green Song Book.djvu/231

 BY JUSTIN M'CARTHY.

"So you are really going to Ireland, old fellow, and at such a time?"

"Yes. Why not?"

"Look out for the Fenians! See that they don't capture you, and keep you as a British hostage."

"Stuff; there are no Fenians."

"Oh, aren't there, though! Yes, by St. Patrick, and Fenianesses, too—just ask Gerald Barrymore!"

"Why, I am going over to Gerald Barrymore. I am going to spend the time with him — hunt, and course, and fish, and all the rest of it."

"Well, he says there are Fenians to no end."

"Don't believe a word of it, although I am sure he thinks it if he says so. There isn't pluck enough in the population to make anything like a formidable movement of any kind. I'll undertake to rout any band of Fenians that may come in my way with this cane."

"Misguided young man, farewell. If you should fall a victim to your rashness, I'll write your epitaph!"

"Thank you, my dear fellow! That is indeed adding a new terror to death. It will doubly careful of my precious existence!"