car go beyond the possibility of overtaking it, so that his best course was to make as swiftly as he could for Barnadrum. Thither, then, he started immediately, in a flurry of anger and alarm. He deemed it contrary enough that his run across country, furzy, boggy, heathery, should be checked as he descended to the ford of a little mountain-stream by the call to stop and helpold Judy Flynn, who had dropped her stick, and upset her basket at the stepping-stones. The delay, however, bad compensations, for Judy's odds and ends comprised newspaper packet of oatmeal, which, she told him, had just been given to her by “Herself up at your place”; and as in answer to inquiries she reported that her benefactress “looked not too bad entirely, barring the rheumatics,” Murtagh resumed his trot in a more tranquil mood. a Own ner. III. about her flowery bonnet to snatch up the handiest wrap, ignoring a clamor of shrill remonstrance from its owner, and to hurry off in it, little recking what peril she would thus bring upon a darling scheme. But Mrs. Gilligan did not dwell long on this outrage. Her mind was evi. dently preoccupied by graver troubles connected with "That One,” as she now called her daughter-in-law. These were apprehensions so serious that she could allude to them only in furtive whispers, amid uneasy glances, and she did not get beyond mysterious genera lities such as “There's some folks do be sayin' more than their prayers," until she had drawn him into the little inner room, where her queer box of a bed was niched across a slanting cor She then spoke more freely, mAh Murt, avic, it's annoyed they have me this while back. What they do be conthrivin' in their minds I dunno rightly, but up to some bad job they are, as sure as the smoke's risin' on the hearth." "Who are?" said Murtagh. “Ah, sure, 'tis That One puts the notions into poor Christy's head; the poor lad 'ud never be thinkin' of the like himself. But the talk they have about quittin' out of it, and gettin' over to the States, and all manner, 'ud make your heart sick. And givin' abuse to the good little bit of land, and your poor father's dacint house, rael outrageous. And never done they are colloguin' wid Joe McSharry." “What at all have they to say to him." Murtagh said, unpleasantly surprised at the name, which he knew as belonging to one among several gobetweens, who took part in prelimi. nary negotiations about the acquirement of land by their expansive grazier neighbor. Already the Gilligans' holding had been encroached upon by the enlargement of his borders. *Troth that's more than I can be Old Mrs. Gilligan declared that she would never be the better of the turn she got when she saw him come pelting round the house-corner, and she sitting at the door; but so to declare was, of course, merely a well-recog. nized convention, and in no way disguised her radiant joy. Not until its first dazzling flare had faded did any grievances emerge into view. Then it struck Murtagh that his mother had become more bent and shrunken during the weeks of his absence, and that she was wearing a very ragged old apron. Looking round the kitchen, too, he noticed sundry small alterations, which he was sure had not been made with her good will; she would never, for instance, let them hang their boots from the rafters, and now a couple of pairs dangled overhead. His guess that the cloak had been a forced loan came near the truth, for a sudden shower just at starting had caused Lizzie in an access of concern tellin' you," Mrs. Gilligan replied dejectedly, "but it's the great discoorsin' entirely they do be havin'. "Twas only last Sunday evenin' he was here the best part of an hour, and the three of them sittin' lookin' at me as if I had seven heads, till I quit out of the room, and left them to their own secrees. Cautious enough they were over it, whatever it was. Just the sound of McSharry's big coarse voice I could hear, and sorra a word plain out of one of them, except that he would be lookin' in again the first day he was able-and the back of me hand to him. But heart scalded I am frettin', Murt alanna, and wonderin' in me mind what might be happenin' wid you away out of it, and ne'er a sowl I could spake raison to. And That One able to persuade poor Christy to any villiny she might take a notion to be after; that I well know. Be the same token, the two of them should be home again now directly. The Wogans' twelve o'clock cock was after crowin' a while ago down below." "I hear somethin', this minyit," said Murtagh. But the steps were not Christy's and Lizzie's. It was Joe McSharry himself who presently walked into the house, "without with your leave or by your leave, as if the whole place belonged to him," commented Mrs. Gilligan's wrathful whisper. Yet when Murtagh seemed to be starting up she added: "Ah, stop where you are!" The recollection of his ridiculously premature return checked him into compliance. Joe McSharry stumped aimlessly about the room for a minute or two, and then went suddenly to the door. "They're comin'," Mrs. Gilligan whispered again, and in fact the voices of Christy and Lizzie and their visitor rose greeting one another at a diminishing distance. "Well, Mrs. Gilligan, ma'am, you see I'm here before yous, and after makin' free to step inside." "Och to be sure, Mr. McSharry, and why wouldn't you? Glad I'll be meself to step in from under the blazin' sun. Grand weather we're gettin'; thank God, but you might as well be walkin' wid a sod off the hearth on top of your head. And th'ould cloak's a surprisin' weight." "Bedad now, McSharry, you were the wise man, that was contint, widout disthroyin' yourself this day thrampin' over the counthry to save your sowl." "Wasn't I savin' it in shoe leather, so to spake? And yourself very like to be doin' the same, if you hadn't the wife to take you along, aye faix, and halve the road." "Halve it the other way round, musha moyah!" "Fut further I'll not set till I rest me bones a bit," said Lizzie, plumping down on the seat in the little porch; "sit you down, Mr. McSharry, there does be a cooler breath in it here than widin the house." Murtagh, meanwhile, had stolen swiftly out of the inner room, and with gestures meant to reassure his mother, had slipped behind the highbacked settle, which occupied its summer position at right angles to the front door. The opportunity of overhearing this conversation seemed to demand seizing. "I just only looked in for a minyit and a half passin' by," said Joe McSharry; "I'm due over at Randalstown agin two o'clock. But I want to know if you're satisfied to be disposin' of your interest in this place on Lawson's terms. I'm apt to see him over yonder. He' about goin' back to England next week." "We are so," said Lizzie promptly. "on the understandin' that there's no delayin' in the matter. It's the price paid down, and ourselves able to be quittin' very directly, that 'ud suit us." "And Lawson, too, belike," said McSharry, "so we're all suited." Then both he and Lizzie looked towards Christy; but Christy held down his head, and kept silence. "What does be botherin' me," he said at last, without raising his eyes, "is Herself within there?"" "Why, has she anythin' to say to it?" said McSharry. "I understood not." "Sorra a bit has she," said Lizzie. ""Tis what's to become of her," said Christy. "Out of Barnadrum she won't stir, that's sartin." "Wasn't I tellin' you," said Lizzie, "times and agin that the little house back of Nicholas Byrne's is lyin' empty since ould Peggy Hanlon died in it? His riverence says they let her have it for nothin' be raison of the roof bein' scarce worth darnin'; and what was good enough for one ould woman might do for another. She could take her own bed wid her, and maybe a few sticks of the furniture. she'd have a right to be gettin' relief, more betoken—” He says "Is it me mother to be goin' on the rates?" Christy interrupted, starting up furiously. "I'd sooner see the pack of yous swimmin' like flies in the lake of destruction, let me tell you." "What talk was there of any such thing, man alive?" said Lizzie, wheeling away from her own indiscretion. "Sure we can give her plinty to get along wid out of the thrifle we'll have in hand, and lashins more once we're settled in New York. I only passed the remark supposin' be any odd chance she might want a thrifle between our goin' and Murt comin' home to her. . . . Is it risin' objections you'd be, you omadhawn, and delayin' till the young chap lands in on the top of us and ruinates everything?" she added in a crushing aside to Christy. Joe McSharry pricked up his ears. "Is your brother Murt apt to be mak in' any bones about it?" he inquired. "I thought that was all right." "It's as right as raison," Lizzie averred. "Sure what at all could poor Murt do to annoy anybody, if he come back, and found us quit, and the roof whipped off, the way Lawson would, if he'd be said by me, as soon as we're out of it. There isn't a quieter boy in the Kingdom of Connaught than poor Murt, or a bigger fool, unless maybe Himself here. Besides, truth to say, it's my belief there's little or no likelihood of him to be showin' his face in this place agin. He'd scarce find his way if he thried; he hasn't that much wit. Stoppin' where he is he'll be, you may depind." "Sure then we'll manage it aisy," said Joe McSharry, "so long as he isn't givin' any throuble "Divil a bit will I," said Murt, suddenly thrusting his head through the kitchen doorway, "except throublin' you to be off out o' this, and lave interferin' wid other people's property." He put his hands on the back of the settle, and vaulted over it, alighting with a prance in front of the astonished three. "May the saints have me sowl, but it's Himself," said Christy; "glory be to God, Murt, it's glad I am to set eyes on you this day." Christy spoke quite sincerely, for his spirit was indeed sorely vexed by the plot into which he had been drawn, lacking the backbone to resist it unsupported. In the manner of Murtagh's abrupt entrance Joe McSharry had a sufficient pretext for laughing loud and long, and he did so heartily enough, caring in fact very little one way or the other about a matter from which in no case could any large gains accrue. The only member of the party seriously disconcerted by Murtagh's reappearance was his sister-in-law, about whose ears a fabric long and craftily T elaborated had been shattered into shaken his trust in almost everybody ruin. She, nevertheless, exclaimed, •else. Three weeks' sojourn in strange with really admirable presence of lands had, in spite of himself, relaxed mind, that “Poor Mrs. Gilligan would his rigid orthodoxy on a point or two. be frighted out of her sivin sinses, the The rushy corner of their field might, crathur, if Murt come in on her sud- he thought, be drained after a fashion dint"; and she hurried off the disas- which he had observed on a farm trous scene, ostensibly for the pur- "away down beyant," and which, even pose of breaking the news gently to to his prejudiced eyes, had seemingly her mother-in-law. Already her active "some sinse and raison in it." As for brain was busy with the possibilities his neighbors' opinion, that had lost of some other plan for emigrating from several degrees of importance. "They Barnadrum, with less spoil, no doubt, may be talkin'," he reflected, “and yet not altogether empty-handed. talkin' after that agin. But sure That evening Murtagh meditatively what I do be thinkin' in me own mind watched the sun descend into the sea. about me own business is more conseHe had a presentiment that his mother quence to meself than all the talk they and himself would soon be left to keep have among the whole of thim." A house alone, a prospect which he view of the situation which contained viewed with a light and a heavy heart. so many fruitful germs that it may His frustration, only just in time, of have been well worth Murtagh's while that domestic conspiracy, while it in- to travel for it. creased his self-reliance, had sadly Jane Barlow. The Independent Review. THE CHINAMAN IN BRITISH COLUMBIA. It is almost impossible in British Co- men, agricultural laborers, market-garlumbia to get an unbiassed opinion con- deners and greengrocers, tailors, miners cerning Chinese labor. Not that any (often on workings abandoned by the man or woman is without an opinion, white men), and with the exception or is indifferent to an opportunity for of a few Indians all the labor in the its expression; but every man's pocket salmon canneries is Chinese or Japais touched, every woman's personal nese. There are no white men or comfort. It is scarcely too much to women wanting these jobs, or even say that the daily life of every British willing to perform them, now that ChiColumbian (one must be careful not to nese have become scarce. Therefore call him a Canadian) has been changed in so far as Chinamen have given them more or less by the recent legislation up, the work is left undone. of the Dominion Parliament hindering But in British Columbia, and among the admission of the Chinese into the the fifty-two thousand people who live Colony. in Vancouver, its largest city, there are Hitherto throughout the Province the still thousands of Chinamen who follow unskilled or partially skilled, or (as one all these callings; earning, every man might perhaps with greater truth say) among them, a living sufficient for his the unattractive employments have needs, and saving, though he earns but been in yellow hands. Chinamen have a pittance, money enough to take him been domestic servants, laundry- home to China, where he hopes to die, . and where he surely will one day lie His wages may be low or high, but alburied. ways he lives on less than his employ. The Chinaman is but a temporary ers choose or are constrained to pay worker; he is not a colonist. In the him, always he sends money home to white man's land, of Chinese parentage his family or to his creditors. To hear there are born a few children who play the Chinaman's enemies talk one might on the pavement in the Chinese quarter suppose that the value of a man lay of the city, or blink at the white man in his expenditure rather than in his from a verandah beneath the sign of a output, and that the more of other laundry or an eating-house. But they men's work we could waste or destroy are few; the Chinaman does not take for our own personal purposes the bethis women with him when he emi- ter citizens we ought to be reckoned. grates. His work is in the foreign But the very same persons who rail at land; his life is over-seas in his own the Chinaman for spending too little, country; and the permanence of him rail in the next breath, and with better is not that of an individual, but of a reason, against our idle rich for spendstream of individuals setting from Chi- ing too much. Illogical in any counnese to Canadian shores. try, it is least pardonable in the new The whole question is beset with par- lands, where, conditions being simpler, adoxes, and here is the first one. We is so easy to see that every worker constantly talk of the cost of raising is worth more than his keep, and that our children to working estate, balanc- his day's wage bears mostly no relation ing (as it seems to us very properly) to the value of what he produces for what a child costs before he can earn or in the land where his work is done. anything against the value of what he All our colonies are crying aloud for earns during his working years, and immigrants; and the growing wealth reckoning every man to be worth just of the colonies is partly due to the fact so much as he produces over and above that they get their workers ready made. what he consumes. If production be and we in the old lands have to make used in its largest sense, the calculation ours, which is a difficult and a costly seems fair enough. Certainly no nation business. This is not meant as a plea can become rich if a too great propor- for Chinese immigration, only it is as tion of its members are consumers and well to remember that things are not not producers. always wrong for the reasons that Now all these immigrant Chinamen they are alleged to be so. have been bred up to the point of work- Since all but a few Chinamen go able value at the expense of their own home to die when their life's work is country, not of Canada. That is pre done, it has always been necessary to cisely one of the charges made against pour in a stream of fresh Chinamen to them. It is (from one point of view) keep up the supply. One man went as though we should grumble at a and another came, and to European neighbor who kept all our colts for eyes the two were so much alike that three or four years, and then turned the change made little difference. It them over to us to work in the shafts is this stream that has been cut off. till they were worn out. The matter A Chinaman who is in British Columis not so simple as this, of course; but bia may stay there, but once gone he that is one aspect of it. may not come back unless he pays like The Chinaman, we are further told, a newcomer the head tax of £104 ($50) lives too frugally; he does not consume that is levied on every Chinaman who enough in the land of his adoption. lands. We should rather say that it |