"
"What's your object in learning Latin?"
"To be a priest, wid the help o' God; an' to rise my poor father an'
mother out of their poverty."
His companion, after hearing this reply, bent a glance upon him, that
indicated the awakening of an interest in the lad much greater than he
probably otherwise would have felt.
"It's only of late," continued the boy, "that my father an' mother got
poor; they were once very well to do in the world. But they were put out
o' their farm in ordher that the agint might put a man that had married
a _get_ (* A term implying illegitimacy) of his own into it. My father
intended to lay his case before Colonel B------, the landlord; but he
couldn't see him at all, bekase he never comes near the estate.
The agint's called Yallow Sam, sir; he's rich through cheatery an'
dishonesty; puts money out at intherest, then goes to law, an' brakes
the people entirely; for, somehow, he never was known to lose a lawsuit
at all, sir. They say it's the divil, sir, that keeps the lawyers on his
side; an' that when he an' the lawyers do be dhrawin' up their writins,
the devil--God betune me an' harm!--does be helpin' them!"
"And is Colonel B------ actually--or, rather, was he your father's
landlord?"
"He was, indeed, sir; it's thruth I'm tellin' you."
"Singular enough! Stand beside me here--do you see that large house to
the right among the trees?"
"I do, sir; a great big house, entirely--like a castle, sir."
"The same.
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