Thin, sir, Yallow Sam said nothing till the next half-year's
rent became due, whin he came down on my father for all--that is, what
he hadn't got the receipt for, and the other gale--and, without any
warning in the world, put him out. My father offered to pay all; but
he said he was a rogue, and that you had ordered him off the estate. In
less than a week after this he put a man that married a bastard daughter
of his own into our house and place. That's God's truth, sir; and you'll
find it so, if you inquire into it. It's a common trick of his to keep
back receipts, and make the tenants pay double."*
* This is the fact. The individual here alluded to,
frequently kept back receipts when receiving rents,
under pretence of hurry, and afterwards compelled the
tenants to pay the same gale twice!
"Sacred Heaven, O'Brien! can this be possible?"
"Your best way, Colonel, is to inquire into it."
"Was not your father able to educate you at home, my boy?"
"No, sir. We soon got into poverty after we left your farm; and another
thing, sir, there was no Latin school in our neighborhood."
"For what purpose did you become a poor scholar?"
"Why, sir, I hoped one day or other to be able to raise my father and
mother out of the distress that Yallow Sam brought on us."
"By Heaven! a noble aim, and a noble sentiment. And what has this d--d
fellow of a schoolmaster done to you?"
"Why, sir, yesterday, when I went back to the school, he abused me, and
said that he supposed that most of my relations were hanged; spoke ill
of my father; and said that my mother"--Here the tears started to his
eyes--he sobbed aloud.
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