"
"Ay! so I thought; and, provided your father were restored to the farm,
would you be still disposed to become a priest?"
"I would, sir; next to helping my father, that is what I wish to be."
"O'Brien, what would it cost to prepare him respectably for the
priesthood?--I mean to defray his expenses until he completes his
preparatory education, in the first place, and afterwards during his
residence in Maynooth?"
"I think two hundred pounds, sir, would do it easily and respectably."
"I do not think it would. However, do you send him--but first let me ask
what progress he has already made?"
"He has read--in fact he is nearly prepared to enter Maynooth. His
progress has been very rapid."
"Put him to some respectable boarding-school for a year; then let him
enter Maynooth, and I will bear the expense. But remember I do not adopt
this course in consequence of his father's history. Not I, by Jupiter; I
do it on his own account. He is a noble boy, and full of fine qualities,
if they be not nipped by neglect and poverty. I loved my father myself,
and fought a duel on his account; and I honor the son who has spirit to
defend his absent parent."
"This is a most surprising turn in the boy's fortunes, Colonel."
"He deserves it. A soldier, Mr. O'Brien, is not without his enthusiasm,
nor can he help admiring it in others, when nobly and virtuously
directed. To see a boy in the midst of poverty, encountering the
hardships and difficulties of life, with the hope of raising up his
parents from distress to independence, has a touch of sublimity in it.
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