A Fair Emigrant, Chapter XXVIII-XXXI [pp. 173-200]

A FAIR EMIGRANT.
A FAIR EMIGRANT.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
SO SHE IS, AN EMIGRANT.
"I WILL descend into my churn," said Bawn, "and there seek
comfort."
She had already built herself a new dairy, upon improved
principles never heard of in the glens.
"That young woman at Shanganagh is going to ruin herself,"
said Alister to Rory as they met in the village street. "She
has taken to building. I hope the girls may get their rent, after
all."
"She need not ruin herself if she is industrious and persevering," returned Rory. " She does what most of us here do not:
she begins at the right end."
"I thought you would take her up, as she is evidently a reformer."
" Some people seize at once the truth that two and two make
four," said Rory, "while others will stick to five till their dying
day. The flavor of turf freshly burning is pleasant and aromatic
enough to those who like it, but nobody likes it stale, especially on
butter. Miss Ingram, in providing herself with a dairy out of
the reach of her household smoke, is going the right way about
securing the money for her rent."
"The last tenant of the farm could not make it pay," said
Alister, "although he lost by no unnecessary outlay."
"Rather because he gained by no necessary outlay," said
Rory. "He was too poor, or too faint-hearted, or too stupid, I
don't know which, to invest a little capital and trust to his own
energies for the increase."
"Has Miss Ingram got capital?"
"She has plenty of it in pluck, at all events. When I last saw
Shanganagh it was a deplorable sight. Eheu! the dislocated
gates, the corners of land choked with weeds, the holes in the
fences! Now there is a change."
"You have been there, then?"
"Yes, I have just been there. I wanted to bring Miss In
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