"Please, sir, I'll be afther leaving the night," said John, scraping out
his hind foot, as Harry drew rein on Romeo, and halted under a large
apple-tree.
"Leave?" exclaimed Harry, patting Romeo's neck; "you seemed a contented
fellow enough when I left for the city this morning. Don't your wages
suit? What's in the wind now? out with it, man."
John scratched his head, kicked away a pebble with the toe of his
brogan, looked up, and looked down, and finally said, (lowering his
voice to a confidential whisper, as he glanced in the direction of the
doctor's cottage;) "It's the ould gintleman, sir, savin' yer presence.
It is not _two_ masthers Pat would be afther having;" and Pat narrated
the affair of the plough.
Harry bit his lip, and struck Romeo a little quick cut with his
riding-whip. Harry was one of the most dutiful of sons, and never
treated his father with disrespect; he had chosen a separate home, that
he might be master of it; and this old annoyance in a new shape was very
provoking. "Pat," said he at length, "there is only one master here;
when _I_ give you an order, you are to stick to it, till you get a
different one from me. D'ye understand?"
"By the Holy Mother, I'll do it," said Pat, delightedly resuming his hoe
with fresh vigor.