SHIANA
13
Peg.—May you go safe, Kate.
Kate.—You won't tell any more to-night, Peg?
Peg.—Very well, I won't, Kate.
CHAPTER III.
THE BLACK MAN DISAPPEARS.
Peg.—Welcome, Kate!
Kate.—Long life to you, Peg! I fancy I am the first to-night.
Peg.—Indeed you are; you are first of them all, except little Sheila.
Kate.—How could I be before Sheila, who is always here with you?
Sheila.—She will be before everybody now since her sister has a little son.
Peg.—Hush, you little hussy. How is Nell, Kate?
Kate.—She is very well, Peg, and the baby is well, too. And, oh! indeed and indeed, Peg, he is the nicest and prettiest and fairest baby you ever set eyes upon, and I am his mother.
Peg.—You! I thought Nell was his mother.
Kate.—Ah, what nonsense I am talking! Of course, so she is. But it was I that baptized him.
Peg.—What? Kate, my dear, what was the need for that when he wasn't going to die? Wasn't the priest there?
Kate.—Ach, what is that I am saying? Why, of course, it was the priest that baptized him, and it was I that stood for him for the baptism,
