no impediment of peculiar difficulty in his way, he collected all his
firmness and proceeded.

There is no country on the earth in which either education, or the
desire to procure it, is so much reverenced as in Ireland. Next to the
claims of the priest and schoolmaster come those of the poor scholar for
the respect of the people. It matters not how poor or how miserable
he may be; so long as they see him struggling with poverty in the
prosecution of a purpose so laudable, they will treat him with
attention and kindness. Here there is no danger of his being sent to the
workhouse, committed as a vagrant, or passed from parish to parish until
he reaches his own settlement. Here the humble lad is not met by the
sneer of purse-proud insolence, or his simple tale answered only in the
frown of heartless contempt. No--no--no. The best bit and sup are placed
before him; and whilst his poor, but warm-hearted, entertainer can
afford only potatoes and salt to his own half-starved family, he will
make a struggle to procure something better for the poor scholar;
'_Becase he's far from his own, the craihur!_ An' sure the intuition in
him is good, anyhow; the Lord prosper him, an' every one that has the
heart set upon the larnin'!'

As Jemmy proceeded, he found that his satchel of books and apparel gave
as clear an intimation of his purpose, as if he had carried a label to
that effect upon his back.

"God save you, a bouchal!" said a warm, honest-looking countryman, whom
he met driving home his cows in the evening, within a few miles of the
town in which he purposed to sleep.

"God save you kindly!"