Blind Murty is a favourite guest at the Rooney's cabin, which is never so full that there is not room for one more.

There is a small wooden bed in the main room, a settle that opens out at night, with hens in the straw underneath, where a board keeps them safely within until they have finished laying.

There are six children besides Art, and my ambition is to photograph, or, still better, to sketch the family circle together; the hens cackling under the settle, the pig ('him as pays the rint') snoring in the doorway, as a proprietor should, while the children are picturesquely grouped about.

I never succeed, because Mrs.Rooney sees us as we turn into the lane, and calls to the family to make itself ready, as quality's comin' in sight.

The older children can scramble under the bed, slip shoes over their bare feet, and be out in front of the cabin without the loss of a single minute.