Oh! believe me, it's not on account of the mere value of it, but the money may save lives." "Why, achora, what do you intend doin' wid the money, if it's a fair question to ax ?" "It's not a fair question for a stranger--it's enough for me to tell you that I'll do nothing with it without my father and mother's knowledge.
Here, Denny," she said, addressing her brother, who was on his way to the stable, "slip a stool through the windy, an' stay wid me in the barn--I want to send you of a message in a few minutes." It is only necessary to say that the compensation was a more liberal one than Mave had at all expected, and the pedlar disencumbered her of as rich and abundant a mass of hair as ever ornamented a female head.

This he did, however, in such a way as to render the absence of it as little perceptible as might be; the side locks he did not disturb, and Mave, when she put on a clean night cap, looked as if she had not undergone any such operation.
As the pedlar was going away, he called her aside, so as that her brother might not hear.
"Did you ever see me afore ?" he asked.
"I did," she replied, blushing.

"Well, achora," he proceeded, "if ever you happen to be hard set, either for yourself or your friends, send for me, in Widow Hanlon's house at the Grange, an' maybe I may befriend either you or them; that is, as far as I can--which, dear knows, is not far; but, still an' all, send.

I'm known as the _Cannie Sugah_, or Merry Pedlar, an' that'll do.

God mark you, _ahagur!_" Her brother's intelligence respecting the situation of the Daltons, as well as of Sarah M'Gowan, saved Mave a long explanation to her parents for the act of having parted with her hair.
"We are able to live--barely able to live," she exclaimed; "an' thanks be to God we have our health; but the Daltons--oh! they'll never get through what they're sufferin'; an' that girl--oh! mother, sich a girl as that is--how little does the world know of the heart that beautiful craythur has.