Doctor Danny

e hail and dark-' ness could ever have been. They come in droves, and sweep through the land, spreading fear and desolation. No cabin with the meagerest air of thrift escapes them. They turn their donkeys into the small farmer's pasture; they stretch themselves about his hearth, taking the warmth of his fire, whilehis family shiver at the back. They eat his bread, and burn his turf, and give birth to their children beneath his rooftree. They stay until his potatoes are eaten and the meal-chest is empty; returning thanks by mending his half-dozen broken pots. It was such a drove of tinkers that passed through Killymard in the Green Year. Their coming had been heralded from Prosses, where they had settled for nearly a two-month, bringing famine to many a hearthside there. When word reached Killymard that the tinkers were again upon the road, everybody gathered together his children, his fowls, and his pigs, and hurried within, barring doors and windows fast. And so it happened that when the tinkers came the street was empty. They knocked, they beat on every door, but there was no response. Angry words arose among them; there was some talk of camping in the street and laying siege to the town. It was market-day in Donegal, however, which gave promise of good findings, and in the end they moved on. As they drove their donkeys down the street they shook their fists at the shuttered, vacant-looking cabins. " Ye wait," they cried; "we'll pay ye back for your g...