“Avourneen,” said Ellish, “the way to deck out your shop is to keep the best of goods.  Wanst the people knows that they’ll get betther money-worth here than they’ll get anywhere else, they’ll come here, whether the shop looks well or ill.  Not savin’ but every shop ought to be clane an’ dacent, for there’s rason in all things.”

This, indeed, was another secret of their success.  Every article in their shop was of the best description, having been selected by Ellish’s own eye and hand in the metropolis, or imported directly from the place of its manufacture.  Her periodical visits to Dublin gave her great satisfaction; for it appears that those with whom she dealt, having had sufficient discrimination to appreciate her talents and integrity, treated her with marked respect.

Peter’s farm-yard bore much greater evidence of his wealth than did Ellish’s shop.  It was certainly surprising to reflect, that by the capacity of two illiterate persons, who began the world with nothing, all the best and latest improvements in farming were either adopted or anticipated.  The farmyard was upon a great scale; for Peter cultivated no less than four hundred acres of land—­to such lengths had his enterprise carried him.  Threshing machines, large barns, corn kilns, large stacks, extensive stables, and immense cow-houses, together with the incessant din of active employment perpetually going on—­all gave a very high opinion of their great prosperity, and certainly reflected honor upon those whose exertions had created such a scene about them.  One would naturally suppose, when the family of the Connells had arrived to such unexpected riches, and found it necessary to conduct a system whose machinery was so complicated and extensive that Ellish would have fallen back to the simple details of business, from a deficiency of that comprehensive intelligence which is requisite to conduct the higher order of mercantile transactions; especially as her sons were admirably qualified by practice, example, and education, to ease her of a task which would appear one of too much difficulty for an unlettered farmer’s wife.  Such a supposition would be injurious to this excellent woman.  So far from this being the case, she was still the moving spirit, the chief conductor of the establishment.  Whenever any difficulty arose that required an effort of ingenuity and sagacity, she was able in the homeliest words to disentangle it so happily, that those who heard her wondered that it should at all have appeared to them as a difficulty.  She was everywhere.  In Peter’s farm-yard her advice was as excellent and as useful as in her own shop.  On his farms she was the better agriculturist, and she frequently set him right in his plans and speculations for the ensuing year.

She herself was not ignorant of her skill.  Many a time has she surveyed the scene about her with an eye in which something like conscious pride might be seen to kindle.  On those occasions she usually shook her head, and exclaimed, either in soliloquy, or by way of dialogue, to some person near her:—­