"Why, child," said Lord Clare, "what do you want of the Blarney Stone?"
"Only to kiss it, yer honor. I've come all the way from Bantry, on my two feet, barring a lift now and then on a car, just to do that same—all for the sake of poor Phin."
"And who is Phin?"
"He is my brother, sir—my own brother, and he has gone and 'listed, and it's breaking my mother's heart; and sure, yer honor, if he goes away for a soldier, she will die, and it's all alone in the world I'll be." With that, her little red lips began to quiver, and the tears to fall from her soft, brown eyes.
"But what good will it do Phin, for you to kiss the Blarney Stone?" asked one of the ladies.
"Whist!" said the child, looking about her, and speaking low, as though afraid of being overheard by some one unfriendly to Phin, "it's just a little plot of my own. I was told that the new lord-lieutenant was coming to Cork, and I knew he could let poor Phin off from being a soldier; so I said nothing to nobody, but came up to entrate him. You see I had often heard how this same Blarney Stone would give people an ilegant and moving discoorse; and sure I thought I'd need to kiss it, before I could stand up forninst a great lord, and say my story. That is all, yer ladyship."
"Oh, little girl!" cried Fanny, joyfully, "you need not kiss the old stone for that, for my papa is—" Here the impulsive little girl caught a warning look from her father, and paused suddenly, while his lordship took up the conversation with the peasant child.
"What is your name?"
"Norah McCarthy, yer honor."
"Ah, quite a pretty name. Well, Norah, how came this brother of yours to enlist?"