By the pleasant waters of the River Lee.
and I have heard her exclaiming, I at the time believing it most implicitly:
"Sin, is it? Sure. I never heard of sin till I came to Liverpool; there's no sin in Cor-r-k!"
And she rattled the "r" with a strong rising inflexion, greatly impressing me with the high character of Ireland and of Cork in particular.
At that time I had never seen Ireland but as an infant at my mother's breast.
CHAPTER III.
IRELAND RE-VISITED.
I was a boy of about 12 when I first re-visited Ireland; and, as the steamer entered Carlingford Lough, which to my mind almost equals Killarney's beauty—but that, perhaps, is a Northman's prejudice—with the noble range of the Mourne mountains on the one side and the Carlingford Hills on the other, it seemed to my young imagination like a glimpse of fairy land.