"You are very kind and generous, Mrs. O'Neil, like the rest of your people. Wherever I have travelled in Ireland I have met just such kindness. I shall never forget my visit here.
"And what a beautiful country it is! I never saw such green grass anywhere else in the world. No wonder it is called 'The Emerald Isle.'"
Mrs. O'Neil smiled her happiest smile. She loved to hear her country praised.
"Ah! Ireland was a great place once," she cried. "But times have changed, and many of the days have been sad ones since the rule of our own kings. Did ye ever hear tell of the famine?" she asked.
"Yes, indeed," said one of the gentlemen, as Mrs. O'Neil bustled about the table. "I shall never forget a story I read at the time. I was a little boy in school. It was about a family who were suffering terribly from the famine. Their supply of potatoes had come to an end and the new crop was killed by the blight. There was no money to pay the rent, and the poor little children with their parents were turned out of their home by the hard-hearted landlord.
"But at this dreadful moment, help came from a kind friend in America, and they were saved from further suffering."
When he had finished speaking, Mrs. O'Neil told of the suffering people who became homeless and starving, and who died before help reached them.
Norah crept close to her mother's side as she listened to the story. Her big blue eyes were full of tears.