Willy Burke, or, The Irish orphan in America - Digital Repository ...

156 WILLY BURKE; OR,
a show of going in, said— " What do you think, Peter,
if you come in to hear Mr. Donaldson preach ? He is one
of our crack speakers, and", he added with a laugh, "claims
none of that overweening authority that your Popish
priests do. Come in, like a good fellow, and hear what
he has got to say".
But Peter still hung back ; the last tattered remnant
of shame still clung around him, and he blushed deeply on
hearing this proposal. " No, not this evening", he said
" its getting near our supper hour,
in a hurried manner ;
and I must go home".
" Well, I '11 not press you for the present ; but some
other time you will
Donaldson".
come, for I wish you to hear Mr.
" Perhaps I may", said
you good evening".
Peter, " but now I must bid
" Good evening, Peter", said the two young men together,
and Wilson added— " See that you don't let Willy
scold you into your old folly !"
" Never fear—never fear", was the decided answer.
" I '11 be my own master for the time to come". And
away he went. The two friends stood looking after him
till he was out of hearing, when both laughed heartily.
"How eagerly he snapt at the bait', said Hamilton;
" and how adroitly you did hook him : one would really
think you were intimately acquainted with Mr. Watkins,
such a face of truth did you put on your story".
" Ay, revenge is a powerful instigator", returned
Wilson, with a laugh. " I was all the time thinking of
the pain this would cause Willy Burke to feel, and how
much he will think himself disgraced by his brother's
apostacy. That is all that I have in view. So long as