seemed to do me. I was playing the `Groves of
Blarney,' when half a dozen rid-skinned savages jumped out of the bushes
and looked me full in the face.

"`Whoo!' says I. `Whaugh!' says they, in chorus. `Whoo!' says I again.
On which they came nearer, flourishing their ugly-looking
scalping-knives.

"`Is that what you're going to be afther?' said I, feeling uncomfortable
on the top of me head. `Keep off, me beauties, till I give you another
tune.' And putting up me fiddle to me chin--for I had let it drop, and
small blame to me!--I began scraping away as if I would be afther
shaking me arm off.

"`Whaugh!' says they again, beginning to skip and leap about.

"On this I played faster and faster; and the faster I played, the higher
they bounded. `It's all right,' thinks I to meself; `they will not be
doing me any harm if I can keep them at that game.' So I thought I had
best give them a tune with me voice into the bargain; and I sang, and
scraped, and shook me head, till they all burst out into fits of
laughter.

"On this I got up and made them a low bow; though I clapped my hat on
again pretty quick, in case of accidents. And says I--`If you will all
sit down, and behave yourselves like dacent men, I'll tell you a tale
which will astonish you.'

"Whether or not they understood me, I could not for the life of me tell;
but, sure enough, down they all squatted. And I began to recount to
them how Daniel O'Rourke one night, returning from waking Widow Casey at
Ballybotherem, and having taken a drop more than usual of the
`crayther,' saw the fairies come dancing round him; and I went on to
describe what Daniel said, and what the fairies did. `And now,' says I,
`just sit quiet where you are till I come back and finish me story.'
And on this, giving another whoop, and a hop, skip, and a jump, I was
making me way back to the river, when up sprang the Ridskins and came
bounding afther me. `Sure, thin,' says I, stopping short, and beginning
to scrape away as before on me fiddle, `you don't understand me.' And,
by me faith, indade they did not; for without more ado they got round
me, and suspecting that I had been bamboozling them, began to prick me
with their spears behind, as a gentle hint that I was to march forward.

"Seeing that there was no use trying to make me escape--for, of course,
six men can run faster than one--I took their hints, which were not to
be mistaken, and stepped out in the direction they poi