their claim
was at once admitted, and thus the captain became possessor of gold to
the value of about four thousand pounds sterling, while O'Rook recovered
upwards of one thousand. This was only a fraction of their original
fortune, but the interest of it was sufficient to supply their moderate
wants.

Going straight off to the Holly Tree, of which a healthy shoot had been
planted in the suburbs, O'Rook proceeded, according to use and wont, to
"comfort the widdy."

"It's a rich man I am, darlin', after all," he said, on sitting down
beside her.

"How so, Simon?"

Simon explained.

"An' would you consider yourself a poor man if you had only me?" asked
the widow, with a hurt air.

"Ah! then, it's the women can twist their tongues, anyhow," cried
O'Rook. "Sure it's about dirty goold I'm spakin', isn't it? I made no
reference to the love of purty woman--did I, now? In regard of that I
wouldn't change places with the Shah of Pershy."

"Well now, Simon, if it's the women that can twist their tongues, it's
the Irishmen that can twist their consciences, so you an' I will be well
matched."

"That's well said, anyhow," rejoined O'Rook. "An' now, darlin', will ye
name the day?"

"No, Simon, I won't; but I'll think about it. There, now. Go home,
it's gettin' late, and if ye happen to be passing this way to-morrow you
may give us a call."

Thus Simon O'Rook prosecuted his courtship. In process of time he
married the widow, and was finally installed as master of the juvenile
Holly Tree in the suburbs, while his wife conducted the parent stem in
town. Vegetables and other country produce had to be conveyed to the
town Tree regularly. For this purpose a pony-cart was set up, which
travelled daily between it and the country branch. Thus it came to pass
that O'Rook's Californian dreams were realised, for "sure," he was wont
to say, "haven't I got a house in the country an' a mansion in the town,
an' if I don't drive my carriage and four, I can always drive me cart
an' wan, anyhow, with a swate little widdy into the bargain."

It is, we suppose, almost superfluous to say that Doctor Jack and Polly
Samson were united in due course, but it is necessary to record that, by
special arrangement, Walter Wilkins, Esquire, and Susan Trench were
married on the same day. More than that, the Doctor and Watty so
contrived matters that they rented a double villa in the suburbs of the
nameless city, one-half of which was occu