admit Munster, gintlemen--glorious
Kerry!--yes, and I say I am not ashamed of it. I do plead guilty to the
peripatetic system: like a comet I travelled during my juvenile days--as
I may truly assert wid a slight modicum of latitude" (here he lurched
considerably to the one side)--"from star to star, until I was able to
exhibit all their brilliancy united simply, I can safely assert, in my
own humble person. Gintlemen, I have the honor of being able to write
'Philomath' after my name--which is O'Finigan, not Finigan, by any
means--and where is the oyster in his shell could do that? Yes, and
although they refused me a sizarship in Trinity College--for what will
not fear and envy do?

"'Tantaene animis celesiibus irae'

Yet I have the consolation to know that my name is seldom mentioned
among the literati of classical Kerry--_nudis cruribus_ as they
are--except as the Great O'Finigan! In the mane time--"

"Bravo, Masther!" exclaimed Keenan, interrupting him. "Here, Ted!
another bottle, till the Great O'Finigan gets a glass of whiskey."

"Yes, gintlemen," proceeded O'Finigan, "the alcohol shall be accepted,
_puris naturalibus_--which means, in its native--or more properly--but
which comes to the same thing--in its naked state; and, in the mane
time, I propose the health of one of my best benefactors--Gerald
Cavanagh, whose hospitable roof is a home--a domicilium to erudition
and respectability, when they happen, as they ought, to be legitimately
concatenated in the same person--as they are in your humble servant; and
I also beg leave to add the pride of the barony, his fair and virtuous
daughter, Kathleen, in conjunction wid the I accomplished son of another
benefactor of mine--honest James Burke--in conjunction, I say, wid his
son, Mr. Hyacinth. Ah, gintlemen--Billy Clinton, you thievin' villain!
you don't pay attention; I say, gintlemen, if I myself could deduct
a score of years from the period of my life, I should endeavor to run
through the conjugations of _amo_ in society wid that pearl of beauty.
In the mane time--"

"Here's her health, masther," returned Keenan, "an' her father's too,
an' Hycy Burke's into the bargain--is there any more o' them? Well, no
matter." Then turning to his antagonist, he added, "I say agin, thin,
that a Mullin's not a match for a Keenan, nor never was--no, nor never
will be! That's the chat! and who's afeard to say it? eh, masther?"

"It's a lie!" shouted one of the opposite part