again with a hope that
Phelim would fail.

"Good agin!" said Phelim, thundering down another, which was instantly
subjected to a similar scrutiny.

"You'll find it good," said Larry. "I wish we had a sackful o' them. Go
an, Paddy. Go an, man, who's afeard?"

"Sowl, I'm done," said Donovan, throwing down the purse with a hearty
laugh--"give me your hand, Larry. Be the goold afore us, I thought to do
you. Sure these two guineas is for my rint, an' we mustn't let them come
atween us at all."

"Now," said Larry, "to let you see that my son's not widout something to
begin the world wid--Phelim, shill out the rest o' the yallow boys."

"Faix, you ought to dhrink the ould woman's health for this," said
Phelim. "Poor ould crathur, many a long day she was savin' up these for
me. It's my mother I'm speakin' about."

"An' we will, too," said the father; "here's Sheelah's health,
neighbors! The best poor man's wife that ever threwn a gown over her
shouldhers."

This was drank with all the honors, and the negotiation proceeded.

"Now," said Appleton, "what's to be done? Paddy, say what you'll do for
the girl."

"Money's all talk," said Donovan; "I'll give the girl the two-year ould
heifer--an' that's worth double what his father has promised Phelim;
I'll give her a stone o' flax, a dacent suit o' clo'es, my blessin'--an'
there's her fortune."

"Has she neither bed nor beddin'?" inquired Larry.

"Why, don't you say that Phelim's to have his own bed?" observed
Donovan. "Sure one bed 'ill be plinty for them."

"I don't care a damn about fortune," said Phelim, for the first time
taking a part in the bargain--"so long as I get the darlin' herself. But
I think there 'ud be no harm in havin' a spare pair o' blankets--an',
for that matther, a bedstead, too--in case a friend came to see a body."

"I don't much mind givin' you a brother to the bedstead you have,
Phelim," replied Donovan, winking at the company, for he was perfectly
aware of the nature of Phelim's bedstead.

"I'll tell you what you must do," said Larry, "otherwise I'll not stand
it. Give the colleen a chaff bed, blankets an' all other parts complate,
along wid that slip of a pig. If you don't do this, Paddy Donovan, why
we'll finish the whiskey an' part friends--but it's no match."

"I'll never do it, Larry. The bed an' beddin' I'll give; but the pig
I'll by no manner o' manes part wid."

"Put round the bottle," said Phelim, "we're gettin' dhry agin--sayin