'
nothin' is dhroothy work. Ould man, will you not bother us about
fortune!"

"Come, Paddy Donnovan," wid Devlin, "dang it, let out a little,
considher he has ten guineas; and I give it as my downright maxim an
opinion, that he's fairly entitled to the pig."

"You're welcome to give your opinion, Antony, an' I'm welcome not to
care a rotten sthraw about it. My daughter's wife enough for him, widout
a gown to her back, if he had his ten guineas doubled."

"An' my son," said Larry, "is husband enough for a betther girl nor ever
called you father--not makin' little, at the same time, of either you or
her."

"Paddy," said Burn, "there's no use in spakin' that way. I agree wid
Antony, that you ought to throw in the 'slip.'"

"Is it what I have to pay my next gale o' rint wid? No, no! If he won't
marry her widout it, she'll get as good that will."

"Saize the 'slip," said Phelim, "the darlin' herself here is all the
slip I want."

"But I'm not so," said Larry, "the 'slip' must go in, or it's a brake
off. Phelim can get girls that has money enough to buy us all out o'
root. Did you hear that, Paddy Donovan?"

"I hear it," said Paddy, "but I'll b'lieve as much of it as I like."

Phelim apprehended that as his father got warm with the liquor, he
might, in vindicating the truth of his own assertion, divulge the affair
of the old housekeeper.

"Ould man," said he "have sinse, an' pass that over, if you have any
regard for Phelim."

"I'd not be brow-bate into anything," observed Donovan.

"Sowl, you would not," said Phelim; "for my part, Paddy, I'm ready to
marry your daughther (a squeeze to Peggy) widout a ha'p'orth at all,
barrin' herself. It's the girl I want, an' not the slip."

"Thin, be the book, you'll get both, Phelim, for your dacency," said
Donovan; "but, you see I wouldn't be bullied into' puttin' one foot past
the other, for the best man that ever stepped on black leather."

"Whish!" said Appleton, "that's the go! Success ould heart! Give us your
hand, Paddy,--here's your good health, an' may you never button an empty
pocket!"

"Is all settled?" inquired Molly.

"All, but about the weddin' an' the calls," replied her husband. "How
are we to do about that, Larry?"

"Why, in the name o' Goodness, to save time," he replied, "let them be
called on Sunday next, the two Sundays afther, an thin marrid, wid a
blessin'."

"I agree wid that entirely," observed Molly; "an' now Phelim, clear
away, you an' P