ver despairs. If he has not apparel of his own sufficiently decent to
wear on his wedding-day, he borrows from a friend. Phelim and his father
remembered that there were several neighbors in the village, who would
oblige him with a suit for the wedding; and as to the other necessary
expenses, they did what their countrymen are famous for--they trusted to
chance.

"We'll work ourselves out of it some way," said Larry. "Sure, if all
fails us, we can sell the goats for the weddin' expenses. It's one
comfort that Paddy Donovan must find the dinner; an' all we have to get
is the whiskey, the marriage money, an' some other thrifies."

"They say," observed Phelim, "that people have more luck whin they're
married than whin they're single. I'll have a bout at the marriage, so
I will; for worse luck I can't have, if I had half a dozen wives, than I
always met wid."

* This is another absurd opinion peculiar to the
Irish, and certainly one of the most pernicious that
prevail among them. Indeed, I believe there is no
country in which so many absurd maxims exist.

"I'll go down," observed Larry, "to Paddy Donovan's, an' send him to the
priest's to dive in your names to be called to-morrow. Faith, it's well
that you won't have to appear, or I dunna how you'd get over it."

"No," said Phelim, "that bill won't pass. You must go to the priest
yourself, an' see the curate: if you go near Father O'Hara, it 'ud knock
a plan on the head that I've invinted. I'm in the notion that I'll make
the ould woman bleed agin. I'll squeeze as much out of her as I'll
bring me to America, for I'm not overly safe here; or, if all fails,
I'll marry her, an' run away wid the money. It 'ud bring us all across."

Larry's interview with the curate was but a short one. He waited on
Donovan, however, before he went, who expressed himself satisfied with
the arrangement, and looked forward to the marriage as certain. As for
Phelim, the idea of being called to three females at the same time, was
one that tickled his vanity very much. Vanity, where the fair sex was
concerned, had been always his predominant failing. He was not finally
determined on marriage with any of them; but he knew that should he
even escape the three, the _eclat_, resulting from so celebrated a
transaction would recommend him to the sex for the remainder of his
life. Impressed with this view of the matter, he sauntered about as
usual; saw Foodie Flattery's daughter, a