d, when a child, over a flower-bed; and broke out repeatedly, to
my lord's chagrin and bewilderment, as they walked towards the exotic.

When Toole ended his little family anecdote, which, you may be sure, he
took care to render as palatable to Magnolia's knight as possible, by
not very scrupulous excisions and interpolations he wound all up,
without allowing an instant for criticism or question, by saying
briskly, though incoherently.

'And so, what do you say, lieutenant, to a Welsh rabbit for supper?'

The lieutenant nodded a stolid assent.

'Will _you_ have one, Nutter?' cried Toole.

'No,' said Nutter.

'And why not?' says Toole.

'Why, I believe Tom Rooke's song in praise of oysters,' answered Nutter,
'especially the verse--

'"The youth will ne'er live to scratch a gray head,
On a supper who goes of Welsh rabbit to bed."'

How came it to pass that Nutter hardly opened his lips this evening--on
which, as the men who knew him longest all remarked, he was
unprecedentedly talkative--without instantaneously becoming the mark at
which O'Flaherty directed his fiercest and most suspicious scowls? And
now that I know the allusion which the pugnacious lieutenant
apprehended, I cannot but admire the fatality with which, without the
smallest design, a very serious misunderstanding was brought about.

'As to _youths_ living to scratch gray heads or not, Sir,' said the
young officer, in most menacing tones; 'I don't see what concern persons
of your age can have in that. But I'll take leave to tell you, Sir, that
a gentleman, whether he be a "youth" as you _say_, or aged, as you
_are_, who endayvours to make himself diverting at the expense of
others, runs a murdhering good risk, Sir, of getting himself scratched
where he'll like it least.'

Little Nutter, though grave and generally taciturn, had a spirit of his
own, and no notion whatever of knocking under to a bully. It is true, he
had not the faintest notion why he was singled out for the young
gentleman's impertinence; but neither did he mean to enquire. His
mahogany features darkened for a moment to logwood, and his eyes showed
their whites fiercely.

'We are not accustomed, Sir, in this part of the world, to your Connaught
notions of politeness; we meet here for social--a--a--sociality, Sir;
and the long and the short of it is, young gentleman, if you don't change
your key, you'll find two can play at that game--and--and, I tell you,
Sir, there will be