the
landlord, Pat Casey, who knew my uncle well, received us warmly,
promising to give us all the accommodation we could desire, and a supper
and breakfast not to be despised. Pat at once fulfilled his promise by
placing some rashers of bacon and fresh eggs, and actually a white loaf,
which with several others he said he had received that morning, on the
table.

"I would be after having some tay for breakfast, but I wouldn't dream of
giving it to your honours for supper," he said, as he placed instead on
the table a bottle of the cratur, from which, he observed with a wink,
the revenue had not in any way benefited, while a bowl of smoking hot
potatoes formed the chief dish of the feast. I remember doing good
justice to it, and was not sorry when my uncle proposed that we should
retire to our downy couches. Unpretending as was the outside of the
inn, they were far superior to what I should have expected; mine was a
feather bed to which many hundreds of geese must have contributed, while
the curtains were of silk, faded and patched, to be sure, but showing
that they had come from some grand mansion. I slept like a top, till my
uncle roused me up in the morning with the announcement that breakfast
was nearly ready. To that I was prepared to do more ample justice than
I did to the supper.

"Come, Terence, let us take our seats," said my uncle. "Biddy has just
placed the things on the table, and they will be getting cold."

The breakfast looked tempting. There was a pile of buttered toast,
plenty of new-laid eggs, a beautiful griskin broiled to perfection, and
water boiling on the hot turf fire in a saucepan. The teapot having
taken to leaking, as Biddy said, she had made the tea in the potheen
jug. I was just about to follow my uncle's example, when there came a
rap at the outside door of the paved parlour in which we were sitting.

"Come in," said my uncle.

No one answered.

"Go and see who it is, Terence; maybe it's some modest fellow who
doesn't like to open the door."

No sooner had I lifted the latch than I felt a heavy shove. The door
flew open, and before I could get out of the way, in rushed a huge sow,
knocking me over in a moment; and while I was kicking my heels in the
air, over my body came nearly a dozen young pigs, their amiable mother
making her way round the room, grunting, snorting, and catching the air
through her enormous proboscis.

"Jump up, Terence! jump up, or she'll be at you!" s