o me,' says the divil, 'but the likes of this I never
seen,' says he, 'far and near, up and down--the dickens a room I ever
kem across afore,' says he, 'I couldn't cram while a cook would be
crammin' a turkey, till now; and here I am,' says he, 'losin' my whole
day, and I with such a power o' work an my hands yit, and this room no
fuller than five minutes ago.'

Begor, while he was spakin' he seen the hape o' guineas in the middle
of the flure growing _littler and littler_ every minit; and at last
they wor disappearing, for all the world like corn in the hopper of a
mill.

'Ho! ho!' says Owld Nick, 'is that the way wid you?' says he; and wid
that, he ran over to the hape of goold--and what would you think, but
it was runnin' down through a great big hole in the flure, that the
colonel made through the ceilin' in the room below; and that was the
work he was at afther he left the divil, though he purtended he was
only waitin' for him in his parlour; and there the divil, when he
looked down the hole in the flure, seen the colonel, not content with
the _two_ rooms full of guineas, but with a big shovel throwin' them
into a closet a' one side of him as fast as they fell down. So,
putting his head through the hole, he called down to the colonel:

'Hillo, neighbour!' says he.

The colonel looked up, and grew as white as a sheet, when he seen he
was found out, and the red eyes starin' down at him through the hole.

'Musha, bad luck to your impudence!' says Owld Nick: 'it is sthrivin'
to chate _me_ you are,' says he, 'you villain!'

'Oh, forgive me for this wanst!' says the colonel, 'and, upon the
honour of a gintleman,' says he, 'I'll never----'

'Whisht! whisht! you thievin' rogue,' says the divil, 'I'm not angry
with you at all, at all, but only like you the betther, bekase you're
so cute;--lave off slaving yourself there,' says he, 'you have got
goold enough for this time; and whenever you want more, you have only
to say the word, and it shall be yours to command.'

So with that, the divil and he parted for that time: and myself
doesn't know whether they used to meet often afther or not; but the
colonel never wanted money, anyhow, but went on prosperous in the
world--and, as the saying is, if he took the dirt out o' the road, it
id turn to money wid him; and so, in course of time, he bought great
estates, and was a great man entirely--not a greater in Ireland,
throth.

At last, afther many years of prosperity, the