that of a man
advanced in years, "I think you ought to give this procthor Purcel a
cardin'. He lifts the tithes of four parishes, and so far he's a scourge
over four parishes; himself and his blasted citations to the bishop's
court and his blasted decrees--hell purshue him, as it will. Ah, the
Carders wor fine fellows, so were the Sextons."

"Bravo, Billy Bradly, conshumin' to me but I'm--I'm main proud, and that
we met you com--omin' from the wake to-night; I am, upon my sow--owl."

"I believe, Billy," said another voice, "you had your own fun wid
procthors in your day."

"Before the union--hell bellows it for a union---but it has been a black
sight to the counthry! Amin this night--before the union, it's we that
did handle the procthors in style; it isn't a cowardly threatenin'
notice we'd send them, and end there. No--but I'll tell you what we
done one night, in them days. There was a man, a procthor, an' he was
a Catholic too, for I needn't tell you, boys, that there never was a
Protestant procthor half as hard and cruel as one of our own ralligion,
an' thas well known. Well, there was this procthor I'm tellin' of, his
name was Callaghan; he was a dark-haired I'll-lookin' fellow, with
a squint and a stutther; but for all that, he had a daicent,
quiet, well-behaved family that offended nobody--not like our proud
horsewhippin' neighbors; an', indeed, his daughters did not mount their
side-saddles like some of the same neighbors, but sure we all know the
ould proverb, set a beggar on horseback, and we needn't tell you where
he'll ride to. Well, I'm forgettin' my story in the mane time. At that
time, a party of about sixty of us made up our minds to pay Callaghan a
nightly visit. The man, you see, made no distinction betune the rich
and poor, or rather he made every distinction, for he was all bows and
scrapes to the rich, and all whip and fagot to the poor. Ah, he was
a sore blisther to that part of the counthry he lived in, and many a
widow's an' orphan's curse he had. At any rate, to make a long story
short, we went a set of us, a few nights afore we called upon him--that
is, in a friendly way, for we had no intention of takin' his life,
but merely to tickle him into good humor a bit, and to make him have a
little feelin' for the poor, that he many a time tickled an' got tickled
by the sogar's bagnet to some purpose; we went, I say, to a lonely
place, and we dug sich a grave as we thought might fit him, and havin'