f the
priest, Denis and his wife at the other, and by degrees the table got
quite full; so much so, that when the boys saw one another taking
their seats, they were as eager as before they had been slow; and
they hustled each other at the bottom of the table, till they were
so crowded that they hadn't room to use their arms. Pat sat at the
bottom, and he and the priest emulated each other in the zeal and
celerity with which they cut up and distributed the joints before
them.

At Pat's end of the table plates were scarce, and the boys round him
took the huge lumps of blood-red mutton in their fists, and seemed
perfectly independent of such conventional wants as knives and forks,
in the ease and enjoyment with which they dispatched their repast.
At last Brady had done all to the joint that carving could do, and
having kept a tolerably sufficient lion's share for himself, he
passed the bone down the table, which was speedily divided into as
many portions as nature had intended that it should be.

Matters were conducted in a rather more decorous manner among the
aristocrats at Father John's end of the table--though even here they
were carried on in a somewhat rapid and voracious fashion. The priest
helped Feemy and Ussher, Mary and her husband; and then remarking
that he had done all the hard work of the evening, and that he
thought it was time to get a bit himself, he filled a moderate plate
for his own consumption, and passed the joint down to be treated
after the same manner as its fellow.

As long as the eating continued there was not much said; but when
the viands had disappeared, and the various bottles came into
requisition, the clatter of tongues became loud and joyous; and
though the first part of the entertainment had to all appearance come
to a rather too speedy termination for want of material to carry
it on, there seemed, from the quantity of whiskey produced, little
chance of any similar disappointment in what the greater portion of
the guests considered the more agreeable part of the entertainment.

"Well, Denis," said Father John, "I believe I've done all I can this
time; and as I know you'll want to be looking after the cow that's in
calf--no, not the cow, but the pigs--I'll be off."

"Folly on, Father John, folly on; it's always the way with yer
riverence--to be making yer game of a poor boy like me! But you're
not going out of this till you've dhrunk Mary's health here, and
heard a tune on the pipe