em so bad, anyhow.'

"'Me fond of them!' replied the other;' 'why, man, they're a set of the
most gluttonous, black-looking hypocrites that ever walked on neat's
leather; and ought to be hunted out of the country--hunted out of the
country, by the light of day! every one of them; for they do nothing but
egg up the people against the Protestants.'

"'God help you, Mr. Johnston,' replied the invalid, 'I pity you from
my heart for the opinion you hould about them. I suppose if you were
sthruck dead on the spot wid a blast from the fairies, that you think a
priest couldn't cure you by one word's spaking?'

"'Cure me!' said Vengeance, with a laugh of disdain; 'by the light of
day! if I caught one of them curing me, I'd give him the purtiest chase
you ever saw in your life, across the hills.'

"'Don't you know,' said Mick, 'that priest Dannelly cured Bob Beaty of
the falling sickness--until he broke the vow that was laid upon him,
of not going into a church, and the minute he crossed the church-door,
didn't he dhrop down as bad as ever--and what could the minister do for
him?'

"'And don't you know,' rejoined Vengeance, 'that that's all a parcel of
the most lying stuff possible; lies--lies--all lies--and vagabondism?
Why, Mick, you Papishes worship the priests; you think they can bring
you to heaven at a word. By the light of day, they must have good sport
laughing at you, when they get among one another. Why don't they teach
you and give you the Bible to read, the ribelly rascals? but they're
afraid you'd know too much then.'

"'Well, Mr. Johnston,' said Mick, 'I b'lieve you'll never have a good
opinion of them, at any rate.'

"'Ay, when the sky falls,' replied Vengeance; 'but you're now on your
death bed, and why don't you pitch them to ould Nick, and get a Bible?
Get a Bible, man; there's a pair of them in my house, that's never used
at all--except my mother's, and she's at it night and day. I'll send one
of them down to you: turn yourself to God--to your Redeemer, that died
on the mount of Jehosha-phat, or somewhere about Jerusalem, for your
sins--and don't go out of the world from the hand of a rascally priest,
with a band about your eyes, as if you were at blind-man's-buff, for, by
the light of day, you're as blind as a bat in a religious way.'

"'There's no use in sending me a Bible,' replied the invalid, 'for I
can't read it: but, whatever you may think, I'm very willing to lave my
salvation with my priest.'