l ourselves, and I'm glad
to hear that he's afraid of his clargy; but let him be prepared for
me on Thursday, and maybe I'll let him know something he never heard
before; I'll open his eyes for him."

"Do you hear that, Briney?" said the father, aside to the son, who knelt
at his knee; "you must give up yer hurling and idling now, you see.
Thank yer Reverence; thank you, docthor."

"_On Friday, in Barny O'Darby's, alias Barny Butters_. Are you there,
Barny?"

"All that's left of me is here, sir."

"Well, Barny, how is the butter trade this season?"

"It's a little on the rise, now, sir: in a, month or so I'm expecting it
will be brisk enough. Boney, sir, is doing that much for us anyway."

"Ay, and, Barny, he'll do more than that for us: God prosper him at all
events; I only hope the time's coming, Barny, when every one will be
able to eat his own butter, and his own beef, too."

"God send it, sir."

"Well, Barny, I didn't hear from your brother Ned these two or three
months; what has become of him?"

"Ah, yer Reverence, Pentland done him up."

"What! the gauger?"

"He did, the thief; but maybe he'll sup sorrow for it, afore he's much
oulder."

"And who do you think informed, Barny?"

"Oh, I only wish we knew that, sir."

"I wish I knew it, and if I thought any miscreant here would become an
informer, I'd make an example of him. Well, Barny, on Friday next: but I
suppose Ned has a drop still--eh, Barny?"

"Why, sir, we'll be apt to have something stronger nor wather, anyhow."

"Very well, Barny; your family was always a dacent and spirited family,
I'll say that for them; but, tell me, Barny, did you begin to dam the
river yet? * I think the trouts and eels are running by this time."

* It is usual among the peasantry to form, about
Michaelmas, small artificial cascades, called dams,
under which they place long, deep, wicker creels,
shaped like inverted cones, for the purpose of securing
the fish that are now on their return to the large
rivers, after having deposited their spawn in the
higher and remoter streams. It is surprising what a
number of fish, particularly of eels, are caught in
this manner--sometimes from one barrel to three in the
course of a single night!

"The creels are made, yer Reverence, though we did not set them yet; but
on Tuesday night, sir, wid the help o' God, we'll be ready."

"You can corn the trouts, Barny, and the eels