which he was vain; his black hair
was cropped close, except a thin portion of it which was trimmed quite
evenly across his eyebrows; he was rather bow-limbed, and when walking
looked upwards, holding out his elbows from his body, and letting the
lower parts of his arms fall down, so that he went as if he carried a
keg under each; his coat, though not well made, was of the best glossy
broadcloth--and his long clerical boots went up about his knees like
a dragoon's; there was an awkward stiffness about him, in very good
keeping with a dark melancholy cast of countenance, in which, however, a
man might discover an air of simplicity not to be found in the visage of
his superior Father Philemy.

The latter gentleman filled the chair, as I said, and carved the goose;
on his right sat Captain Wilson; on his left, the auxiliary--next to
them Father Con, the nephews, Peter Malone, _et cetera_. To enumerate
the items of the dinner is unnecessary, as our readers have a pretty
accurate notion of them from what we have already said. We can only
observe, that when Phaddhy saw it laid, and all the wheels of the system
fairly set agoing, he looked at Parrah More with an air of triumph
which he could not conceal. It is also unnecessary for us to give the
conversation in full; nor, indeed, would we attempt giving any portion
of it, except for the purpose of showing the spirit in which a religious
ceremony such as it is, is too frequently closed.

The talk in the beginning was altogether confined to the clergymen and
Mr. Wilson, including a few diffident contributions from "Peter Malone"
and the "two nephews."

"Mr. M'Guirk," observed Captain Wilson, after the conversation had taken
several turns, "I'm sure that in the course of your professional duties,
sir, you must have had occasion to make many observations upon human
nature, from the circumstance of seeing it in every condition and state
of feeling possible; from the baptism of the infant, until the aged man
receives the last rites of your church, and the soothing consolation of
religion from your hand."

"Not a doubt of it, Phaddhy," said Father Philemy to Phaddhy, whom
he had been addressing at the time, "not a doubt of it; and I'll
do everything in my power to get him _in_* too, and I am told he is
bright."

* That is--into Maynooth college--the great object of
ambition to the son of an Irish peasant or rather to
his parent.

"Uncle," said one of the nephew