grey--hurroo--whack--hurroo!"

"Masther, sir, my father bid me ax you home to yer dinner."

"No, he'll come to huz--come wid me if you plase, sir."

"Sir, never heed them; my mother, sir, has some of what you know--of the
flitch I brought to Shoneen on last Aisther, sir."

This was a subject on which the boys gave themselves great liberty; an
invitation, even when not accepted, being an indemnity for the day; it
was usually followed by a battle between the claimants, and bloody noses
sometimes were the issue. The master himself, after deciding to go where
he was certain of getting the best dinner, generally put an end to
the quarrels by a reprimand, and then gave notice to the disappointed
claimants of the successive days on which he would attend at their
respective houses.

"Boys, you all know my maxim; to go, for fear of any jealousies, boys,
wherever I get the worst dinner; so tell me now, boys, what yer dacent
mothers have all got at home for me?"

"My mother killed a fat hen yesterday, sir, and you'll have a lump of
bacon and flat dutch along wid it."

"We'll have hung beef and greens, sir."

"We tried the praties this mornin', sir, and we'll have new praties, and
bread and butther, sir."

"Well, it's all good, boys; but rather than show favor or affection, do
you see, I'll go wid Andy, here, and take share of the hen an' bacon:
but, boys, for all that, I'm fonder of the other things, you persave;
and as I can't go wid you, Mat, tell your respectable mother that
I'll be with her to-morrow; and with you, Larry, _ma bouchal_, the day
afther."

If a master were a single man he usually went round with the scholars
each night--but there were generally a few comfortable farmers, leading
men in the parish, at whose house he chiefly resided; and the children
of these men were treated, with the grossest and most barefaced
partiality. They were altogether privileged persons, and had liberty
to beat and abuse the other children of the school, who were certain
of being most unmercifully flogged, if they even dared to prefer a
complaint against the favorites. Indeed the instances of atrocious
cruelty in hedge schools were almost incredible, and such as in the
present enlightened time, would not be permitted. As to the state of
the "poor, scholar," it exceeded belief; for he was friendless and
unprotected. But though legal prosecutions in those days were never
resorted to, yet, according to the characteristic notions