e is
unknowable! Here's a Carol I bought from him, an' if you wor but to hear
the explanations he put to it! Why Father Hoolaghan could hardly outdo
him!"

"Divil a-man in the five parishes can dance 'Jig Polthogue' wid him,
for all that," said Barny. "Many a time Granua an' I played it for him,
an' you'd know the tune upon his feet. He undherstands a power o' ranns
and prayers, an' has charms an' holy herbs for all kinds of ailments, no
doubt."

"These men, you see," observed Mrs. M'Kenna, in the true spirit of
credulity and superstition, "may do many things that the likes of us
oughtn't to do, by raison of their great fastin' an' prayin'."

"Thrue for you, Alley," replied her husband: "but come, let us have a
sup more in comfort: the sleep's gone _a shraugran_ an us this night,
any way, so, Barny, give us a song, an' afther that we'll have a taste
o' prayers, to close the night."

"But you don't think of the long journey I've before me," replied Barny:
"how-and-iver, if you promise to send some one home wid me, we'll have
the song. I wouldn't care, but the night bein' dark, you see, I'll want
somebody to guide me."

"Faith, an' it's but rasonable, Barny, an' you must get Rody home wid
you. I suppose he's asleep in his bed by this, but we'll rouse him!"

Barny replied by a loud triumphant laugh, for this was one of his
standing jests.

"Well, Frank," said he, "I never thought you war so soft, and me can
pick my steps me same at night as in daylight! Sure that's the way
I done them to-night, when one o' Granua's strings broke. 'Sweets o'
psin,' says I; 'a candle--bring me a candle immediately.' An' down came
Rody in all haste wid a candle. 'Six eggs to you, Rody,' says myself,
'an' half-a-dozen o' them rotten! but you're a bright boy, to bring
a candle to a blind man!' and then he stood _a bouloare_ to the whole
house--ha, ha, ha!"

Barny, who was not the man to rise first from the whiskey, commenced the
relation of his choicest anecdotes; old Frank and the family, being now
in a truly genial mood, entered into the spirit of his jests, so that
between chat, songs, and whiskey, the hour had now advanced to four
o'clock. The fiddler was commencing another song, when the door opened,
and Frank presented himself, nearly, but not altogether in a state
of intoxication; his face was besmeared with blood; and his whole
appearance that of a man under the influence of strong passion, such as
would seem to be produced b