l in price; they'd
kim down so low, that we ked only git twenty-five cents a bushel for
'em!"

"Mother ov Moses! only twenty-five cents a bushel!"

"Thet was all they'd fetch--offer 'em when an' wheer we would. In
coorse, we wan't fools enough to take thet--the dernationed pegs hed
cost us more in Bosting!"

"Divil a doubt ov it? But fwhat did yez do wid 'em, anyhow?"

"We-ell, Mister Tigg, we weer cleer beat at fust; an' didn't know what
to do--neyther me'r my pertner. But arter takin' a good think over it,
I seed a way o' gitting out o' the scrape--leestwise 'ithout sech a loss
as sellin' the pegs at twenty-five cents the bushel. I seed a chence o'
gitting rid o' them at fifty cents."

"Arrah, now! in fwhat way, comrade?"

"You've seed boot-pegs, I recking, Mister Tigg?"

"An' shure I hiv. Aren't they the same that's in these suttlers'
brogues we've got on--bad luck to them?"

"Jess the same--only whitier when they air new."

"Be japers! I think I remimber seein' a barrel full ov thim in New
Yark."

"Very certing it were them--they air usooaly packed in berr'ls. Can you
think o' anything they looked like?"

"Wil, in troth, they looked more loike oats than anything I can
recollect. Shure they did look moighty like oats!"

"An' don't ee kalkerlate they'd a looked more like oats, ef they'd been
pointed at both ends instead o' one!"

"In troth, would they--all that same."

"We-ell, thet's the very idee thet kem inter my mind at the time."

"Arrah now, is it? An' fwhat did yez do wid the pegs then?"

"_Jest sharpened the other eends o' 'em, an' sold 'em for oats_!"

The puzzled, half-incredulous stare, on the countenance of the
Hibernian, was ridiculous in the extreme. The allegation of the Yankee
had deprived him of speech; and for some moments he sat gazing at the
latter, evidently in doubt whether to give credence to the story, or
reject it as a little bit of a "sell" upon the part of his comrade--with
whose eccentricity of character he was well acquainted. Equally
ludicrous was the look of gravity on the countenance of the other--which
he continued to preserve under the continued gaze of his comrade, with
all the solemnity of a judge upon the bench. It was as much as my
companion and I could do to restrain our laughter; but we were desirous
of witnessing the finale of the affair, and, by an effort, succeeded in
holding in.

"Och, now, Misther Shure-shat!" gasped the Irishman at length