hen I know I can get between those bars there, and
run round the college park in three minutes and twelve seconds, I feel that
there's not many a gaol in Ireland can howld, and the divil a policeman in
the island could catch, me."' And she had to lean over the back of a chair
to steady herself while she laughed at the conceit.

'I think, after all,' said Kearney, 'I'd rather keep out of the scrape than
trust to that way of escaping it.'

'_He_ wouldn't,' said she. 'He'd rather be seducin' soldiers in Barrack
Street, or swearing in a new Fenian, or nailing a death-warnin' on a hall
door, than he'd be lord mayor! If he wasn't in mischief he'd like to be in
his grave.'

'And what comes of it all?' said Kearney, scarcely giving any exact meaning
to his words.

'That's what I do be saying myself,' cried the hag. 'When they can
transport you for singing a ballad, and send you to pick oakum for a green
cravat, it's time to take to some other trade than patriotism!' And with
this reflection she shuffled away, to procure the materials for breakfast.

The fresh rolls, the watercress, a couple of red herrings devilled as those
ancient damsels are expert in doing, and a smoking dish of rashers and
eggs, flanked by a hissing tea-kettle, soon made their appearance, the hag
assuring Kearney that a stout knock with the poker on the back of the grate
would summon Mr. Donogan almost instantaneously--so rapidly, indeed, and
with such indifference as to raiment, that, as she modestly declared, 'I
have to take to my heels the moment I call him,' and the modest avowal was
confirmed by her hasty departure.

The assurance was so far correct, that scarcely had Kearney replaced the
poker, when the door opened, and one of the strangest figures he had ever
beheld presented itself in the room. He was a short, thick-set man with a
profusion of yellowish hair, which, divided in the middle of the head, hung
down on either side to his neck--beard and moustache of the same hue, left
little of the face to be seen but a pair of lustrous blue eyes, deep-sunken
in their orbits, and a short wide-nostrilled nose, which bore the closest
resemblance to a lion's. Indeed, a most absurd likeness to the king of
beasts was the impression produced on Kearney as this wild-looking fellow
bounded forward, and stood there amazed at finding a stranger to confront
him.

His dress was a flannel-shirt and trousers, and a pair of old slippers
which had once been Kearne