o you," said I.

"A good morning to your hanner, a merry afternoon and a roaring, joyous
evening--that is the worst luck I wish to ye."

"Are you a native of these parts?" said I.

"Not exactly, your hanner--I am a native of the city of Dublin, or,
what's all the same thing, of the village of Donnybrook, which is close
by it."

"A celebrated place," said I.

"Your hanner may say that; all the world has heard of Donnybrook, owing
to the humours of its fair. Many is the merry tune I have played to the
boys at that fair."

"You are a professor of music, I suppose?"

"And not a very bad one, as your hanner will say, if you allow me to play
you a tune."

"Can you play Croppies Lie Down?"

"I cannot, your hanner, my fingers never learnt to play such a blackguard
tune; but if you wish to hear Croppies Get Up I can oblige ye."

"You are a Roman Catholic, I suppose?"

"I am not, your hanner--I am a Catholic to the back-bone, just like my
father before me. Come, your hanner, shall I play ye Croppies Get Up?"

"No," said I; "it's a tune that doesn't please my ears. If, however, you
choose to play Croppies Lie Down, I'll give you a shilling."

"Your hanner will give me a shilling?"

"Yes," said I; "if you play Croppies Lie Down; but you know you cannot
play it, your fingers never learned the tune."

"They never did, your hanner; but they have heard it played of ould by
the blackguard Orange fiddlers of Dublin on the first of July, when the
Protestant boys used to walk round Willie's statue on College Green--so
if your hanner gives me the shilling, they may perhaps bring out
something like it."

"Very good," said I; "begin!"

"But, your hanner, what shall we do for the words? though my fingers may
remember the tune my tongue does not remember the words--that is unless
. . ."

"I give another shilling," said I; "but never mind you the words; I know
the words, and will repeat them."

"And your hanner will give me a shilling?"

"If you play the tune," said I.

"Hanner bright, your hanner?"

"Honour bright," said I.

Thereupon the fiddler taking his bow and shouldering his fiddle, struck
up in first-rate style the glorious tune, which I had so often heard with
rapture in the days of my boyhood in the barrack-yard of Clonmel; whilst
I, walking by his side as he stumped along, caused the welkin to resound
with the words, which were the delight of the young gentlemen of the
Protestant academy of that beaut