cousin's place) with Tom Lyons and
Dinny Murphy, when I saw a big man coming across the flat with a swag on
his back.

'"B' God, there's the Flour o' Wheat comin' this minute," says Dinny
Murphy to Tom, "an' no one else."

'"B' God, ye're right!" says Tom.

'There were a lot of new chums in the big room at the back, drinking and
dancing and singing, and Tom says to Dinny--

'"Dinny, I'll bet you a quid an' the Flour'll run against some of those
new chums before he's an hour on the spot."

'But Dinny wouldn't take him up. He knew the Flour.

'"Good day, Tom! Good day, Dinny!"

'"Good day to you, Flour!"

'I was introduced.

'"Well, boys, come along," says the Flour.

'And so we went inside with him. The Flour had a few drinks, and then
he went into the back-room where the new chums were. One of them was
dancing a jig, and so the Flour stood up in front of him and commenced
to dance too. And presently the new chum made a step that didn't please
the Flour, so he hit him between the eyes, and knocked him down--fair
an' flat on his back.

'"Take that," he says. "Take that, me lovely whipper-snapper, an' lay
there! You can't dance. How dare ye stand up in front of me face to
dance when ye can't dance?"

'He shouted, and drank, and gambled, and danced, and sang, and fought
the new chums all night, and in the morning he said--

'"Well, boys, we had a grand time last night. Come and have a drink with
me."

'And of course they went in and had a drink with him.

*****

'Next morning the Flour was walking along the street, when he met a
drunken, disreputable old hag, known among the boys as the "Nipper".

'"Good MORNING, me lovely Flour o' Wheat!" says she.

'"Good MORNING, me lovely Nipper!" says the Flour.

'And with that she outs with a bottle she had in her dress, and smashed
him across the face with it. Broke the bottle to smithereens!

'A policeman saw her do it, and took her up; and they had the Flour as a
witness, whether he liked it or not. And a lovely sight he looked, with
his face all done up in bloody bandages, and only one damaged eye and a
corner of his mouth on duty.

'"It's nothing at all, your Honour," he said to the S.M.; "only a
pin-scratch--it's nothing at all. Let it pass. I had no right to speak
to the lovely woman at all."

'But they didn't let it pass,--they fined her a quid.

'And the Flour paid the fine.

'But, alas for human nature! It was pretty much the same even i