pleased if you called me
cushla--something--' 'Cushla machree, ma vourneen--the pulse of my
heart--my darling,' said Jack, consthering it (the thief) for her, for
fraid she wouldn't know it well enough.

"'Yes,' she replied, 'cushla machree; well, as I can pronounce it,
acushla machree, will you come in to your breakfast?' said the darling,
giving Jack a smile that would be enough, any day, to do up the heart
of an Irishman. Jack, accordingly, went after her, thinking of nothing
except herself; but on going in he could see no sign of her, so he-sat
down to his breakfast, though a single ounce, barring a couple of pounds
of beef, the poor fellow couldn't ate, at that bout, for' thinking of
her.

"Well, he went again to his work, and thought he'd have better luck; but
it was still the ould game--three shovelfuls would come in for ev'ry one
he'd throw out; and now he began, in earnest, to feel something about
his heart that he didn't like, bekase he couldn't, for the life of him,
help thinking of the three hundred and sixty-four heads, and the empty
hook. At last he gave up the work entirely, and took it into his head to
make himself scarce from about the old fellow's castle, altogether; and
without more to do, he set off, never saying as much as 'good-bye' to
his master: but he hadn't got as far as the lower end of the yard, when
his ould friend, the dog, steps out of a kennel, and meets him full but
in the teeth.

"'So, Jack,' says he, 'you're going to give us leg bail, I see; but walk
back with yourself, you spalpeen, this minute, and join your work, or
if you don't,' says he, 'it'll be worse for your health. I'm not so much
your enemy now as I was, bekase you have a friend in coort that you know
nothing about; so just do whatever you are bid, and keep never minding.'

"Jack went back with a heavy heart, as you may be sure, knowing that,
whenever the black cur began to blarney him, there was no good to come
in his way. He accordingly went into the stable, but consuming to the
hand's turn he did, knowing it would be only useless; for, instead of
clearing it out, he'd be only filling it.

"It was near dinner-time, and Jack was very sad and sorrowful, as how
could he be otherwise, poor fellow, with such a bloody-minded ould chap
to dale with? when up comes the darling of the world again, to call him
to his dinner.

"'Well, Jack,' says she, with her white arms so beautiful, and her dark
clusters tossed about by the