er's bidding, who
wasn't a bit behindhand with any of them in cutting a dash. 'Shane,'
says he to me, 'you know the Finigans of ould, that they won't be
contint with what would do another, and that, except they go beyant
the thing, entirely, they won't be satisfied. They'll have the whole
countryside at the wadding, and we must let them see that we have a
spirit and a faction of our own,' says he, 'that we needn't be ashamed
of. They've got all kinds of ateables in cart-loads, and as we're to get
the drinkables, we must see and give as good as they'll bring. I myself,
and your mother, will go round and invite all we can think of, and let
you and Mickey go up the hills to Tim Cassidy, and get fifteen gallons
of whiskey, for I don't think less will do us.'

"This we accordingly complied with, as I said, and surely better stuff
never went down the red lane (* Humorous periphrasis for throat) than
the same whiskey; for the people knew nothing about watering it then,
at all at all. The next thing I did was to get a fine shop cloth coat, a
pair of top-boots, and buckskin breeches fit for a squire; along with a
new Caroline hat that would throw off the wet like a duck. Mat Kavanagh,
the schoolmaster from Findramore bridge, lent me his watch for the
occasion, after my spending near two days learning from him to know what
o'clock it was. At last, somehow, I masthered that point so well that,
in a quarter of an hour at least, I could give a dacent guess at the
time upon it.

"Well, at last the day came. The wedding morning, or the bride's part
of it,* as they say, was beautiful. It was then the month of July. The
evening before my father"* and my brother went over to Jemmy Finigan's,
to make the regulations for the wedding. We, that is my party, were to
be at the bride's house about ten o'clock, and we were then to proceed,
all on horseback, to the priest's, to be married. We were then, after
drinking something at Tom Hance's public-house, to come back as far
as the Dumbhill, where we were to start and run for the bottle. That
morning we were all up at the shriek of day. From six o'clock my own
faction, friends and neighbors, began to come, all mounted; and about
eight o'clock there was a whole regiment of them, some on horses, some
on mules, others on raheries** and asses; and, by my word, I believe
little Dick Snudaghan, the tailor's apprentice, that had a hand in
making my wedding-clothes, was mounted upon a buck goat, with a