l had his eye about
him, comes over to me, and says, 'Shane, I doubt there will be bad
work amongst these people, particularly betwixt the Dorans and the
Flannagans--the truth is, that the old business of the law-shoot will
break out, except they're kept from drink, take my word for it, there
will be blood spilled. The running for the bottle will be a good
excuse,' says he, 'so I think we had better move home before they go too
far in the drink.'

"Well, any way, there was truth in this; so, accordingly, the reckoning
was ped, and, as this was the thrate of the weddiners to the bride and
bridegroom, every one of the men clubbed his share, but neither I
nor the girls anything. Ha--ha--ha! Am I alive at all? I
never--ha--ha--ha--!--I never laughed so much in one day as I did in
that, today I can't help laughing at it yet. Well, well! when we all got
on the top of our horses, and sich other iligant cattle as we had--the
crowning of a king was nothing to it. We were now purty well I thank
you, as to liquor; and, as the knot was tied, and all safe, there was no
end to our good spirits; so, when we took the road, the men were in high
blood, particularly Billy Cormick, the tailor, who had a pair of long
cavalry spurs upon him, that he was scarcely able to walk in--and he
not more nor four feet high. The women, too, were in blood, having
faces upon them, with the hate of the day and the liquor, as full as
trumpeters.

"There was now a great jealousy among thim that were bint for winning
the bottle; and when one horseman would cross another, striving to have
the whip hand of him when they'd set off, why you see, his horse would
get a cut of the whip itself for his pains. My uncle and I, however,
did all we could to pacify them; and their own bad horsemanship, and
the screeching of the women, prevented any strokes at that time. Some of
them were ripping up ould sores against one another as they went along;
others, particularly the youngsters, with their sweethearts behind them,
coorting away for the life of them, and some might be heard miles off,
singing and laughing; and you may be sure the fiddler behind my uncle
wasn't idle, no more nor another. In this way we dashed on gloriously,
till we came in sight of the Dumb-hill, where we were to start for the
bottle. And now you might see the men themselves on their saddles, sacks
and suggans; and the women tying kerchiefs and shawls about their caps
and bonnets, to keep them from