' said Father Corrigan; how did you speed to-day?'

"'How can any man speed, that comes after you?' says the Friar; 'I'm
after travelling the half of the parish for that poor bag of oats that
you see standing against the ditch.'

"'In other words, Frank,' says the Priest, 'you took Allhadhawan in your
way, and in about half a dozen houses filled your sack, and then turned
your horse's head towards the good cheer, by way of accident only.'

"'And was it by way of accident, Mr. Secular, that I got you and that
illoquent young gintleman, your curate, here before me? Do you feel
that, man of the world? Father James, your health, though--you're a good
young man as far as saying nothing goes; but it's better to sit still
than to rise up and fall, so I commend you for your discretion,' says
he; 'but I'm afeared your master there won't make you much fitter for
the kingdom of heaven any how.'

"'I believe, Father Corrigan,' says my uncle, who loved to see the
priest and the friar at it, 'that you've met with your match--I think
Father Rooney's able for you.'

"'Oh, sure,' says Father Corrigan, he was joker to the college of the
Sorebones (* Sorbonne) in Paris; he got as much education as enabled him
to say mass in Latin, and to beg oats in English, for his jokes.'

"'Troth, and,' says the friar, 'if you were to get your larning on the
same terms, you'd be guilty of very little knowledge; why, Michael,
I never knew you to attempt a joke but once, and I was near shedding
tears, there was something so very sorrowful in it.'

"This brought the laugh against the priest--'Your health, Molshy,'
says he, winking at my mother-in-law, and then giving my uncle, who sat
beside him, a nudge; 'I believe, Brian, I'm giving it to him.' ''Tis
yourself that is,' says my uncle; 'give him a wipe or two more.' 'Wait
till he answers the last,' says the friar.

"'He's always joking,' says Father James, 'when he thinks he'll make any
thing by it.'

"'Ah!' says the friar, 'then God help you both if you were left to your
jokes for your feeding; for a poorer pair of gentlemen wouldn't be found
in Christendom.'

"'And I believe,' says Father Corrigan, 'if you depinded for your
feeding upon your divinity instead of your jokes, you'd be as poor as a
man in the last stage of a consumption.'

"This drew the laugh against the friar, who smiled himself; but he was a
dry man that never laughed much.

"'Sure,' says the friar, who was seldom at a loss