r Hogan," said the cook. "Oh,
but you're a witty man; but I'd rather have a yard of your lace, any
day, than a mile o' your discourse."

"Sure, you ought not to mind my goin' _on_, when you're lettin'
another man go _off_, that-a-way," said Larry, pointing to Andy,
who, hat in hand, was quitting the kitchen.

"Faix an' he mustn't go," said the cook; "there's two words to that
bargain;" and she closed the door, and put her back against it.

"My mother's expectin' me, ma'am," said Andy.

"Throth, if 't was your wife was expectin' you, she must wait a bit,"
said the cook; "sure you wouldn't leave the thirsty curse on my
kitchen?--you must take a dhrop before you go; besides the dogs outside
the place would ate you onless there was some one they knew along wid
you: and sure, if a dog bit you, you couldn't dhrink wather afther, let
alone a dhrop o' beer, or a thrifle o' sper'ts: isn't that thrue,
Misther Hogan?"

"Indeed an' it is, ma'am," answered Larry; "no one can dhrink afther a
dog bites them, and that's the rayson that the larn'd fackleties calls
the disaise high-_dhry_----"

"High-dhry what?" asked the cook.

"That's what I'm thinkin' of," said Larry.
"High-dhry--high-dhry--something."

"There's high-dhry snuff," said the cook.

"Oh, no--no, no, ma'am!" said Larry, waving his hand and shaking his
head, as if unwilling to be interrupted in endeavouring to recall

"Some fleeting remembrance;"

"high-dhry--po--po--something about po; 'faith, it's not unlike
popery," said Larry.

"Don't say popery," cried the cook; "it's a dirty word! Say Roman
Catholic when you spake of the faith."

"Do you think _I_ would undhervalue the faith?" said Larry, casting up
his eyes. "Oh, Missis Mulligan, you know little of me; d' you think I
would undhervalue what is my hope, past, present, and to come?--_what_
makes our hearts light when our lot is heavy?--_what_ makes us love our
neighbour as ourselves?"

"Indeed, Misther Hogan," broke in the cook, "I never knew any one
fonder of calling in on a neighbour than yourself, particularly about
dinner-time----"

"What makes us," said Larry, who would _not_ let the cook
interrupt his outpouring of pious eloquence--"what makes us fierce in
prosperity to our friends, and meek in adversity to our inimies?"

"Oh! Misther Hogan!" said the cook, blessing herself.

"What puts the leg undher you when you are in throuble? why, your
faith: what makes you below desait, and above r