n I tell you what happened
to a wood-ranger that I knew wanst, and a dacent man he was, and
wouldn't say the thing in a lie.

"Well, you see, he kem home one night mighty tired--for he was out wid
a party in the domain cock-shootin' that day; and whin he got back
to his lodge he threw a few logs o' wood an the fire to make himself
comfortable, and he tuk whatever little matther he had for his
supper--and afther that he felt himself so tired that he wint to bed.
But you're to understand that, though he wint to bed, it was more for
to rest himself like, than to sleep, for it was airly; and so he jist
wint into bed, and there he divarted himself lookin' at the fire, that
was blazin' as merry as a bonfire an the hearth.

"Well, as he was lyin' that-a-way, jist thinkin' o' nothin' at all,
what should come into the place but a fox. But I must tell you, what
I forgot to tell you, before, that the ranger's house was on the
bordhers o' the wood, and he had no one to live wid him but
himself, barrin' the dogs that he had the care iv, that was his only
companions, and he had a hole cut an the door, with a swingin' boord
to it, that the dogs might go in or out accordin' as it plazed thim;
and, by dad, the fox kem in as I told you, through the hole in the
door, as bould as a ram, and walked over to the fire, and sat down
foreninst it.

"Now it was mighty provokin' that all the dogs was out; they wor
rovin' about the wood, you see, lookin for to catch rabbits to ate, or
some other mischief, and so it happened that there wasn't as much as
one individual dog in the place; and, by gor, I'll go bail the fox
knew that right well before he put his nose inside the ranger's lodge.

"Well, the ranger was in hopes some o' the dogs id come home and ketch
the chap, and he was loath to stir hand or fut himself, afeared o'
frightenin' away the fox, but by gor, he could hardly keep his timper
at all at all, whin he seen the fox take his pipe aff o' the hob where
he left it afore he wint to bed, and puttin' the bowl o' the pipe into
the fire to kindle it (it's as thrue as I'm here), he began to smoke
foreninst the fire, as nath'ral as any other man you ever seen.

"'Musha, bad luck to your impidence, you long-tailed blackguard,' says
the ranger, 'and is it smokin' my pipe you are? Oh, thin, by this and
by that, iv I had my gun convaynient to me, it's fire and smoke of
another sort, and what you wouldn't bargain for, I'd give you,' says
he. But