1832.] [ 503 ] 



THE FRESH WATER WHALE. 



BY THE AUTHOR OF " THKEE COURSES AND A DESSERT." 



" FASHIONABLE MOVEMENTS. The bog of Kilmacuddy to meet his Majesty." John 

 Bull Newspaper, Aug. 1821. 



THE widow of Blundus O'Rindan, at her decease, bequeathed the whole 

 of the property which that worthy old man had left her, to his nephew 

 and namesake, and to her own niece Luckless O'Carroll, share and share 

 alike. The nephew had been born somewhere about Knocklofty, but 

 what had become of Blundus since he saw the light nobody well knew. 

 True it was though, that he found out when his aunt died, and what she 

 had left him : so, within a week after her wake, who should give Luckie 

 O'Carrol a tap on her shoulder, there where she was milking the late Mrs. 

 O'Carrol's cows in the moat, but himself? Luckless, or Luckie, as 

 she was usually called, with a view to destroy the bad omen of her bap- 

 tismal, had been living for many's the year with her aunt ; so, as soon 

 as Blundus made known who he was, she took him into the house - } but, 

 by a back way, because of his rags ; not noticing them though, or letting 

 him know it was a back way, for Luckie had a good heart in her prim 

 little body, and Blundus, though mighty proud-spoken, and in bad condi- 

 tion, she couldn't but see was handsome, and not above thirty. 



When they'd got in, the first thing she did, was to persuade him to 

 try on the last new suit bought by her uncle, which, since his death, had 

 been enshrined in lavender ; and, when he was in it, she coaxed him not 

 to think of taking it off again, because it became him so well, and nobody 

 had such a right to it. Then she brought in her two men, and her old 

 woman, and a piper that was warming himself; and, telling them who he 

 was, got out the whiskey. For six days Blundus condescended to be 

 drunk with the two men, the old woman, and the piper, while little Luckie 

 did the work, and kept things going on as they should do. On the 

 morning of the seventh, after giving him a pigrgin of spring water to quench 

 the fire in his throat, she told him it was time to be sensible, and set 

 about dividing that their poor aunt had left them. On this point, 

 because Blundus had bragged, while he was drunk, to the piper, of his 

 'cuteness and scholarship, she'd somehow expected what wouldn't have 

 been pleasant : but she was wrong. ' The money and goods," says he, 

 " Miss Luckless, we'll have as well as we can : you'll take the cows, and 

 I'll have the horse and the whiskey, and, may be, a pig or two : of course 

 we couldn't quarrel about such trifles. But I'm firm and fixed in this : - 

 We'll go to law unless I get the patrimonial part of the property, the 

 hereditary estate of the O'Rindaris as it was before my father sould his 

 rights to your uncle, for no better than a mess of pottage the Township 

 of Fidlimid, as it anciently was called, and shall be again." 



" And what will I have?" asked Luckie. 



u You'll get for your share of that which is'nt moveable," replied 

 Blundus, " the nice bit of a farm, here we are, in the bog, Miss O'Carrol. 

 If you don't like the habitation, I'll claim as heir at law, and, may be, 

 dispute the title of my venerated namesake, and the will of his widow." 



Luckie thought he must surely be mad ; but not being able to bring 

 him to her opinion, for he was terrifically argumentative, she quietly 



