1832.] The Fresh Water Whale. 507 



into his amis, '* poor Luckie is mad, or the world's at an end ! I'd lost 

 my little farm, and find it, shorn of naught but its margin, here, entire 

 upon your township !" 



" Oh ! shades of my ancestors !" exclaimed O'Rindan, almost uncon- 

 sciously, " I see through it all in a moment. The fertile little farm, 

 knowing it belonged to the head of the family, has floated away down the 

 stream, taking advantage of last night's convulsion, and been landed by the 

 waters, plump upon my flat and barren, but illustrious domain. This 

 this is the whale, by which the township of Fidlimid is to be for ever 

 enriched." 



" Blundus," said Luckless, starting from his bosom, " your meaness almost 

 makes me hate you. If the farm has left its anchorage, it's still mine, you 

 know, or tis to whom I've sold it." 



" Why so, Miss Luckless," replied Blundus ; " whatsoever comes hither, 

 in the shape of wreckage, flatsome or jetsome, pertains to the lord of 

 the township, by special grant from the Crown ; and I am he, I suspect." 



" You couldn't wrong me, Blundus ; cousin Blundus, could you ? " " Not 

 for the world, Miss Luckless ; but if I had a plant worth millions, don't 

 you see, and a bird carried away a seed, and dropped it in your ground, 

 you'd think it hard and unjust of me to claim the produce ; wouldn't you 

 now ? Just so it would be if you questioned my right to a few acres of 

 yours j acres, that Providence, to which we all should bow meekly, and as 

 becomes mortals, by means of a stream, has cast upon my property." 



" Ah ! man ! don't think to flummery me that way. I've a tack, to the 

 tune of thirty years, of the farm ; and of course I'll uphold it. !" 



" True, Luckie, you've a lease of certain land, but not with the same 

 'butments and boundaries as this." 



" What's that you're saying, Blundus ?" 



" It's this, Luckie ; have you tack of any thing, bounded on the north 

 by the butt-end of Fidlimid castle 5 on the south ? " 



" You'll give me my land, though, Blundus, I think." 



" Suppose I did, how could you take it ; you wouldn't expect I'd 

 allow you to leave it here on my township. Answer me this, Luckie ; 

 hadn't I a tract of country here yesterday? You know I had. But where 

 is it now, eh ? Hasn't your dirty bit of a farm come down and covered 

 the most of it up for me. What right had your land to be trespassing on 

 my premises? Who gave it leave? Did I invite it, or coax it? I'll 

 engage I didn't. Where am I to look for my estate but here where I left 

 it ? Is the township mine ?" 



" No doubt o' that, Sir." 



" Then know, Luckie, according to law, whosoever hath the land owns 

 all above it, up to the broad sky. Think o' that, Luckie. So that with- 

 out taking advantage of my grant, by which I have an indefeasible right 

 to all waifs, straies " 



" Oh, Blundus, don't break my heart with your hard words; what you 

 say sounds right enough ; but by the same token, I know, it's wronging 

 me you are." 



" The courts are open to you." 



" Is it law you mean ? Faith, then, when a counsellor sees the sight 

 of Luckie O'Carrol's money. No, Blundus." 



" But I'd rather you'd bring your suit ; I'd wish you to be satisfied ; 

 quite entirely, Miss O'Carrol ; I couldn't be aisy if you wern't satisfied/' 



2 M 2 



