LOVE AND SEA SICKNESS. 161 



" and may be now the fishes have the understanding to bring up 

 whatever you bid them." 



" Oh yes ; they bring me what I want," said the Merrow. 



" To speak the truth then," said Dick, " 'tis a straw bed I have 

 at home before you, and that, I*m thinking, is no-ways fitting for a 

 King's daughter; so if 'twould not be displeasing to you just to 

 mention, a nice feather bed, with a pair of new blankets, — but what 

 am I talking about? may be you have not such things as beds 

 down under the water ?" 



" By all means," said she, " Mr. Fitzgerald, plenty of beds at 

 your service : I've fourteen oyster beds of my own, not to mention 

 one just planting for the rearing of young ones." 



" You have," says Dick, scratching his head and looking a little 

 puzzled ; " 'tis a feather bed I was speaking of; but clearly, yours 

 is the very cut of a decent plan, to have bed and supper so handy 

 to each other, that a person when they'd have the one, need never 

 ask for the other." 



However, bed or no bed, money or no money, Dick Fitzgerald 

 determined to marry the Merrow, and the Merrow had given her 

 consent. Away they went, therefore, across the Strand, from 

 Gollerus to Ballinrunning, where Father Fitzgibbon happened to be 

 that morning. 



"There are two words to this bargain, Dick Fitzgerald," said his 

 reverence, looking mighty glum. "And is it a fishy woman you'd 

 marry ? — the Lord preserve us ! — Send the scaly creature home to 

 her own people, that's my advice to you, wherever she came from." 



Dick had the cohuleen driuth in his hand, and was about to give 

 it back to the Merrow, who looked covetously at it, but he thought 

 for a moment, and then, says he 



" Please your reverence, she's a King's daughter." 



" If she was the daughter of fifty Kings," said Father Fitzgibbon, 

 " I tell you you can't marry her, she being a fish." 



"Please your reverence," said Dick again, in an under tone, 

 " she's as mild and beautiful as the moon." 



" If she was as mild and as beautiful as the sun, moon and stars, 

 all put together, I tell you, Dick Fitzgerald," said the Priest, stamp- 

 ing his right foot, "you can't marry her, she being a fish !" 



" But she has all the gold that's down in the sea only for the 

 asking, and I'm a made man if I marry her ; and," said Dick, look- 

 ing up slily, " I can make it worth any one's while to do the job." 



" Oh ! that alters the case entirely," replied the Priest, " why 

 there's some reason now in what you say, why didn't you tell me 



