FIRST OR GAGE'S LAKE. 75 



handle. However, there were no rare old coins In it or 

 valuables of any description, only some mud and shells, 

 and we threw it back again to bother some other 

 fisherman later. 



Speaking of iron pots reminds me of the last time I 

 visited Ireland, three years ago, when Billy Jackson 

 and myself found ourselves in a little shebang near 

 Kilmacrean, in North Donegal. We met four English 

 tourists on the same errand as ourselves trout fishing 

 in the neighboring burns. We spent a most convivial 

 evening together, and during the early part of it, as 

 the company had been at a loss for a spittoon as the 

 Britishers called it, Billy had slipped out into the kitchen 

 and surreptitiously brought in a large iron pot; and into 

 this improvised cuspidor the entire crowd had during 

 the evening paid ample tribute. Just before going to 

 bed, Billy called me on one side and warned me not 

 to eat any of the chickens which would probably appear 

 at the breakfast table in the morning, as he had seen 

 the hired girl while picking them about equally divid- 

 ing her attention between the fowls and her olfactory 

 organ. So we made up our minds, to stick to plain 

 potatoes, and the next morning made our breakfast 

 solely on the contents of the huge collander of jacketed 

 Murphies which graced the center of the board. The 

 potatoes appeared to me at the time of eating to have 

 a smoky flavor, and to be of a rather darker hue than 

 usual. 



Breakfast finished we retired into the little red- 

 curtained parlor at the back, for a smoke preparatory 

 to setting out for the day's fishing. Billy looked for 

 our cuspidor of the previous night; and at last, not 

 seeing it, he asked the red-haired Irish servant wench 

 what had become of it. 



. "Sure, an' is it the big iron pot ye be afther?" she 

 queried. Billy nodded. 



"Well, it's just outside now," she said, "an' afther 

 bein' hardly cooled since cukin' the praties ye ait for 

 breakfasht this mornin,!" 



