MORE BLACK SHEEP 



lost his last chance of employment in this district by killing 

 a whole hot-house full of Tomatoes through drunken neglect 

 "on" the local market gardener, as we should say in 

 Ireland, finally locked his wife and children out of the little 

 cottage, and shut himself in with his drunkenness in com- 

 pany with his aged but not less drunken parent. The 

 power of thought having returned in the morning, the 

 precious pair put their boosy heads together and sold the 

 furniture, possessed themselves of every available valuable, 

 even of Mrs. Caliban's solitary trinket, and decamped 

 together from the district ! 



Mrs. Caliban, with an infant in arms and two little girls 

 at her skirts, has now set to work to earn enough for 

 all. She is a valiant woman / and no doubt when she has 

 succeeded fairly well, Caliban will return to repeat the 

 process. She is very anxious for a separation, but cannot 

 accomplish this, as the whereabouts of her lord and master 

 are unknown. 



She is less fortunate than the wife of Black Sheep No. 2. 

 Last Saturday we were peacefully entertaining a couple 

 of week-end visitors, when poor Mrs. Mutton crawled into 

 our garden to "see the young lady/' The water-butt 

 myth was cast to the winds. She had a black eye and a 

 dislocated thumb, and informed us that Mutton had 

 threatened to " do for her/' and that she was going in fear 

 of her life. " When not drunk/' she remarked with the 

 apathy of despair, " I think he's mad ! " 

 Mutton is well known in the district for his playful ways, 

 and no one would consent to house his wife but an enter- 



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