304 LIFE IN IRELAND 



after, if you have any life left in you for reflection.' — 

 The buck heard all this, but it went in at one ear and 

 out at the other, as a medical man's advice usually 

 does, when given to one who conceives himself in 

 perfect health, and in no want of it at all. A few 

 days after the same gentleman was sitting in company, 

 enjoying a glass of punch over a sparkling turf fire : 

 when his olfactory nerves became tickled, and he felt 

 in his pocket for his ' miickinger' which was unfortu- 

 nately not there, so he squeezed the conduits of his 

 head betwixt his fingers and thumb, and throwing, as 

 he conceived, the oozings of his brain into the fire, to 

 the utter surprise and horror of his friends, he chucked 

 his nose upon the coals, which was heard to murmur. 



But for the doctor's prohibition, 

 I ne'er had been in this condition. 



Such things are very common in the hotbeds of DubHn, 

 and ought to be a lesson to all young men who are apt 

 to throw their members in the fire, not knowing the 

 consequences until too late. 



So the long room were assembled, the gallant Colonel 

 and all his awkward squad, for the devil an awkward 

 set was ever seen equal to the officers of an Irish 

 militia regiment ; here and there you may pick out a 

 well-bred man of broken-down fortune, like a violet 

 upon a dunghill, exposing by its brilliance and scent 

 more particularly the compound of villainous smells by 

 which it is surrounded. 



There were many ladies of the party, for scarce a lad 

 but had his wife and her six relations in her train, and 

 they all sat down to a sumptuous dinner. Darey knew 



