3IO LIFE IN IRELAND 



and keep you from the gaze of the ' standing drop 

 boySj' who pay and go like a ship when moored in 

 Dublin Bay : once upon a time her and I quarrelled ; 

 but that we often do, for the pleasure of being 

 friends again ; and I desired her to send in my bill, 

 as I never would be sheltered under her umbrellas 

 any more. 



Och, by all the credit that 's due to Saint Patrick^ 

 my boy, an half-pay corporal tould me in the morning 

 a ma7t or two was in waiting below wid a bill from Mrs. 

 Norman. Show him up, says I — show him up; and if 

 it 's all right, I '11 pay it in a shindy ; I keep no account 

 against her ; but the measure of my stomach will enable 

 me to take jiist 7neasiire of her bill. To be sure, the 

 noise on the stairs was like storming a fort of timber 

 stockades in America, and in marched two huge over- 

 gown chairmen, and deposited four folding window 

 SHUTTERS on my Kellybegs carpet. 



Here, said the speaker, is my mistress's bill ; 'tis all 

 in fair chalk, just as you had it ; and she wishes you to 

 look over it, and settle the amount, for she wants to 

 put the shutters up again, as the parlour looks ugly 

 without them. 



Bad luck to his ugly mug, there was 2<. poiiyid of good 

 chalk expended upon a bill for one pound's worth of 

 punch ; and I settled the hash, merely to get rid of the 



bill; 'twas so d d large I couldn't file it, except by 



employing a file of soldiers to carry it to my cellar, and 

 chop it up for firewood. 



Bravo, bravo, said the whole company — encore, 



encore. — If I do I'll be d d, said the Major, 



enough is as good as a feast. — Och, you 're welcome, 



