212 BORROWING A CONGREGATION. 



and Mr. Carson said prayers of a Sunday too, though sorrow 

 a soul he had to listen to him but the clerk but sure that 

 was no fault of his. 



" Well, I mind it as well as yesterday, for I killed that 

 very morning two otters at Loughnamuckey, and the small- 

 est of them was better to me than a pound note. It was 

 late when I got down from the hills, and I went to Father 

 Patt's as usual, and who should I meet at the door but the 

 priest himself. 'Antony/ says he, ' ceadefealteagh, have ye 

 anything with you, for the wallets seem full?' 'I have/ 

 says I, ' your reverence / and I pulls out two pair of gra- 

 ziers,* and a brace of three-pound trouts, fresh from the 

 sea, that I caught that morning in Dhulough. In these days 

 I carried a ferret, besides the trap and fishing-rod, and it 

 went hard, if I missed the otters but I would net rabbits, 

 or kill a dish of trout. '' Upon my conscience/ says the 

 priest, ' ye never were more welcome, Antony. The minister 

 and myself will dine off the trouts and rabbits, for they 

 forgot to kill a sheep for us till an hour ago ; and you know, 

 Antony, except the shoulder, there's no part of the mutton 

 could be touched, so I was rather bothered about the 

 dinner.' 



" Well, in the evening, I was brought into the parlour, and 

 there were their reverences as cur coddiogh\ as you please. 

 Father Patt gave me a tumbler of rael stiff punch, and the 

 divil a better warrant to make the same was within the pro- 

 vince of Connaught. We were just as comfortable as we 

 could be, when a currier^ stops at the door with a letter, 

 which he said was for Mr. Carson. Well, when the minister 

 opens it, he got as pale as a sheet, and I thought he would 

 have fainted. Father Patt crossed himself. ' Arrah, Dick/ 

 says he, ' the Lord stand between you and evil ! is there any- 

 thing wrong ?' 'I'm ruined/ says he ; ' for some lad member 

 has wrote to the bishop, and told him that I have no con- 

 gregation, because you and I are so intimate, and he's coming 

 down to-morrow, with the dane, to see the state of things. 

 Och, hone !' says he, ' I'm fairly ruined.' c And is that all 

 that's frettin' ye?' says the priest, 'Arrah, dear Dick' for 

 they called each other be their cristen names, ' is this all ? 



* Young rabbits. t Anglice, comfortable. 



Alias, courier. 



