32 A SIT OF BIDDY'S MIND. 



breakfast I skims over to Paddy the carpenter, an' 

 hearin' a rumpus a-goin' on, I jest stopped at the door. 

 Biddy wur givin' Paddy a bit o' her mind. ' Ye're a 

 blaguard, that's what ye are,' I heerd her a-yellin', ' to 

 sell a gun that wasn't yours, and thin to say I burned 

 it under the kittle. It's only a mane blaguard 'ud do 

 the like. Why didn't ye tell the little nagur the ould 

 gun wasn't safe ? You'd sell yer ould sowl for a dollar 

 any day, let alone somebody else's, ye low, mane man.' 

 " I guess I didn't go in. I heerd enuff, an' seed how 

 the trail lay. I wur well quit o' the gun, though, that's 

 a fact. I reckon Pete didn't come loafin' round our 

 wood-shed agin lookin' fur guns. No ; that he didn't." 

 Here the old hunter laughed heartily at this reminis- 

 cence of his juvenile days. 



