120 AN ANGLER'S BASKET. 



an ould pistol that was tuk from a sodger in the year '98, and 

 I loaded it all ready and tied a long shtring to the trigger 

 and dropped it aff the bridge here just where the shtrame 

 would carry it down to the big pike, an' he tuk it, sorr ; he 

 seen it was something new and square loike, and as soon as 

 he see ut he swallowed ut ; and when the baste had had 

 time to gorge, I pulled the string and weirasthrue ! good 

 Katty, sorr! but there was a divvel's own ruction; yez'll 

 mind, sorr, there was about four charges in that pistol before 

 I put mine in it, and when the pistol went off the pike went 

 off wid ut, an' they both bursted together, sorr, and the air 

 was full of fragments of pistol and pike, water and solid 

 earth. And no man seen the pike afterwards, he just 

 vanished in smithereens, sorr, and all the fish in the water 

 took fright at what they thought was a mighty earthquake, 

 and they went away and have never come back to this day, 

 sorr ; and it is the truth I am tellin' yez. 



There is a yarn about a sailor who entered a chemist's 

 shop and bought medicines to the amount of seven shillings 

 and sixpence. " Take the odd money off," said the sailor 

 to the vendor. " All right," said the chemist. The sailor 

 tendered sixpence and said, "The seven was odd." The 

 chemist stared, but seeing he was done remarked, " Very well, 

 now hook it ; I have made fourpence out of you as it is." 



An Englishman, salmon-fishing on the Shannon, had 

 with him as boatman a garrulous native who had wonderful 

 stories to tell of the quare things he saw now and then about 

 the river. " Ah, sir, I am telling yez ; I remember poor Mike 

 Clansey, the little tailor in our village with the cork leg ; 

 and poor Mike died and we buried him in Limerick church- 

 yard ; and the fourth day after poor Mike was put away 



