SEVENTH EMPTYING. 137 



" Michael O'Rafferty, aged - ." It should have been 

 " 28," but he was unequal to making the figures. So he 

 went out into the road and said to a small boy, " Patsy, my 

 son, how do yez make 28 ?" " Why, said the boy, " four 

 sevens is 28." So down on the coffin plate went four 

 sevens, and when they got to the grave side, and the coffin 

 lay on the bier, and the priest was saying solemn words to 

 the mourners and descanting on the brevity of life, he said, 

 " There was a fine boy for ye taken away from us in the 

 prime of life; a young man a very young man, he was 

 only - " and he saw something on the coffin lid which he 

 could not make out, he was only - " and then he went 

 nearer, and put on his glasses and looked again, and said 

 suddenly, " My good Katty, he was seven thousand, seven 

 hundred and seventy seven ! How did he escape the 

 flood ? " 



* * 



A farmer's lad in the North was asked why he left his 

 last place. " Well," he said, " the victuals were all wrong. 

 He got nothing to eat but salt meat, and he had had enough 

 of it. First a pig deed and it was salted and eaten ; then an 

 old coo deed and it, too, was salted and eaten ; then a billy- 

 goat deed and shared a similar fate ; lastly, his mistress deed 

 and when they sent him out for ylbs. of salt he ran away." 



Two acquaintances of mine met a year or two ago on the 

 Yorkshire Anglers' water on the Eamont. One of them had 

 been laid up for some months and this was the first time his 

 brother angler had seen him since his recovery. With a 

 view to making up some lost time, perhaps, the convalescent 

 had had sundry short and strong pulls during the morning at 

 his flask, and the odour of whisky is powerful, at any rate I 

 have heard people say so. " Holloa ! Jack, my boy, how 

 are you ? Glad to see you out again ; are you quite better ? " 



