36 AN EVENING AT BELLEEK. 



tell is not quite so much to the saint's credit 

 as the last was. 



" Hungry and tired was the worthy saint, 

 as he came down that steep, rugged path- 

 way, that leads from the Captain's Rock. 

 Hard at work had he been all day, ' preach- 

 ing of sermons and singing of psalms,' and 

 many were the heathens he had converted, 

 and many were the wild Irishmen that he had 

 clipped of their wings. But lips, though 

 holy, must still be fed ; and as Cockburn's 

 Hotel was not then established at Bally- 

 shannon, the saint began to have serious 

 misgivings about his dinner; when, to his 

 joy, he saw, seated on the wing of that Danish 

 eel-weir (where I saw you the other day, look- 

 ing so like a Leprechaun),* a jolly fisherman, 

 and at his feet a goodly number of glitter- 

 ing salmon. ' Bestow thine alms, stranger/ 

 said the saint; * bestow a salmon for the sake 

 of Our Lady on a poor saint, who stands an 

 excellent chance of going to bed supperless.' 



" The man must have been a Presbyterian 

 or a poor-law guardian, that is certain, for 

 he told the holy man to go work for his 



* A particularly ugly male fairy who presides over 

 hidden treasure. 



