40 AN EVENING AT BELLEEK. 



friar's death. What do you mean hy 

 nonsense ?" 



" Why, I mean, that there is no more 

 truth in those papistical legends than there 

 is in the Parson's fairy stories." 



" Why, you don't mean to say," said the 

 Captain, leaning forward in his chair, and 

 looking him full in the face, — "you don't 

 mean to say, here, on the banks of the Erne, 

 the very head-quarters of fairyland, that you 

 don't believe in fairy stories ?" 



" No, I don't," said the Scholar, dog- 

 gedly. 



11 Then look out for the fate of the 

 gauger of Kinloch, that is all." 



" What was that ?" said the Scholar, 

 whose imagination had been running riot 

 all the time on creviced floors and holy 

 murders. 



" Why, this was it. The gauger was 

 coming home from a christening one night 

 from Bundoran to Ballyshannon ; it was late, 

 — for, you know, in Ireland there is generally 

 more whisky than water used in that cere- 

 mony ; it was late, but he had come safely 

 to the spot where the road crosses that sandy 

 flat about two miles from Ballyshannon, 



