l6 ANDY COTTER. 



vating expression of sorrow at the twinkling 

 flanks of puss, who is off to Knocknagerah, 

 with a speed that seems to have an air of prac- 

 tical irony in it. Subsequently the fowler, 

 emerging from the perilous reaches of Murphy's 

 Bog, manages to win even compliments from 

 Andy Cotter. Andy is gifted with an extra 

 faculty for the discovery of forms and hare 

 tracks. The dervish of the Eastern tale, who 

 told that the horse was lame and carried a load 

 of honey from merely examining the footmarks 

 of the animal, was a fool to Andy Cotter as he 

 stoops over a hare track, and tells you when 

 the hare was there last, whether she was going 

 or coming, and where she is likely to be put 

 up. Snipe Andy regards as not worth pursuit ; 

 but he is learned as to the haunts of these fowl, 

 and is quite equal to a dog in finding dead. 

 As we turn our faces from Murphy's Bog the 

 dusk has begun to fall around, and a wan frag- 

 ment of moon creeps up on the ridge of Mo- 

 narrogue. The evening is frosty, and every 

 other minute as the night comes on, the sky 

 sparkles with stars, and Andy astonishes the 

 fowler with a display of small astronomical 



