104 SPORTING REMINISCENCES 



" I wouldn't wake him for that," said the owner 

 laying down the stick which he had taken up. 



The inherent reverence and fear of the law has 

 been left out of Irish dispositions. To them it is 

 something to evade and break if possible, though 

 they never bear a grudge against its enforcers. 

 Consequently in England and other countries 

 they tumble against and through its meshes with 

 such an engaging smile that probably they walk 

 away unnoticed. 



'* No light on your bicycle." 



** This very minnit it went out on me. Smhell 

 the lanthern, there's hate in it yet." 



" You have no oil," from a sceptical poUceman. 



" God save us, and if I had wouldn't I have 

 the light. Didn't it drip away through a lake in 

 the lanthern. If ye smhell that too " 



" Oh go on, an' let me catch you again." 



I heard this controversy between my Irish man- 

 servant and the policeman at Colchester. He got 

 so used to no lights, poor man, in the end, that he 

 used to study the sky when we were coming home 

 late. He was smiled at so sweetly he never had 

 the heart to be severe. 



Half children with a child's simple faith, half 

 savage, too easily roused, wholly engaging and 

 unreliable, kind-hearted and quick-tempered. The 

 country people until they go to America never 

 really change. The shrewdness they learn there 

 spoils them. 



