IRISH SERVANTS 135 



gulping choke of one of the 3rd Hussars who was 

 dinmg did not look as if it was good. 



" Neat whisky ! " he gasped, wiping away some 

 tears. 



** The same shade of colour on it," said Kate 

 indignantly next day, " an' indeed, Miss, he should 

 be ashamed, a soldier an' all, that he couldn't 

 take it without the tears. Me own father'd take 

 three glasses without a wink, God rest him." 



Kate said she thought she could never plaze 

 the quahty, and she went to America. She was 

 really completely wild in her ways and speeches. 



Baths completely puzzled her. " A natheral 

 dip in the say she'd howld with but hated water 

 to chill ye for the day every mornin'. . . . God 

 save the rich in their foolishness." 



" I often took dips meself, a great swimmer I am. 

 Miss," she told me. " Meself an' all the other Httle 

 bys 'd be out up till the time I was seven ; an' 

 thin I was taken to the Sthrand with the gerrils." 



We had a very quietly witty soldier servant at 

 Kilkenny. We went out to the ice one day 

 and a very small boy came on with his skates. 



He was dressed in very grown-up clothes, with 

 a man's tie and garters, and he began to tell us all 

 about skating and how to do it and how he had 

 skated abroad and so on. 



Then " Put on my skates, please," in lordly tones. 



Our man picked up a huge pair of man's skates 

 and knelt down. 



