KERRY, CONNEMARA AND CLARE 233 



Once again he had his sweet revenge on a 

 barber at Bath. 



Great dandy and beau he went to be shaved 

 to a barber who had been bribed by Martin's merry 

 enemies and friends. A joke was to be played on 

 the great Colonel Martin, he was to come out into 

 the streets of Bath with one cheek smooth and 

 bare and one blue with the night's growth. 



One cheek was shaven clear, the Barber pre- 

 tended to be taken ill and was kindly excused. 



But half Bath seemed to be gathered outside, 

 one of the great men of the day had to pass fair 

 ladies who giggled and muttered as they saw the 

 mortified dandy. Men smiled and joked, until 

 Colonel Martin, striding wrathfully to another 

 barber, knew that it had been planned. 



So he but smiled and joked back, Tom told us. 

 " But he waited a week an' then he stayed at 

 hoame for two days an' when he came out he was 

 dressed as a common sailor an' none would know 

 him. An' he went to the same barber's. 



" There was a fine gentleman waiting there, one 

 of the Colonel's friends. ' I have come for a 

 sha-ave,' the Colonel says, humble like, ' an 

 what will ye charge me, sir, to sha-ave me an 

 my mate ? ' he says. ' So much,' the barber says 



* so much will I cha-arge.' ' An' that is a bargain, 

 says Colonel Martin, ' on your word,' he says 



* that ye will shave him now before anyone else. 



" So the barber shaved Colonel Martin, ' An' 



