176 HIGHWAYS AND HORSES. 



rubbing his mouth expressively with the back of his 

 hand, 'we will say six shillings.' 



"The girl immediately placed six shillings in his 

 greedy palm. 



" ' Thank you kindly, my lady ! and may you live 

 seven years longer than was intended for you. It's 

 not my fault that I did not lave you at your journey's 

 end, as Tim Moony will allow. There's the mare,' 

 waving his hand towards the wicked-looking chestnut ; 

 ' there's the machine,' indicating the battered car and 

 twine-tied shaft ; ' and thev are both altoQfether, com- 

 pletely, and entirely at your service.' 



" The young lady shook her head resolutely, and 

 made no other reply. 



" ' Well, then, miss, as I see I can't tempt ye, I 

 suppose I may as well be going, and Til lave the bag 

 inside the lodge. Keep on straight after the cross, 

 till you come to a pair of big gates, and there you are.' 



" Having given these directions, and ascended to 

 the driving-seat, so as to have what he called, ' a 

 better purchase on the baste,' Larry muttered a 

 parting benediction, lifted his caubeen, and drove 

 furiously away." 



Thus ended this eventful drive on an Irish car. 

 Larry Flood is an excellent example of a humorous, 

 dare-devil young Irishman of the lower class ; but it is 

 not with such characters that one has always to deal in 

 Ireland! Sometimes the humour and pluck are both 

 wanting, and in their place we find cunning and cruelty. 

 It is not such men as Larry Flood who become mid- 

 niofht assassins and who ill-treat and mutilate dumb and 

 inoffensive animals. It would be a happy thing for 

 Ireland if the perpetrators of such cruelties and the 

 assassins who lie in ambuscade could be brought to 



