256 SPORTS AND ANECDOTES. 



with a bit of salt I got on very well ; but the pratie 

 was mealy and dry, and the salt was, like most other 

 salt, conducive to thirst. " Have you got a drop of 

 milk?" said I. "Milk, yer anner," said Paddy, 

 " indade, and troth I have not." " You've got some 

 butter-milk, surely ? " " Was it buther-milk that yer 

 anner said ? Surely, the divil a drop of buther-milk 

 do we iver see here." "Why," said I, "I thought 

 you fellows in Ireland lived upon potatoes and butter- 

 milk ? " "In troth, and so we do," said friend Paddy, 

 " but it's the praties, barring the buther-milk, that 

 we get hereabouts." The poor fellow, with all his 

 poverty, could not help having his little joke, and it 

 was something akin to the story of potatoes and point, 

 which I fear is a common dish in that out-of-the-way 

 part of the world. 



However, they all looked contented and happy. 

 The elder children had rags on, the younger children 

 fewer rags on, and some of the youngest had no 

 rags of any kind, but were as naked as they were 

 born ; and from living upon nothing but potatoes, 

 their poor little stomjacks were as round as oranges, 

 and swelled out and distended till they looked like 

 the little Chinese tumblers that children roll about 

 the floor. Indeed, I might almost say that some 



