POTEEN THE REAL MOUNTAIN DEW. 267 



but if the whiskey you have is not Parliament 

 whiskey, it will be taken from you at the Custom 

 House." 



What became of the M.P. and his two bottles of 

 poteen for I feel sure it was poteen, from the guilty 

 look he had about him I know not, for I went my 

 way, and I saw him following his persecutor to the 

 seat of judgment. I was, I own, sorry for him, and 

 to see an M.P. following a Custom House officer to 

 have judgment passed upon him for attempting to 

 smuggle two bottles of such wholesome and illigant 

 thrink was indeed what is called hard lines. 



There is little chance of my hero being in life at 

 the present time, for he was in the hands of Anno 

 Domini forty or more years since. Should he, how- 

 ever, chance to read this account, he will doubtless 

 smile, to think that any one should have witnessed 

 his discomfort, with the will, but not the power, to 

 save or even help him. I was disgusted with the 

 officious officer, unnecessarily officious upon the 

 occasion, and thought then, as I still think, that he 

 was stretching a point, and behaving needlessly 

 unkindly in not allowing the poor old gentleman to 

 have his two bottles, illicit as they might be, to 

 crush his sugar in when he got to his own fireside. 



