Page:Comical sayings of Paddy from Cork (1).pdf/11

 Teag. A mare, ay very well minded, my father was a mare in Cork.

Tom. And what riches was left you by the death of your mother?

Teag. Bad luck to her own barren belly, for she lived in great plenty, and died in great poverty; devoured up all or she died but two hens and a pockful of potatoes, a poor estate for an Irish gentleman, in faith.

Tom. And what did you make of the lens and potatoes, did you sow them?

Teag. Arra, dear sloy, I sowed them in my belly, and sold the hens to a cadger.

Tom. What business did your mother follow after?

Teag. Greatly in the merchant way.

Tom. And what sort of goods did she deal in?

Teag. Dear honey, she went through the country and sold small fishes, onions, and apples, bought hens and eggs, and then hatchet them herself. I remember of a long-necked cock she had, of an oversea brood, that stood on the midden and picked all the stars out of the north-west, so they were never so thick there since.

Tom. Now, paddy, that's a bull surpasses all; but is there none of that cock's offspring alive now?

Teag. Arra, dear shoy, I don't think there are, but it is a pity but they had, for they would fly with people over the sea, which would put the use of ships out of fashion, and nobody be drowned at all.

Tom. Very well Paddy, but in all your travels did you ever get a wife?

Teag. Ay that's what I did and a wicked wife too; and my dear shoy I can't tell whether she is gone to Purgatory or the parish of Pig-tantrum; for she told me she should certainly die the first opportunity she could get, as this present evil world was not worth the waiting on, or she would go and see what good things are in the world to come; so when that old rover called the Fever, came raging over the