Page:Comical sayings of Paddy from Cork (1).pdf/9



Tom. How did you get out of Scotland?

Teag. By the law, dear honey, when I came to Port-Patrick, and saw my own kingdom, I knew I was safe at home, but I was clean dead, and almost drowned before I could get riden over the water; for I, with nine passengers more, leapt into a little young boat, having but four men dwelling in a little house, in the one end of it, which was all thacked with deals: and after they had pulled up her tether stick, and laid her long halter over her mane, they pulled up a long sheet, like three pair of blankets, to the riggen of the house, and the wind blew in that, which made her gallop up one hill and down another, till I though she would have run to the world's end.

Tom. Well, Paddy, and where did you go when you came to Ireland again.

Teag. Arra, dear honey, and where did I go but to my own dear cousin, who was now become very rich by the deatlh of the old buck his father; who died but a few weeks before I went over, and the parish had to bury him out of pity, and it did not cost him a farthing

Tom. And what intertainment did you get there?

Teag. O my dear shoy, I was kindly used as another gentleman, and I would have staid there long enough, but when a man is poor his friends think little of him: I told him I was going to see my brother Harry: Harry, said he, Harry is dead: dead, said I, and who kill'd him? Why, said he, death: Allelieu, dear honey, and where did he kill him? said I; in his bed says he. Arra, dear honey, said I, if he had been on Newry mountains, with his brogues on, and his broad sword by his side, all the death in Ireland had not killed him: O that impudent fellow death, if he bad let him alone till he died for want of butter-milk and potatoes, I am sure had lived all the days of his life.