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118 sugar off a sugar-bush for the children's breakfast in the mornin'. But where's Will and the rest of them? " All this wint through me head like a flash, an' thin I answered his inquiry.

"Jamie Butler, the waiver," sez I; "an' if it wouldn't inconvanience yer Honor, would yez be kind enough to step down an' show me the way to the house of Dennis O'Dowd?"

"Who! Whoo! Whooo! " sez he.

"Dennis O'Dowd," sez I, civil enough, "an' a dacent man he is, and first cousin to me own mother."

"Who! Whoo! Whooo!" says he again.

"Me mother!" sez I, "an' as fine a woman as iver peeled a biled pratie wid her thumb nail, an' her maiden name was Molly McFiggin."

"Who! Whoo! Whooo!"

"Paddy McFiggin! bad luck to yer deaf ould head, Paddy McFiggin, I say,—do ye hear that? An' he was the tallest man in all the county Tipperary, except Jim Doyle, the black-smith."

"Who! Whoo! Whooo!"

"Jim Doyle the blacksmith," sez I, "ye good for nothin' blaggard naygur, an', if viz don't come down and show me the way this minit, I'll climb up there an' break every bone in your skin, ye spalpeen, so sure as me name is Jimmy Butler."

"Who! Whoo! Whooo! " sez he, as impident as iver.

I said nivir a word, but lavin' down me bundle, an' takin' me stick in me teeth, I began to climb the tree. Whin I, got among the branches I looked quietly around till I saw a pair of big eyes just forninst me.

"Whist," sez I, "an' I'll let him have a taste of an Irish stick," an' wid that I let drive, an' lost me balance an' came tumblin' to the ground, nearly breakinme neck wid the fall. When I came to me sinsis I had a very sore head, wid a lump on it like a goose egg, an' half of me Sunday coat-tail torn off intirely. I spoke to the chap in the tree, but could git niver an answer at all, at all.