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130 "'Hah, yer riv'rince,' says I, 'I'm thinkin' I won't thry it!'

"Oh, didn't I feel as if I wasn't spakin' the truth to him!

"'Humph!' says he, lookin' round, and takin' a pinch of snuff; 'it surprises me not to see Don Squixet here, any way; he's always the first into mischief, and the last to lave it.'

"Dad, thinks I to meself, if he means the ould rousther, he's the fust to lave it this time, any way. 'But', says I, 'and who's Don Squixet?' I axes, wid me heart into me mouth.

"'Ha! that's what I call the ould cock,' says he; 'but the rascal is up to some mischief now, I go bail, or he'd be here,' says Father Doyle.

"Well, whether to down on me two knees (savin' yer prisence) and confess all, or lave him to find it out, I didn't know; when all to once the peaytees right furninst us begun to move, and roll the one over the other.

"'Oah! what's that, Kitty?' cries Father Doyle. 'Be the powers, there's somethin' comin' up through the yearth!'

"Faix, 'twas meself thought I'd sink down through it; for just then up comes the head of the ould rousther himself, bad scran to him, lookin' round to make out where he was. Awe! I couldn't tell yees how I felt. I fell down on me knees, and axed his riv'rince to forgive a poor crayter the sin av it. But, by and by, when the ould scamp got up and shuck himself, and clapped his wings, and crowed, bedad, I thought his riv'rince would split laughin', as well as Biddy. And when Father Doyle could spake, says he, wipin' his eyes wid his kurcher, 'Kitty,' says he, 'always be sure a body's dead,' says he, 'before you inters it,' he says. 'But see now, if you kill any av 'em outright, another time,' says he, 'just bring the remains to me,' he says, ' and we'll have a dish of broth out of it, anyway,' says he. And wid that, he set up a-laughin' again, and walked off, shakin' his sides; and I s'pose, if he told that story once, he did the Lord knows how many times. But he niver seed me, to this day, but he alius axed when I seen Don Squixet's Ghost last."