Page:Three advices an Irish tale.pdf/21



A poor man went into a cook’s shop, in Paris, and remained for a considerable time, inhaling the smell of the meat. When about to depart, the cook, being disappointed of the money, seized him and demanded payment; the other refused, and it was at last agreed that the matter should be submitted to the decision of the first person who went by; this chanced to be an idiot, who gave the following judgment;—that the poor man should put his money betwixt two empty plates and so jingle it at the cook’s ear, by which the man having fed on the smell of the meat, with the sound of the man’s money.

A old woman who had a son in a regiment of Fencibles, then serving in Ireland, received a letter from the young man informing her that he had been promoted, and