raised, was another weakness, which proved to be very
beneficial to his companions; this was a swaggering and consequential
determination, when tipsy, to pay the whole reckoning, and to treat
every one he knew.

He was a Maguire--he was a gentleman--had the old blood in his veins,
and that he might never handle a plane, if any man present should pay a
shilling, so long as he was to the fore. This was an argument in which
he always had the best of it; his companions taking care, even if he
happened to forget it, that some chance word or hint should bring it to
his memory.

"Here, Barney Scaddhan--Barney, I say, what's the reckonin', you sinner?
Now, Art Maguire, divil a penny of this you'll pay for--you're too
ginerous, an' have the heart of a prince."

"And kind family for him to have the heart of a prince, sure we all know
what the Fermanagh Maguires wor; of coorse we won't let him pay."

"Toal Finnigan, do you want me to rise my hand to you? I tell you that
a single man here won't pay a penny o' reckonin', while I'm to the good;
and, to make short work of it, by the contints o' the book, I'll strike
the first of ye that'll attempt it. Now!"

"Faix, an' I for one," said Toal, "won't come undher your fist; it's
little whiskey ever I'd drink if I did."

"Well, well," the others would exclaim, "that ends it; howendiver, never
mind, Art, I'll engage we'll have our revenge on you for that--the next
meetin' you won't carry it all your own way; we'll be as stiff as you'll
be stout, my boy, although you beat us out of it now."

"Augh," another would say, in a whisper especially designed for him, "by
the livin' farmer there never was one, even of the Maguires, like him,
an' that's no lie."

Art would then pay the reckoning with the air of a nobleman, or, if he
happened to be without money, he would order it to be scored to him, for
as yet his credit was good.

It is wonderful to reflect how vanity blinds common sense, and turns
all the power of reason and judgment to nothing. Art was so thoroughly
infatuated by his own vanity, that he was utterly incapable of seeing
through the gross and selfish flattery with which they plied him. Nay,
when praising him, or when sticking him in for drink, as it is termed,
they have often laughed in his very face, so conscious were they that it
could be done with impunity.

This course of life could not fail to produce suitable consequences to
his health, his reputation, and his busi