t to have the whole conversation to yourself; it
I isn't daicent.

"Weel, but the toast, man?"

"Oh, ay; troth, your nonsense would put any thing out of a man's head.
Well, you see this comfortable room?"

"Ou, ay; an vara comfortable it is; ma faith, I wuss I had ane like it.
The auld squire, however, talks o' buildin' a new gertlen-hoose."

"Well, then, fill your bumper. Here's to her that got me this room, and
had it furnished as you see, in order that I might be at my aise in it
for the remaindher o' my life--I mane the _Cooleen Bawn_--the Lily of
the Plains of Boyle. Come, now, off with it; and if you take it from
your lantern jaws! till it's finished, divil a wet lip ever I'll give
you."

The Scotchman was not indisposed to honor the toast; first, because the
ale was both strong and mellow, and secondly, because the _Cooleen Bawn_
was a great favorite of his, in consequence of the deference she paid to
him as a botanist.

"Eh, sirs," he exclaimed, after finishing | his bumper, "but she's a
bonnie lassie that, and as gude as she's bonnie--and de'il a higher
compliment she could get, I think. But, Andy, man, don't they talk some
clash and havers anent her predilection for that weel-farrant callan,
Reilly?"

"All, my poor girl," replied Cummiskey, shaking his head sorrowfully; "I
pity her there; but the thing's impossible--they can't be married--the
law is against them."

"Weel, Andy, they must e'en thole it; but 'am thinkin' they'll just
break bounds at last, an' tak' the law, as you Irish do, into their am
hands."

"What do you mane by that?" asked Andy, whose temper began to get warm by
the observation.

"Ah, man," replied the Scotchman, "dinna let your birses rise at that
gate. Noo, there's the filbert trees, ma friend, of whilk ane is male
and the tither female; and the upshot e'en is, Andy, that de'il a pickle
o' fruit ever the female produces until there's a braw halesome male
tree planted in the same gerden. But, ou, man, Andy, wasna yon she and
that bonnie jaud, Connor, that we met the noo? De'il be frae my laul,
but I jalouse she's aff wi' him this vara nicht."

"Oh, dear, no!" replied Cummiskey, starting; "that would kill her
father; and yet there must be something in it, or what would bring them
there at such an hour? He and she may love one another as much as they
like, but I must think of my mas-ther."

"In that case, then, our best plan is to gie the alarm."

"Hould," replied Andy; "l