much the worse,' added the invincible Doctor; 'that's always a
symptom that the base of the brain is attacked.'

'And what happens then?' said the Major.

'Oh, he might recover. I knew a man once get over it, and he is alive
now, and in Swift's Hospital.'

'Mad?' said the priest.

'Mad as a March hare,' grinned the Doctor; 'he thinks himself the
post-office clock, and chimes all the hours and half-hours day and
night.'

'The heavens be about us!' said Father Tom, crossing himself piously. 'I
had rather be dead than that.'

'When did you see Burke?' inquired the Major, wishing to change the
conversation.

'About an hour ago; he is going fast.'

'Why, I thought he was better,' said Father Tom; 'they told me he ate a
bit of chicken, and took a little wine and water.'

'Ay, so he did; I bid them give him whatever he liked, as his time was
so short. So, after all, maybe it is as well for this young chap here
not to get over it.'

'How so?' said the Major. 'What do you mean by that?'

'Just that it is as good to die of a brain fever as be hanged; and it
won't shock the family.'

'I 'd break his neck,' muttered Bob Mahon, 'if there was another doctor
within forty miles.'

Of all his patients, Tipperary Joe was the only one of whom the Doctor
spoke without disparagement. Whether that the poor fellow's indifference
to his powers of terrorising had awed or conciliated him, I know
not; but he expressed himself favourably regarding his case, and his
prospects of recovery.

'Them chaps always recover,' drawled out the Doctor in a dolorous
cadence.

'Is it true,' said the Major, with a malicious grin--'is it true that
he changed all the splints and bandages to the sound leg, and that you
didn't discover the mistake for a week afterwards? Mary Doolan told me.'

'Mrs. Doolan,' said the Doctor, 'ought to be thinking of her own
misfortunes; and with an acute inflammation of the pericardium, she
might be making her sowl.'

'She ill?--that fine, fat, comfortable-looking woman!'

'Ay, just so; they're always fat, and have a sleepy look about the eyes,
just like yourself. Do you ever bleed at the nose?'

'Never without a blow on it. Come, come, I know you well, Doctor; you
shall not terrify me.'

'You're right not to fret; for it will take you off suddenly, with
a giddiness in your head, and a rolling in your eyes, and a choking
feeling about your throat----'

'Stop, and be d----d to you!' said the Major, as he