he pot, brought the scalding contents down upon itself. On
feeling its tender bristles getting loose, it set up the most terrific
cries, louder even than the most obstinate of its race when the butcher
is making preparations for manufacturing it into corned pork. The sow,
attributing the cries of her darling to some torture inflicted by us,
rushed to the drawers, making several savage attempts to rear up against
them so that she could seize us by the legs. Every moment we expected
to be caught hold of by the hook in her nose, when we should have
inevitably been brought down. In vain we kicked and stamped at her to
drive her off, while we shouted loudly for assistance.

As it turned out, Larry and Tim were in the stables attending to the
horses, while the landlord and his family, having performed, as they
supposed, all their required duties in attending on us, had gone to the
potato garden. Not for some minutes did Pat hear our voices, and then
in he rushed, with astonishment depicted on his countenance. Seizing a
stick, he began belabouring the sow, bestowing on her epithets
numberless and profuse.

"Och! the curse of Crummell light on you for a greedy old sow as ye
are," he exclaimed, whacking away at the creature, who didn't care for
his blows, though she dared not attack him. At length Tim and Larry
came in, and, seizing the sow by the tail, attempted to drag her out;
she, supposing that they wanted her to go into the room, in the usual
swinish spirit of contradiction turned to snap at their legs, and,
followed by her hopeful progeny, bolted out of the door. My uncle and I
burst into fits of laughter, though in reality it was no laughing
business as far as our breakfast was concerned. Pat expressed his fear
that there was not another morsel of food in the house; however, Biddy
and her assistant, coming in from the potato garden, soon set matters to
rights, and put some water on to boil, hunted up some fresh eggs, and
produced another loaf. We were too hungry to let them toast and butter
it, however. We made a very good breakfast after all, our appetites
being sharpened by the exercise of our lungs, not to speak of the alarm
we had been in. The occurrence delayed our departure till a later hour
than we intended, and we pushed on to try and make up for lost time.

I confess that I occasionally looked round, half expecting to see some
of Dan Hoolan's successors come out from behind the rocks or bushes, and