or at any rate more than a week, in
the same place; an' whatever dress he has on comin' to any particular
part of the counthry, he never changes; but they say that if you find
him in any other part of the counthry, he has a different dress on him:
he has a dress, they say, for every part."

"He has honored my father," said Alick, "by sending him a written
proposal for my sister Julia--ha! ha! ha!"

"Well, now, did he, Mr. Alick?"

"Yes; and he says that he may be refused now, but won't the next time he
asks her."

"Well, then, Mr. Alick, I'll tell you what I'd advise you to do: go
home, and tell your father to send for him, if he knows where to
find him, and let him not lose a day in marryin' her to him; for if
everything is thrue that's said of him, he was never known to break a
promise, whether it was for good or ill."

"Ha! ha! ha! thank you, Cannie,--excellent!" replied Alick.

"Who can he be, Cannie?" asked Miss O'Driscol, "this person of such
wonderful mystery? I have never seen him, but I wish I could."

"Ay, have you, often--I'll engage, Miss."

"And so do I," added her father; "I wish to see him also, and to have
everything mysterious cleared up."

"Well," continued the pedlar, "I know nothing myself about him, only as
I hear; but if all's thrue that's said, he could give your father, and
you, Mr. Alick, lave to walk through the whole counthry in the hour of
noonday or midnight, widout a finger ever bein' raised against one o'
you; and as for you, Mr. O'Driscol, he could have the house pulled about
your ears in an hour's time, if he wished--ay, and he would, too, if he
heard that you spoke a harsh word of him."

"As for me, Cannie," replied the magistrate, "I trust I'm a Christian
man, and not in the habit of abusing the absent. Indeed, I don't see
what right any one has to make impertinent inquiries into the life or
way of living of any respectable person--I do not see it, Cannie; and, I
assure you, I always set my face against such prying inquiries."

"I know, myself," continued the pedlar, "that there's a great many
things said about him, an' people wishes to know who he is. Now I was
tould a thing wanst by a sartain parson--I won't say who, but I believe
it's not a thousand miles from the truth I'm spakin' about who he is."

"And who is he?" asked Fergus; "out with it Cannie."

"Well, then," he proceeded, in a cautious and confidential whisper,
"it's said by them that ought to know, that he's