I'll do, never fear, wid the help o' Heaven! I'll be off to the
market in the mornin', plase God, where I'll sell rings around me * o'
them crocks and pitchers. An' now, Pether, the sarra one o' me would do
this, good or bad, only bekase your managin' the farm so cleverly. Tady
Gormley's goin' to bring home his meal from the mill, and has promised
to lave these in the market for me, an' never fear but I'll get some o'
the neighbors to bring them home, so that there's car-hire saved. Faix,
Pether, there's nothin' like givin' the people sweet words, any way;
sure they come chape."

* This is a kind of hyperbole for selling a grout
quantity.

"Faith, an' I'll back you for the sweet words agin any woman in the
three kingdoms, Ellish, you darlin'. But don't you know the proverb,
'sweet words butther no parsnips.'"

"In throth, the same proverb's a lyin' one, and ever was; but it's not
parsnips I'll butther wid 'em, you gommoch."

"Sowl, you butthered me wid 'em long enough, you deludher--devil a lie
in it; but thin, as you say, sure enough, I was no parsnip--not so soft
as that either, you phanix."

"No? Thin I seldom seen your beautiful head without thinkin' of a
carrot, an' it's well known they're related--ha, ha, ha!--Behave,
Pether--behave, I say--Pether, Pether--ha, ha, ha!--let me alone! Katty
Hacket, take him away from me--ha, ha, ha!"

"Will ever you, you shaver wid the tongue that you are? Will ever you, I
say? Will ever you make delusion to my head again--eh?"

"Oh, never, never--but let me go, an' me go full o' tickles! Oh, Pether,
avourneen, don't, you'll hurt me, an' the way I'm in--quit, avillish!"

"Bedad, if you don't let my head alone, I'll--will ever you?"

"Never, never. There now--ha, ha, ha!--oh, but I'm as wake as wather wid
what I laughed. Well now, Pether, didn't I manage bravely--didn't I?"

"Wait till we see the profits first, Ellish--crockery's very tindher
goods."

"Ay!--just wait, an'I'll engage I'll turn the penny. The family's risin'
wid us."--

"Very thrue," replied Peter, giving a sly wink at the wife--"no doubt of
it."

"--Kisin' wid us--I tell you to have sinse, Pether; an' it's our duty to
have something for the crathurs when they grow up."

"Well, that's a thruth--sure I'm not sayin' against it."

"I know that; but what I say is, if we hould an, we may make money.
Everything, for so far, has thruv wid us, God be praised for it. There's
another thing in my min