ave a proposial o' marriage from Father
Mulcahy, atween our Dan an' Miss Granua. For many a day he's hintin' to
us, from time to time, about the great offers she had; now what's the
rason, if she had these great offers, that he didn't take them?"

"Bedad, Ellish, you're the greatest headpiece in all Europe. Murdher
alive, woman, what a fine counsellor you'd make. An' suppose he did
offer, Ellish, what 'ud you be sayin' to him?"

"Why, that 'ud depind entirely upon what he's able to give her--they say
he has money. It 'ud depind, too, upon whether Dan has any likin' for
her or not."

"He's often wid her, I know; an' I needn't tell you, Ellish, that afore
we wor spliced together, I was often wid somebody that I won't mintion.
At all evints, he has made Dan put the big O afore the Connell, so that
he has him now full namesake to the Counsellor; an', faith, that itself'
'ud get him a wife."

"Well, the best way is to say nothin', an' to hear nothin', till his
Reverence spates out, an' thin we'll see what can be done."

Ellish's sagacity had not misled her. In a few months afterwards Father
Mulcahy was asked by young Dan Connell to dine; and as he and holiest
Ellish were sitting together, in the course of the evening, the priest
broached the topic as follows:--

"Mrs. Connell, I think this whiskey is better than my four-year old,
that I bought at the auction the other day, although Dan says mine's
better. Between ourselves, that Dan is a clever, talented young fellow;
and if he happens upon a steady, sensible wife, there is no doubt but he
will die a respectable man. But, by the by, Mrs. Connell, you've never
tried my whiskey; and upon my credit, you must soon, for I know your
opinion would decide the question."

"Is it worth while to decide it, your Reverence? I suppose the thruth
is, sir, that both is good enough for anyone; an' I think that's as much
as we want."

Thus far she went, but never alluded to Dan, judiciously throwing the
onus of introducing that subject upon the priest.

"Dan says mine's better," observed Father Mulcahy; "and I would
certainly give a great deal for his opinion upon that or any other
subject, except theology."

"You ought," replied Ellish, "to be a bether judge of whiskey nor either
Dan nor me; an' I'll tell you why--you dhrink it in more places, and can
make comparishment one wid another; but Dan an' me is confined mostly to
our own, an' of that same we take very little, an' the le