fraid," and she accompanied
the expression by holding up the bottle and kneeling: "now," she added,
"listen to me, and judge for yourself, if what I say, when I swear it,
can be a lie." She then proceeded to utter oaths of the most solemn
nature, the purport of which Was to assure Mrs. Sullivan that drinking
of the bottle would be attended with no danger. "You see this little
bottle, drink it. Oh, for my sake and your own drink it; it will give
wealth without end to you and to all belonging to you. Take one-half of
it before sunrise, and the other half when he goes down. You must stand
while drinking it, with your face to the east, in the morning; and at
night, to the west. Will you promise to do this?"

"How would drinkin' the bottle get me money?" inquired Mrs. Sullivan,
who certainly felt a strong tendency of heart to the wealth.

"That I can't tell you now, nor would you understand it, even if I
could; but you will know all when what I say is complied with."

"Keep your bottle, dacent woman. I wash my hands of it: the saints above
guard me from the timptation! I'm sure it's not right, for as I'm a
sinner, 'tis getting stronger every minute widin me? Keep it! I'm loth
to bid any one that ett o' my bread to go from my hearth, but if you go,
I'll make it worth your while. Saints above, what's comin' over me. In
my whole life I never had such a hankerin' afther money! Well, well, but
it's quare entirely!"

"Will you drink it?" asked her companion. "If it does hurt or harm
to you or yours, or anything but good, may what is hanging over me be
fulfilled!" and she extended a thin, but, considering her years,
not ungraceful arm, in the act of holding out the bottle to her kind
entertainer.

"For the sake of all that's good and gracious take it without
scruple--it is not hurtful, a child might drink every drop that's in it.
Oh, for the sake of all you love, and of all that love you, take it!"
and as she urged her, the tears streamed down her cheeks.

"No, no," replied Mrs. Sullivan, "it'll never cross my lips; not if it
made me as rich as ould Hendherson, that airs his guineas in the sun,
for fraid they'd get light by lyin' past."

"I entreat you to take it?" said the strange woman.

"Never, never!--once for all--I say, I won't; so spare your breath."

The firmness of the good housewife was not, in fact to be shaken; so,
after exhausting all the motives and arguments with which she could urge
the accomplishments of