n'-shtone if ye don't undhershtand, an' ye've got to
have more impidince than a monkey if ye don't spake up an' say something
about marryin'.

"Well, as I was afther sayin', the widdys begun to be pressin' him clost:
the Widdy Mulligan tellin' him how good her business was an' phat a savin'
there'd be if a farm an' a public were put together; the Widdy O'Donnell
a-lookin' at him out av her tears an' sighin' an' tellin' him how lonely
he must be out on a farm an' nobody but a man wid him in the house, fur
she was lonesome in town, an' it wasn't natheral at all, so it wasn't, fur
aither man or woman to be alone; an' the Widdy McMurthry a palatherin' to
him that if he'd a fine, good-lookin' woman that loved him, he'd be a
betther man an' a changed man entirely. So they wint on, the widdys
a-comin' at him, an' he thryin' to kape wid thim all, as he might have
knewn he couldn't do (barrin' he married the three o' thim like a Turk),
until aitch wan got to undhershtand, be phat he said to her, that he was
goin' to marry her, an' the minnit they got this in their heads, aitch
begged him that he'd shtay away from the other two, fur aitch knewn he
wint to see thim all. By jayminy, it bothered him thin, fur he liked to
talk to thim all aiquelly, an' didn't want to confine his agrayble comp'ny
to anny wan o' thim. So he got out av it thish-a-way. He promised the
Widdy McMurthry that he'd not go to the Shamrock more than wanst in the
week, nor into the Widdy O'Donnell's barrin' he naded salt fur his cow;
an' said to the Widdy Mulligan that he'd not more than spake to Missis
O'Donnell whin he wint in, an' that he'd go no more at all to Missis
McMurthry's; an' he towld Missis O'Donnell that whin he wint to the
Shamrock he'd get his sup an' thin lave at wanst, an' not go to the Widdy
McMurthry's axceptin' whin his horse wanted to be shod, the blacksmith's
bein' ferninst her dure that it 'ud be convaynient fur him to wait at. So
he shmiled wid himself thinkin' he'd done thim complately, an' made up his
mind that whin his pitaties were dug he'd give up the farm an' get over
into County Clare, away from the widdys.

"But thim that think widdys are fools are desaved entirely, an' so was
Misther Dooley, fur instead av his throubles bein' inded, begob, they were
just begun. Ivery time he wint into the Shamrock Missis O'Donnell heard av
it an' raymonshtrated wid him, an' 'ud cry at him beways it was dhrinkin'
himself to death he was; afther l