felly had a match in his mind fur Nora, a lad from
Tipperary, whose father was a farmer there, an' had a shmart bit av land
wid no end av shape grazin' on it, an' the Tipperary boy wasn't bad at
all, only as shtupid as a donkey, an' whin he'd come to see Nora, bad cess
to the word he'd to say, only look at her a bit an' thin fall aslape an'
knock his head agin the wall. But he wanted her, an' his father an'
O'Moore put their heads together over a glass an' aggrade that the young
wans 'ud be married.

"'Sure I don't love him a bit, father,' Nora 'ud say.

"'Be aff wid yer nonsinse,' he'd say to her. 'Phat does it matther about
love, whin he's got more nor a hunderd shape. Sure I wudn't give the wool
av thim fur all the love in Clare,' says he, an' wid that the argymint 'ud
end.

"So Nora towld Paddy an' Paddy said he'd not give her up for all the men
in Tipperary or all the shape in Ireland, an' it was aggrade that in wan
way or another, they'd be married in spite av owld O'Moore, though Nora
hated to do it, bekase, as I was afther tellin' ye, she was a good gurrul,
an' wint to mass an' to her duty reg'lar. But like the angel that she was,
she towld her mother an' the owld lady was agrayble, an' so Nora
consinted.

"But O'Moore was shrewder than a fox whin he was sober, an' that was whin
he'd no money to shpend in dhrink, an' this bein' wan o' thim times, he
watched Nora an' begun to suspicion somethin'. So he made belave that
everything was right an' the next time that Murphy, that bein' the name o'
the Tipperary farmer, came, the two owld fellys settled it that O'Moore
an' Nora 'ud come to Tipperary av the Winsday afther, that bein' the day
o' the fair in Ennis that they knew Paddy 'ud be at, an' whin they got to
Tipperary, they'd marry Nora an' young Murphy at wanst. So owld Murphy was
to sind the car afther thim an' everything was made sure. So, av the
Winsday, towards noon, says owld O'Moore to Nora,--

"'Be in a hurry now, me child, an' make yersel' as fine as ye can, an'
Murphy's car 'ull be here to take us to the fair.'

"Nora didn't want to go, for Paddy was comin' out in the afthernoon,
misthrustin' that owld O'Moore 'ud be at the fair. But O'Moore only towld
her to make haste wid hersilf or they'd be late, an' she did. So the car
came, wid a boy dhriving, an' owld O'Moore axed the boy if he wanted to go
to the fair, so that Nora cudn't hear him, an' the boy said yes, an'
O'Moore towld him to go an' he'd