'Divil a sixpence did you and
your thaives leave me,' said he; 'and if you do not take yourself off,
joy, I will be breaking your ugly head with the foot of it.' 'Arrah,
Murtagh!' said I, 'would ye be breaking the head of your old friend and
scholar, to whom you taught the blessed tongue of Oilien nan Naomha, in
exchange for a pack of cards?' Murtagh, for he it was, gazed at me for a
moment with a bewildered look; then, with a gleam of intelligence in his
eye, he said, 'Shorsha! no, it can't be--yes, by my faith it is!' Then,
springing up, and seizing me by the hand, he said, 'Yes, by the powers,
sure enough it is Shorsha agra! Arrah, Shorsha! where have you been this
many a day? Sure, you are not one of the spalpeens who are after robbing
me?' 'Not I,' I replied, 'but I saw all that happened. Come, you must
not take matters so to heart; cheer up; such things will happen in
connection with the trade you have taken up.' 'Sorrow befall the trade,
and the thief who taught it me,' said Murtagh; 'and yet the trade is not
a bad one, if I only knew more of it, and had some one to help and back
me. Och! the idea of being cheated and bamboozled by that one-eyed thief
in the horseman's dress.' 'Let bygones be bygones, Murtagh,' said I; 'it
is no use grieving for the past; sit down, and let us have a little
pleasant gossip. Arrah, Murtagh! when I saw you sitting under the wall,
with your thumb to your mouth, it brought to my mind tales which you used
to tell me all about Finn-ma-Coul. You have not forgotten Finn-ma-Coul,
Murtagh, and how he sucked wisdom out of his thumb.' 'Sorrow a bit have
I forgot about him, Shorsha,' said Murtagh, as we sat down together, 'nor
what you yourself told me about the snake. Arrah, Shorsha! what ye told
me about the snake, bates anything I ever told you about Finn. Ochone,
Shorsha! perhaps you will be telling me about the snake once more? I
think the tale would do me good, and I have need of comfort, God knows,
Ochone!' Seeing Murtagh in such a distressed plight, I forthwith told
him over again the tale of the snake, in precisely the same words as I
have related it in the first part of this history. After which, I said,
'Now, Murtagh, tit for tat; ye will be telling me one of the old stories
of Finn-ma-Coul.' 'Och, Shorsha! I haven't heart enough,' said Murtagh.
'Thank you for your tale, but it makes me weep; it brings to my mind
Dungarvon times of old--I mean the times we were at