purty set are educated, and in which purty doings are going on if all
tales be true.

'In this Irish house I commenced my studies, learning to sing and to read
the Latin prayers of the church. 'Faith, Shorsha, many's the sorrowful
day I passed in that house learning the prayers and litanies, being
half-starved, with no earthly diversion at all, at all; until I took the
cards out of my chest and began instructing in card-playing the chum
which I had with me in the cell; then I had plenty of diversion along
with him during the times when I was not engaged in singing, and
chanting, and saying the prayers of the church; there was, however, some
drawback in playing with my chum, for though he was very clever in
learning, divil a sixpence had he to play with, in which respect he was
like myself, the master who taught him, who had lost all my money to the
muleteers who taught me the tricks upon the cards; by degrees, however,
it began to be noised about the religious house that Murtagh, from
Hibrodary, {296} had a pack of cards with which he played with his chum
in the cell; whereupon other scholars of the religious house came to me,
some to be taught and others to play, so with some I played, and others I
taught, but neither to those who could play, or to those who could not,
did I teach the elegant tricks which I learnt from the muleteers. Well,
the scholars came to me for the sake of the cards, and the porter and the
cook of the religious house, who could both play very well, came also; at
last I became tired of playing for nothing, so I borrowed a few bits of
silver from the cook, and played against the porter, and by means of my
tricks I won money from the porter, and then I paid the cook the bits of
silver which I had borrowed of him; and played with him, and won a little
of his money, which I let him win back again, as I had lived long enough
in a religious house to know that it is dangerous to take money from the
cook. In a little time, Shorsha, there was scarcely anything going on in
the house but card-playing; the almoner played with me, and so did the
sub-rector, and I won money from both; not too much, however, lest they
should tell the rector, who had the character of a very austere man, and
of being a bit of a saint; however, the thief of a porter, whose money I
had won, informed the rector of what was going on, and one day the rector
sent for me into his private apartment, and gave me so long and pious a
lect