the Gout?" he said, knitting his brows with
affected reluctance. "Sure I am sick an' tired tellin' ye that. No,
but I'll tell ye 'The little man and the little woman that lived in
the vinegar bottle.' ... Wanst upon a time, there was a weeshy-dawshy
little man--'"

"Ah no, Misther Clancy, I don't care for that," interrupted Roseen,
jumping up and clapping her hands to her ears. "It's a horrible ould
story. They'd have been drownded," she added seriously.

Pat chuckled. "Well, sit down, an' don't offer to say a word unless
you hear me goin' out. Sure maybe I disremember it altogether."

Roseen sat down obediently and fixed her eyes on the old man's face.

[Illustration: THE SPIDER AND THE GOUT
"Wanst upon a time," began Dan]

"Wanst upon a time," began Dan, with a twinkle in his eye, "the pigs
were swine." Roseen gave an impatient wriggle. "Well, well, it's too
bad to be tormentin' ye that way. I'll begin right now.--Well, very
well then. There was wan time the Spider an' the Gout was thravellin'
together, goin' to seek their fortun's. Well, they come to the crass
roads. 'Lookit here,' says the Spider, 'it's time for you an' me to be
partin' company,' says he; 'I'm goin' up along here to the right,'
says he, 'to that great big house on the hill. A very rich man lives
there,' says he, 'an' I think the quarthers 'ull suit me. You can go
down that little boreen to the left,' he says; 'there's a little cabin
there that belongs to some poor fellow or other. The door is cracked,'
says the Spider, 'and the windy is broke. Ye can slip in aisy,' he
says, 'an' creep into the poor fellow's toe before he knows where he
is.'--'Is that so?' says the Gout. 'Oh, that indeed!' says he; 'it'll
suit me very well,' says he, 'if that's the way it is. An' I'll tell
you what we'll do,' says the Gout, 'you an' me'll meet here this time
to-morrow night an' tell each other how we're gettin' on,' says he."

Pat paused, rubbing his knotted fingers up and down the ragged knees
of his corduroys. Roseen heaved a deep sigh, and folded one dimpled
hand over the other, her eyes meanwhile fixed unwinkingly on the face
of the narrator. The interest of the tale was now growing absorbing.

"Well, the Spider went off wid himself up to the rich man's house, an'
what do ye think the poor fellow found when he got there?"

Roseen was perfectly aware of the state of affairs which the Spider
discovered, knowing as she did every word of the story by heart, b