at home; so in the
meantime, if we are to have any breakfast this morning, let us go down
and have it for the last time in peace and comfort, Bella.'

Then as I heard my master coming to the passage door, I finished
fastening up my slate against the broken pane; and when he came out I
wiped down the window-seat with my wig, I and bade him a 'good-morrow'
as kindly as I could, seeing he was in trouble, though he strove and
thought to hide it from me.

[Wigs were formerly used instead of brooms in Ireland for sweeping or
dusting tables, stairs, etc. The Editor doubted the fact till he saw a
labourer of the old school sweep down a flight of stairs with his wig;
he afterwards put it on his head again with the utmost composure, and
said, 'Oh, please your honour, it's never a bit the worse.

It must be acknowledged that these men are not in any danger of catching
cold by taking off their wigs occasionally, because they usually have
fine crops of hair growing under their wigs. The wigs are often yellow,
and the hair which appears from beneath them black; the wigs are usually
too small, and are raised up by the hair beneath, or by the ears of the
wearers.]

'This window is all racked and tattered,' says I, 'and it's what I'm
striving to mend.'

'It IS all racked and tattered, plain enough,' says he, 'and never mind
mending it, honest old Thady,' says he; 'it will do well enough for you
and I, and that's all the company we shall have left in the house by and
by.'

'I'm sorry to see your honour so low this morning,' says I; 'but you'll
be better after taking your breakfast.'

'Step down to the servants' hall,' said he, 'and bring me up the pen
and ink into the parlour, and get a sheet of paper from Mrs. Jane, for I
have business that can't brook to be delayed; and come into the parlour
with the pen and ink yourself, Thady, for I must have you to witness my
signing a paper I have to execute in a hurry.'

Well, while I was getting of the pen and ink-horn, and the sheet of
paper, I ransacked my brains to think what could be the papers my poor
master could have to execute in such a hurry, he that never thought of
such a thing as doing business afore breakfast in the whole course of
his life, for any man living; but this was for my lady, as I afterwards
found, and the more genteel of him after all her treatment.

I was just witnessing the paper that he had scrawled over, and was
shaking the ink out of my pen upon the carpe