Father M'Grath, the priest, who lived with my father, taught me the elements, as they call them.

I thought I had enough of the elements then, but I've seen a deal more of them since.

'Terence,' says my father to me one day, 'what do you mane to do ?' 'To get my dinner, sure,' replied I, for I was not a little hungry.

'And so you shall to-day, my vourneen,' replied my father, 'but in future you must do something to get your own dinner: there's not praties enow for the whole of ye.

Will you go to the _say_ ?' 'I'll just step down and look at it,' says I, for we lived but sixteen Irish miles from the coast; so when I had finished my meal, which did not take long, for want of ammunition, I trotted down to the Cove to see what a ship might be like, and I happened upon a large one sure enough, for there lay a three-decker with an admiral's flag at the fore.