Ah, glory be to goodness, but that's refreshin', especially afther sich a day--sich a day! O saints above, look down upon us poor sinners, one and all, men and women, wid pity and compassion this night! Here; I'm very wake; let me get to bed; is there any pump wather in the kitchen ?" To describe the pitch to which he had them wound up would be utterly impossible.

He sat in the cook's arm-chair, leaning a little back, his feet placed upon the fender, and his eyes, as before, immovably, painfully, and abstractedly fixed upon the embers.

He was now the centre of a circle, for they were all crowded about him, wrapped up to the highest possible pitch of curiosity.
"We were talkin' about Masther Harry," said he, "the other night, and I think I tould you something about him; it's like a dhrame to me that I did." "You did, indeed, Barney," said the cook, coaxingly, "and I hope that what you tould us wasn't true." "Aye, but about to-day, Barney; somthin' has happened to-day that's troublin' you." "Who is it said that ?" said he, his eyes now closed, as if he were wrapped up in some distressing mystery.

"Was it you, Nanse?
It's like your voice, achora." Now, the reader must know that a deadly jealousy lay between Nanse and the cook, _quoad_ honest Barney, who, being aware of the fact, kept the hopes and fears of each in such an exact state of equilibrium, that neither of them could, for the life of her, claim the slightest advantage over the other.

The droll varlet had an appetite like a shark, and a strong relish for drink besides, and what between precious tidbits from the cook and borrowing small sums for liquor from Nanse, he contrived to play them off one against the other with great tact.
"I think," said he, his eyes still closed, "that that is Nanse's voice; is it, acushla ?" "It is, Barney, achora," replied Nanse; "but there's something wrong wid you." "I wish to goodness, Nanse, you'd let the boy alone," said the cook; "when he chooses to spake, he'll spake to them that can undherstand him." "O, jaminy stars! that's you, I suppose; ha, ha, ha." "Keep silence," said Barney, "and listen.