I admit Munster, gintlemen--glorious Kerry!--yes, and I say I am not ashamed of it.

I do plead guilty to the peripatetic system: like a comet I travelled during my juvenile days--as I may truly assert wid a slight modicum of latitude" (here he lurched considerably to the one side)--"from star to star, until I was able to exhibit all their brilliancy united simply, I can safely assert, in my own humble person.

Gintlemen, I have the honor of being able to write 'Philomath' after my name--which is O'Finigan, not Finigan, by any means--and where is the oyster in his shell could do that?
Yes, and although they refused me a sizarship in Trinity College--for what will not fear and envy do?
"'Tantaene animis celesiibus irae' Yet I have the consolation to know that my name is seldom mentioned among the literati of classical Kerry--_nudis cruribus_ as they are--except as the Great O'Finigan! In the mane time--" "Bravo, Masther!" exclaimed Keenan, interrupting him.

"Here, Ted! another bottle, till the Great O'Finigan gets a glass of whiskey." "Yes, gintlemen," proceeded O'Finigan, "the alcohol shall be accepted, _puris naturalibus_--which means, in its native--or more properly--but which comes to the same thing--in its naked state; and, in the mane time, I propose the health of one of my best benefactors--Gerald Cavanagh, whose hospitable roof is a home--a domicilium to erudition and respectability, when they happen, as they ought, to be legitimately concatenated in the same person--as they are in your humble servant; and I also beg leave to add the pride of the barony, his fair and virtuous daughter, Kathleen, in conjunction wid the I accomplished son of another benefactor of mine--honest James Burke--in conjunction, I say, wid his son, Mr.Hyacinth.Ah, gintlemen--Billy Clinton, you thievin' villain! you don't pay attention; I say, gintlemen, if I myself could deduct a score of years from the period of my life, I should endeavor to run through the conjugations of _amo_ in society wid that pearl of beauty.
In the mane time--" "Here's her health, masther," returned Keenan, "an' her father's too, an' Hycy Burke's into the bargain--is there any more o' them?
Well, no matter." Then turning to his antagonist, he added, "I say agin, thin, that a Mullin's not a match for a Keenan, nor never was--no, nor never will be! That's the chat! and who's afeard to say it?
eh, masther ?" "It's a lie!" shouted one of the opposite party; "I'm able to lick e'er a Keenan that ever went on nate's leather--an' that's my chat." A blow from Keenan in reply was like a spark to gunpowder.

In a moment the cavern presented a scene singularly tragic-comic; the whole party was one busy mass of battle, with the exception of Ted and Batt, and the wife of the latter, who, having first hastily put aside everything that might be injured, stood enjoying the conflict with most ferocious glee, the schoolmaster having already withdrawn himself to his chair.