a dog as famous Koolawn at her scut.  He turned her, and turned her, and every one thought he had her above a dozen of times, but still she turned, and was off from him again.  At this rate they went on for long enough, until both began to fail, and to appear nearly run down.  At length the gallaut Koolawn had her; she gave a squeal that was heard, they say, for miles.  He had her, I say, hard and fast by the hip, but it was only for a moment; how she escaped; from him nobody knows; but it was thought that he wasn’t able, from want of breath, to keep his hoult.  To make a long story short, she got off from him, turned up towards the; cabin we’re sittin’ in, Koolawn, game as ever, still close to her; at last she got in, and as the dog was about to spring in afther her, he found the door shut in his face.  There now was the proof of it; but wait till you hear what’s comin’.  The men all ran up here and opened the door, for there was only a latch upon it, and if the hare was in existence, surely they’d find her now.  Well, they closed the door at wanst for fraid she’d escape them; but afther sarchin’ to no purpose, what do you think they found?  No hare, at any rate, but ould Bet Harramount pantin’ in the straw there, and covered wid a rug, for she hadn’t time to get on the blanket—­just as if the life was lavin’ her.  The sweat, savin’ your presence, was pourin’ from her; and upon examinin’ her more closely, which they did, they found the marks of the dog’s teeth in one of her ould hips, which was freshly bleedin’.  They were now satisfied, I think, and—­”

“But why did they not seize and carry her before a magistrate?”

“Aisy, Masther Harry; the white cat, all this time, was sittin’ at the fireside there, lookin’ on very quietly, when the thought struck the men that they’d set the dogs upon it, and so they did, or rather, so they tried to do, but the minute the cat was pointed out to them, they dropped their ears and tails, and made out o’ the house, and all the art o’ man couldn’t get them to come in again.  When the men looked at it agin it was four times the size it had been at the beginin’, and, what was still more frightful, it was gettin’ bigger and bigger, and fiercer and fiercer lookin’, every minute.  Begad, the men seein’ this took to their heels for the present, wid an intention of comin’ the next momin’, wid the priest and the magisthrate, and a strong force to seize upon her, and have her tried and convicted, in ordher that she might be burned.”

“And did they come?”

“They did; but of all the storms that ever fell from the heavens, none o’ them could aquil the one that come on that night.  Thundher, and wind, and lightnin’, and hail, and rain, were all at work together, and every one knew at wanst that the devil was riz for somethin’.  Well, I’m near the end of it.  The next mornin’ the priest and the magisthrate, and a large body of people from all quarthers, came to make a prisoner of her; but, indeed, wherever she might be herself, they didn’t expect to find this light, flimsy hut standin’, nor stick nor stone of it together afther such a storm.  What was their surprise, then, to see wid their own eyes that not a straw on the roof of it was disturbed any more than if it had been the calmest night that ever came on the earth!”