“Don’t you know this gentleman?” asked the proctor, pointing to M’Carthy.

“Let me see,” said he—­“we’ll now—­eh, no—­I think not, he is neither so well made, nor by any manes so well lookin’ as the other;” and the pedlar, as he spoke, fixed his eyes, but without seeming to gaze, upon Julia, who, on hearing a comparison evidently so disadvantageous to M’Carthy, blushed deeply, and passed to another part of the room, in order to conceal what she felt must have been visible, and might have excited observation.

“No,” proceeded the pedlar; “I thought at first he was one of the left-legge’d M’Squiggins’s, as they call them, from Fumblestown—­but he is not, I know, for the raisons I said.  They’re a very good plain family, the M’Squiggins’s, only that nobody’s likely to fall in love wid them—­upon my profits, I’m half inclined to think he’s one of them still—­eh, let me see again—­would you turn round a little, if you plaise, sir, till I thry if the cast’s in your eye.  Upon my faith, there it is sure enough!  How are you, Misther M’Squiggins?  I’m happy to see you well, sir.  How is your sisther, Miss Pugshey, an’ all the family, sir?—­all well, I hope, sir?”

“All well,” replied M’Carthy, laughing as loud as any of the rest, every one of whom actually in convulsions—­for they knew, with the exception of Julia, who was deceived at first by the pedlar’s apparent gravity, that he was only bantering her lover.

The proctor, who, although a man that loved money as his God—­with his whole heart, soul, and strength—­was yet exceedingly anxious to stand well with the world, and on this account never suffered a mere trifle to stand between him and the means of acquiring a good name, and having himself been considered a man of even of a benevolent spirit.  He consequently made some purchase from the pedlar, with whom he held a very amusing and comic discussion, as touching the prices of many articles in that worthy’s; pack.  Nay, he went so far as to give them a good-humored exhibition of the secrets and peculiarities known only to the initiated, and bought some small matters in the slang terms with which none but the trade are acquainted.

“Come, boys,” said he, “I have set you a good example; won’t you buy something from the jolly pedlar?”

John and Alick bought some trifling things, and M’Carthy purchased a pair of bracelets for the girls, which closed the sales for that morning.

“Well, now,” said the pedlar, whilst folding up again the goods which he had displayed for sale, “upon my profits, Misther Purcel, it’s a perfect delight to me to call here, an’ that whether I dale or not—­although I’m sure to do so always when I come.  Well, you have all dealt wid me now for payment, and here goes to give you something for nothing—­an, in truth, it’s a commodity that, although always chape, is seldom taken.  ’Tis called good advice.  The ladies—­God bless them, don’t stand in need of it, for sure the darlins’ never did anything from Eve downwards, that ’ud require it.  Here it is then, Misther Purcel, let you and your sons do what the ould song says—­’be good boys and take care of yourselves.  Thighin thu? (Do you understand.) An’ this gintleman, if I knew his name, maybe I’d say something to him too.”