“What’s come over you, at all at all, you unsignified shingawn you, to affront the gintleman in this way, and he kind enough to go for to give you an examination?—­come now, you had betther not vex me, I tell you, but hould up your head, and spake out loud, that we can all hear you:  now, Father Con, achora, you’ll not be too hard upon him in the beginning, till he gets into it, for he’s aisy dashed.”

“Here, Briney,” said Father Philemy, handing him his tumbler, “take a pull of this and if you have any courage at all in you it will raise it;—­take a good pull.”  Briney hesitated.

“Why, but you take the glass out of his Reverence’s hand, sarrah,” said the father—­“what! is it without dhrinking his Reverence’s health first?”

Briney gave a most melancholy nod at his Reverence, as he put the tumbler to his mouth, which he nearly emptied, notwithstanding his shyness.

“For my part,” said his Reverence, looking at the almost empty tumbler, “I am pretty sure that that same chap will be able to take care of himself through life.  And so, Captain,—­” said he, resuming the conversation with Captain Wilson—­for his notice of Briney was only parenthetical.

Father Con now took the book, which was AEsop’s Fables, and, in accordance with Briney’s intention, it opened exactly at the favorite fable of Gallus Gallinacexis.  He was not aware, however, that Briney had kept that place open during the preceding part of the week, in order to effect this point.  Father Philemy, however, was now beginning to relate another anecdote to the Captain, and the thread of his narrative twined rather ludicrously with that of the examination.

Briney, after, a few hems, at length proceeded—­“Gallus Gallinaceus, a dung-hill cock—­”

“So, Captain, I was just after coming out of Widow Moylan’s—­it was in the Lammas fair—­and a large one, by the by, it was—­so, sir, who should come up to me but Branagan.  ‘Well, Branagan,’ said I, ’how does the world go now with you?’——­”

“Gallus Gallinaceus, a dunghill cock——­”

——­“Says he.  ‘And how is that?’ says I.

“Gallus Gallinaceus——­”

-----“Says he, ‘Hut tut, Branagan,’ says I--’you’re drunk.’  ’That’s
the thing, sir’ says Branagan, ’and I want to explain it all to your
Reverence.’  ‘Well,’ said I, ’go on—–­”

“Gallus Gallinaceus, a dunghill cock——­”

——­“Says he,——­Let your Gallus Gallinaceus go to roost for this night, Con,” said Father Philemy, who did not relish the interruption of his story; “I say, Phaddhy, send the boy to bed, and bring him down in your hand to my house on Saturday morning, and we will both examine him, but this is no time for it, and me engaged in conversation with Captain Wilson.--So, Captain ____’Well, sir,’ says Branagan, and he staggering,—­’I took an oath against liquor, and I want your Reverence to break it,’ says he.  ‘What do you mean?’ I inquired.  ’Why, please your Reverence,’ said he, ’I took an oath against liquor, as I told you, not to drink more nor a pint of whiskey in one day, and I want your Reverence to break it for me, and make it only half a pint; for I find that a pint is too much for me; by the same token, that when I get that far, your Reverence, I disremember the oath entirely.”