* A gentleman once told me an anecdote, of which he was an eye-witness.  Some peasants, belonging to opposite factions, had met under peculiar circumstances; there were, however, two on one side, and four on the other—­ in this case, there was likely to be no fight; but, in order to balance the number, one of the more numerous party joined the weak side—­“bekase, boys, it would be a burnin’ shame, so it would, for four to kick two; and, except I join them, by the powers, there’s no chance of there being a bit of sport, or a row, at all at all!” Accordingly, he did join them, and the result of it was, that he and his party were victorious, so honestly did he fight.

When we entered the house I was almost suffocated with the strong fumes of tobacco-smoke, snuff, and whiskey; and as I had been an old school-fellow of Denis’s, my appearance was the signal for a general burst of grief among his relations, in which the more distant friends and neighbors of the deceased joined, to keep up the keening.

I have often, indeed always, felt that there! is something extremely touching in the Irish cry; in fact, that it breathes the very spirit of wild and natural sorrow.  The Irish peasantry, whenever a death takes place, are exceedingly happy in seizing upon any contingent circumstances that may occur, and making them subservient to the excitement of grief for the departed, or the exaltation and praise of his character and virtues.  My entrance was a proof of this—­I had scarcely advanced to the middle of the floor, when my intimacy with the deceased, our boyish sports, and even our quarrels, were adverted to with a natural eloquence and pathos, that, in spite of my firmness, occasioned me to feel the prevailing sorrow.  They spoke, or chaunted mournfully, in Irish; but the substance of what they said was as follows:—­

“Oh, Denis, Denis, avourneen! you’re lying low, this morning of sorrow!—­lying low are you, and does not know who it is (alluding to me) that is standing over you, weeping for the days you spent together in your youth!  It’s yourself, acushla agus asthore machree (the pulse and beloved of my heart), that would stretch out the right hand warmly to welcome him to the place of his birth, where you had both been so often happy about the green hills and valleys with each other!  He’s here now, standing over you; and it’s he, of all his family, kind and respectable as they are, that was your own favorite, Denis, avourneen dhelish! He alone was the companion that you loved!—­with no other could you be happy!—­For him did you fight, when he wanted a friend in your young quarrels! and if you had a dispute with him, were you not sorry for it?  Are you not now stretched in death before him, and will he not forgive you?”

All this was uttered, of course, extemporaneously, and without the least preparation.  They then passed on to an enumeration of his virtues as a father, a husband, son, and brother—­specified his worth as he stood related to society in general, and his kindness as a neighbor and a friend.