“Augh, augh! faith you’re the moral of a woman.  Are you there, Frank M’Kenna?—­here’s a sudden disholution to your family!  May they be scattered wid all speed—­manin’ the girls—­to all corners o’ the parish!—­ha, ha, ha!  Well, that won’t vex them, anyhow; an’ next, here’s a merry Chris’mas to us, an’ many o’ them!  Whooh! blur-an’-age! whooh! oh, by gorra!—­that’s—­that’s—­Frank run afther my breath—­I’ve lost it—­run, you tory:  oh, by gor, that’s stuff as sthrong as Sampson, so it is.  Arrah, what well do you dhraw that from? for, faith, ’twould be mighty convanient to live near it in a hard frost.”

Barny was now silent for some time, which silence was produced by the industry he displayed in assailing the substantial refreshments before him.  When he had concluded his repast he once more tasted the liquor; after which he got Granua Waile, and continued playing their favorite tunes, and amusing them with anecdotes, both true and false, until the hour drew nigh when his services were expected by the young men and maidens who had assembled to dance in the barn.  Occasionally, however, they took a preliminary step in which they were joined by few of their neighbors.  Old Frank himself felt his spirits elevated by contemplating the happiness of his children and their young associates.

“Frank,” said he, to the youngest of his sons, “go down to Owen Reillaghan’s, and tell him an’ his family to come up to the dance early in the evenin’.  Owen’s a pleasant man,” he added, “and a good neighbor, but a small thought too strict in his duties.  Tell him to come up, Frank, airly, I say; he’ll have time enough to go to the Midnight Mass afther dancin’ the ‘Rakes of Ballyshanny,’ and ‘the Baltihorum jig;’ an’ maybe he can’t do both in style!”

“Ay,” said Frank, in a jeering manner, “he carries a handy heel at the dancin’, and a soople tongue at the prayin’; but let him alone for bringin’ the bottom of his glass and his eyebrow acquainted.  But if he’d pray less—­”

“Go along, a veehonce, (* you profligate) an’ bring him up,” replied the father:  “you to talk about prayin’!  Them that ’ud catch you at a prayer ought to be showed for the world to wondher at:  a man wid two heads an him would be a fool to him.  Go along, I say, and do what you’re bid.”

“I’m goin’,” said Frank.  “I’m off; but what if he doesn’t come?  I’ll then have my journey for nothin’.”

“An’ it’s good payment for any journey ever you’ll make, barrin’ it’s to the gallows,” replied the father, nearly provoked at his reluctance in obeying him:  “won’t you have dancin’ enough in the coorse o’ the night, for you’ll not go to the Midnight Mass, and why don’t you be off wid you at wanst?”

Frank shrugged his shoulders two or three times, being loth to leave the music and dancing; but on seeing his father about to address him in sharper language, he went out with a frown on his brows, and a half-smothered imprecation bursting from his lips.