* The Muddha Arran is literally “the bread stick,” a term in opposition to the scowdher.  It is a forked stick with three legs, that stands opposite the fire, and supports the cake, which is placed on the edge until it is gradually baked.  The Scowdher is, for the most part, made in cases of hurry.

Denis, however, to resume more directly the thread of our narrative, on finding himself mounted, took an inveterate prejudice against walking.  There was something, he thought, far more dignified in riding than in pacing slowly upon the earth, like a common man who had not the justification of Latin and Greek for becoming an equestrian.  Besides this accomplishment, there were also many other habits to be broken off, and more genteel ones to be adopted in their place.  These were all suggested by his rising pride; and, in sooth, they smacked strongly of that adroitness with which the Irish priest, and every priest, contrives to accomplish the purpose of feeding well through the ostensible medium of a different motive.

He accordingly took his father aside one morning, after he had eaten a more meagre breakfast that usual, and, after licking his lips, addressed him in these words:—­

“I think, father, that upon considerating the consequence to which I am now entitled, and the degree of respectability which, in my own person—­in propria persona—­I communicate to the vulgarians with whom I am connected—­I call them vulgarians from no derogatory motive; but you will concede yourself, that they are ignorant of the larned languages, an’ consequently, though dacent enough, still, in reference to Latin and Greek, but vulgarians.  Well! Quid multis?—­I say, that taking all these things into speculation, looking at them—­veluti in speculum—­it is neither dacent nor becoming that I should ate in the manner I have done, as vulgarly as themselves—­that I should ate, I say, any longer, without knife and fork.  Neither, I announce, shall I in future drink my milk any longer, as I have with all humility done hitherto, out of a noggin; nor continue to disrobe, my potatoes any longer without a becoming instrument.  I must also have better viands to consume.  You are not to be ininformed that I am in that situation of life, in which, from my education and other accomplishments, I must be estimated as duly qualified to ate beef and mutton instead of bacon, an’ to have my tay breakfast instead of stirabout, which, in polite society, is designated porridge.  You know yourself, and must acknowledge, that I’m soon likely to confer distinction and preeminence upon the poor illiterate, but honest creatures, with whom I am associated in the bonds of blood-relationship.  If I were a dunce, or a booby, or a leather head, the case might be different; but you yourself are well acquainted with my talents of logic and conthroversy; an’ I have sound rasons and good authority, which I could quote, if necessary, for proving that