“Thady, you’re a wag,” exclaimed the crestfallen pedagogue; “take the lad to your own sate, and show him his task.  How! is your sister’s sore throat, Thady?”

“Why, sir,” replied the benevolent young wit, “she’s betther than I am.  She can swallow more, sir.”

“Not of larnin’, Thady; there you’ve the widest gullet in the parish.”

“My father’s the richest man in it, Masther,” replied Thady.  “I think, sir, my! gullet and his purse are much about the same size—­wid you.”

“Thady, you’re first-rate at a reply;—­but exceedingly deficient in the retort courteous.  Take the lad to your sate, I say, and see how far he is advanced, and what he is fit for.  I suppose, as you are so ginerous, you will volunteer to tache him yourself.”

“I’ll do that wid pleasure, sir; but I’d like to know whether you intind to tache him or not.”

“An’ I’d like to know, Thady, who’s to pay me for it, if I do.  A purty return Michael Rooney made me for making him such a linguist as he is.  ‘You’re a tyrant,’ said he, when he grew up, ’and instead of expecting me to thank you for your instructions, you ought to thank me for not preparing you for the county hospital, as a memento of the cruelty and brutality you made me feel, when I had the misfortune to be a poor scholar! under you.’  And so, because he became curate of the parish, he showed me the outside of it.”

“But will you tache this poor young boy, sir?”

“Let me know who’s to guarantee his payments.”

“I have money myself, sir, to pay you for two years,” replied Jemmy.  ‘They told me, sir, that you were a great scholar, an’ I refused to stop in other schools by rason of the name you have for Latin and Greek.”

“Verbum sat,” exclaimed the barefaced knave.  “Come here.  Now, you see, I persave you have dacency.  Here is your task; get that half page by heart.  You have a cute look, an’ I’ve no doubt but the stuff’s in you.  Come to me afther dismiss, ’till we have a little talk together.”

He accordingly pointed out the task, after which he placed him at his side, lest the inexperienced boy might be put on his guard by any of the scholars.  In this intention, however, he was frustrated by Thady, who, as he thoroughly detested the knavish tyrant, resolved to caution the poor scholar against his dishonesty.  Thady, indeed most heartily despised the mercenary pedagogue, not only for his obsequiousness to the rich, but on account of his severity to the children of the poor.  About two o’clock the young wag went out for a few minutes, and immediately returned in great haste to inform the master, that Mr. Delaney, the parish priest, and two other gentlemen wished to see him over at the Cross-Keys, an inn which was kept at a place called the Nine Mile House, within a few perches of the school.  The parish priest, though an ignorant, insipid old man, was the master’s patron, and his slightest wish a divine law to him.  The little despot, forgetting his prey, instantly repaired to the Cross-Keys, and in his absence, Thady, together with the larger boys of the school, made M’Evoy acquainted with the fraud about to be practised on him.