“O little the foolish words I heed
O Oisin’s son, from thy lips which come;
No strength were in Finn for valorous deed,
Unless to the gristle he suck’d his thumb.”

“Enough is as good as a feast, Murtagh, I am no longer in the cue for Finn.  I would rather hear your own history.  Now tell us, man, all that has happened to ye since Dungarvon times of old?”

“Och, Shorsha, it would be merely bringing all my sorrows back upon me!”

“Well, if I know all your sorrows, perhaps I shall be able to find a help for them.  I owe you much, Murtagh; you taught me Irish, and I will do all I can to help you.”

“Why, then, Shorsha, I’ll tell ye my history.  Here goes!”

CHAPTER XLV

Murtagh’s Tale.

“Well, Shorsha, about a year and a half after you left us—­and a sorrowful hour for us it was when ye left us, losing, as we did, your funny stories of your snake—­and the battles of your military--they sent me to Paris and Salamanca, in order to make a saggart of me.”

“Pray excuse me,” said I, “for interrupting you, but what kind of place is Salamanca?”

“Divil a bit did I ever see of it, Shorsha!”

“Then why did ye say ye were sent there?  Well, what kind of place is Paris?  Not that I care much about Paris.”

“Sorrow a bit did I ever see of either them, Shorsha, for no one sent me to either.  When we says at home a person is going to Paris and Salamanca, it manes that he is going abroad to study to be a saggart, whether he goes to them places or not.  No, I never saw either—­bad luck to them—­I was shipped away from Cork up the straits to a place called Leghorn, from which I was sent to—­to a religious house, where I was to be instructed in saggarting till they had made me fit to cut a dacent figure in Ireland.  We had a long and tedious voyage, Shorsha; not so tedious, however, as it would have been had I been fool enough to lave your pack of cards behind me, as the thaif, my brother Denis, wanted to persuade me to do, in order that he might play with them himself.  With the cards I managed to have many a nice game with the sailors, winning from them ha’pennies and sixpences until the captain said I was ruining his men, and keeping them from their duty; and, being a heretic and a Dutchman, swore that unless I gave over he would tie me up to the mast and give me a round dozen.  This threat obliged me to be more on my guard, though I occasionally contrived to get a game at night, and to win sixpennies and ha’pennies.