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"Oyeh thin nothing in the world", replied a smoke-dried, crow-footed, white-haired, yet sharp-eyed hag, whose three last teeth were employed in masticating a piece of "that vile roguish tobacco". "Nothing;-only we to be talking among ourselves of ould times-and things-the quare doings that used to be there long ago

'Onst on a time

When pigs drank wine,

And turkeys smoked tobaccy':

whin THEMSELVES used to be seen by the ould and the young, by day and night, roving the fields and places, and not to be scaming about as they do now (maning 'em no disparagement), in a whisk of a dusty road on a windy day,-whin goold was as plenty as bog-dust, and there used to be joyants there as long as the round towers; when it was the fashion for the girls to come coorting the boys, instead of the boys going after the girls, and things that way, entirely".

"Poh, what nonsense!" exclaimed the hero of the snapapple, "there's not a word ever to be had out o' the ould women, passing a chronicle of a fable about the fairies, and priests, and joyants, and things that we never seen, nor that nobody ever come back to tell us about-what kind they wor-or what truth was in 'em. Let somebody sit upright and tell us something that we'll know is it a lie that he's telling, or not".

"Something about wakes and weddings, and them things", said (a note above her breath) the modest, small mouthed Norry Foley.

"Or smugglers, or coiners, or fighting at fairs, or Moll Doyle, or rebellion, or murthering of one sort or another”, roared he of the legs.

"Easy now easy the whole o' ye!-easy again!" said the host, waving his hand round the circle to enjoin silence, there may be a way found to please ye all!" (this was said with an air of good-natured condescension, as if

the speaker, in his benevolence, were about to tolerate rather than enjoy the silly amusement which the youngsters meditated). "Gather round the fire, do ye, and let every body tell his story after his own way; and let the rest hearken, whether they like it or not, until 'tis over, and then tell their own, if they think 'tis better".

A clattering of chairs and stools, and a general bustle, announced the ready concurrence of the company in this polite arrangement. In a short time all were hushed into a most flattering silence, and the following tales passed round the circle, lulling some to sleep, keeping others awake, each finding its particular number of indulgent, gratified, and attentive auditors, though no single one, perhaps, succeeded in pleasing all.

Whether such may be the lot of the narratives among a more extensive and less considerate audience, remains to be seen. Avowing the source from which his materials were taken, the collector thinks himself entitled to tell the stories after his own liking, only requesting the critical reader to keep the pretensions of the book in mind whenever its defects shall arouse the tiger, judgment, within his breast. It is not that we absolutely fear the beast, but we would have him reserve his royal ferocity for a worthier prey, which a little forbearance in this instance may induce us, ere long, to lay before him.

THE

AYLMERS OF BALLY-AYLMER.

With pleasure and amaze I stand transported!
Dead and alive at once!

What do I see?

Cato.

"THE mountains! The Kerry hills! Alone by yourself, and at this time o'night! Now, hear to me, will you, sir, for it's a lonesome way you're taking, and them mountains is the place for all manner of evil doings from the living and from the dead. Take this little bottle of holy water, and shake a little of it upon your forehead when you step upon the heath. Walk on bold and straight before you, and if the dead night come upon you, which I hope no such thing will happen till you reach Tralee any way, you won't whistle don't, for it is that calls 'em all about one if they do be there; you know who I mean, sir. If you chance to see or hear anything bad, you have only to hold these beads up over your head, and stoop under it, and, whatever it is, it must pass over the beads without doing you any harm. Moreover"

"Easy, easy, Mrs. Giltinaan, if you please. There is something of much more consequence to me than those fine instructions of yours. Don't mind telling me what I shall do in case I lose my way, until you have let me know first how I am to find it".

"Oh, then, why shouldn't I, and welcome, Mr. Aylmer?

listen to me and I'll tell you, only be careful and don't slight themselves for all".

The above formed part of a conversation which took place between the hostess of an humble inn on the west border of the county of Limerick, and a young gentleman whose sharp accent and smart dress bespoke a recent acquaintance with Dublin life at least. As he was a very handsome young fellow, and likely to fall into adventures, perhaps I may be excused for giving some account of him, and in order to do this the more fully and satisfactorily, I shall begin by telling who his father was.

Robert Aylmer, Esq., of Bally-Aylmer, was a private gentleman of real Milesian extraction, residing near the west coast of Ireland. Like most of the gentry around him at that time, he did not scruple to add to his stock of worldly wealth, a portion of that which by legal right should have gone into his Majesty's exchequer. In a word, he meddled in the running trade on the coast, a circumstance not calculated at the period in question to attach any thing like opprobrium to the character of a gentleman and a real Milesian. Although he added considerably to his patrimony by this traffic, the expenses of the establishment at Bally-Aylmer were so creditable to the hospitality of its master, that he felt himself sinking rather than rising in the world, and was, indeed, on the eve of ruin, or more properly of an ejectment, when a desperate resource presented itself in the form of a smuggling enterprise, so daring in its nature that none but a Milesian would have even dreamt of putting it in execution. He formed this project, as he had done many others, in conjunction with an old friend and neighbour, Mr. Cahill Fitzmaurice, or as he was called by the smugglers, from his hardiness and cruelty, Cahil-cruvdharug (Cahil of the red hand), a name, however, which, like many other nicknames, was but little appropriate, for Mr. Fitzmaurice was known to mingle much humanity with his enterprise. Those two friends under

took the affair together, succeeded with an ease which they hardly anticipated, and realized a sum of money more than sufficient to have tempted them into danger still more imminent. Gratifying as was his success so far however, this enterprise was of fatal consequence to Mr. Aylmer. Having embarked with his friend on board a Galway hooker (a kind of vessel used for carrying fish or turf along the coast and up the Shannon), for the mouth of the river, they happened to engage in a dispute on some trivial occasion or other which, nevertheless, was made up between them with little difficulty. On the same night however, a very dark one, as the little vessel was putting about in a hard gale, a stamping of feet and struggling was heard on the forecastle, and immediately afterwards a heavy plash on the lee bow. Running forward to ascertain the cause, the boatmen found that Mr. Aylmer had fallen overboard, and Fitzmaurice was observed standing near the lee gunwale, and holding by the fluke of the anchor, apparently under the influence of strong agitation. He was seized instantly and questioned as to the occurrence, which he described to be perfectly accidental. A jury of his countrymen subsequently confirmed the allegation, and the innocence of the man was considered to be put beyond all doubt by the circumstance of his adopting the only child of the deceased, William Aylmer, educating him at his own expense, and clearing off all the debts to a very large amount with which his father's patrimony had been incumbered. The youth had been educated with the infant daughter of his father's friend until the age of ten, when he was sent to the metropolis; and he was now returning to the house of his benefactor, after an absence of nine years, during which time he had made himself perfect in all the accomplishments which a college, and subsequently a polite education, could afford.

Having performed the greater part of his journey in a kind of itinerant penitentiary called a jingle, an illegitimate

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