unkindness of his friends affected his health, and he died young.

He was much missed at Castle Tobin, but the wicked preference of the parents was not left without some punishment. Young Tobin grew up to be a fine young man, and fought, and hunted, and drank, and gambled, and showed himself in every way a real son of his father, and no changeling whatsoever. And accordingly

the father doted on him.

One morning, say the historians of the neighbourhood, Mr. Tobin saw his son going out at a very early hour. He asked him where he was going, and the young man answered carelessly "nowhere, only up the mountains to fight a duel". Whether through recklessness, or that he disbelieved the young scapegrace, the father is reported to have recommended him to "take the grayhounds with him, and that he might have a very pretty course when it was over". The son adopted the suggestion, but there was no occasion for the dogs. He was brought home, in less than two hours after, a corpse, to Castle Tobin.

It was on the death of his wife, which followed soon after, that old Tobin adopted Frank, his nephew, to whom, as he was one of the company on this occasion, it is necessary that we direct our attention for a little time. Frank Tobin had the misfortune of being

66 A self-willed imp, a grandame's child",

and was left for his education altogether to the system of society in which he grew up. As to restraint, he never knew what it was to have his wishes contradicted in a single instance in which it was physically possible to comply with them. His grandmamma, it should be known, was a great lady, and had spent many years abroad, where she had picked up several notions which it was very hard to understand. She hated anything that people were used to. Nothing would do for her either in

the way of ribands or principles, except it was spick-andspan new. If it were possible to administer nourishment at the ears, Mrs. Tobin never would have wished to see the mouth employed for that purpose; and one would think, to hear her speak, that it was mere prejudice made all mankind persevere in walking erect instead of creeping on all-fours. In a word, good Mrs. Tobin was rather a charlatan in her notions about educating children, and Master Frank Tobin was not five years old before he began to turn her foible to his own account; for none are more quicksighted than children in perceiving whether the individual entrusted with their instruction is a quack or a person of common sense. Though not altogether an illnatured child, he became, from Mrs. Tobin's system of passive compliance, one of the greatest pests and tyrants that ever plagued a household. His father and mother, who had never travelled, did not altogether relish Mrs. Tobin's plans, but they were afraid to interfere. His grandmother was rich, and they thought she would make Frank her heir.

But she died and disappointed them, as Frank had disappointed her. And what was now to be done? Here was Frank, a fine gentleman, too proud to take any situation, and too poor to do without it. His mode of life was now somewhat curious. He used to spend a great part of the day fishing, or shooting, or coursing, and the produce of his sport he forwarded to the different families in the neighbourhood with whom he was connected by affinity or by liking. He could glaze windows, and cement broken china, and mend old furniture, and tune pianos, and play a little on the flute, and execute sundry little offices of that kind, which made him a welcome visitor at the houses of most of his country friends. And if he had confined his accomplishments to such matters as these, all would have been well; but it was far otherwise. Although very good-humoured at a

convivial meeting, and capable of singing a hearty song and passing a merry joke, he was plagued with an unfortunate temper, which was continually involving him in disputes. He had, however, by some means got the name of an humourist, and his last adventure was circulated as regularly in his own circle as the last bon mot of a legal functionary in our own day. There was scarce an Assize or Quarter Sessions at which Frank Tobin had not to answer some score of charges for assault and battery. A child of liberty, Frank could not, from his boyhood, endure any system of human law, which he conceived wholly unnecessary for the maintenance of society. All law and government, he used to say, was a job; a mere trick, intended for the purpose of putting money into the pockets of lawyers, and throwing impediments in the way of young fellows who were "inclined for fun”. It was all an invention of roguish attorneys and counsellors. This theoretical antipathy to the entire system was not without its practical effects; for Frank Tobin visited severely on the persons of the individual professors, when they happened to fall in his way, his abstract dislike of the profession. His highest game, however, in this way, were the bailiffs and tipstaffs, who were sent to apprehend him for his misdemeanours, or at best some Special Sessions Attorney, and with these he waged perpetual and implacable war.

He was first recommended to the notice of his uncle by a characteristic incident. He was sauntering one day through the mountains in the neighbourhood of Castle Tobin, when he saw a countryman at a little distance walking to and fro upon a field and looking very disconsolate. "Well, my good man", said Frank, "what's the matter with you ?"

"Ah, plase your honour, I'm destroyed. I have a latificat again' that man over, an' I don't know from Adam How will I take him".

He pointed to a house about twenty yards distant. On the half door, which was closed, rested the muzzle of a blunderbuss, and behind sat the proprietor, quietly seated in his chair, and seeming to wait the first hostile movement on the part of his adversary. Having ascertained from the man that the case was one of peculiar hardship, Frank Tobin, who was a kind of knight errant in a small way, and quite as ready to encounter danger in another's behalf as in his own, determined to assist him. He bade the man continue to walk up and down while he went to seek assistance. He had not gone far before he met one of his companions.

66

Tom", said he, "have you got a stick?”

66 I have, sir".

"Do you see that house over?"

"I do, sir".

"Well, go round and stand o' one side the back door, and when you see a man running out there, knock him down".

"I will, sir".

Away went Tom, while Frank, slipping close along the front of the house, laid both hands upon the muzzle of the blunderbuss and effectually secured it. The fellow,

as he had anticipated, ran for the back door, where Tom with great punctuality knocked him down. Both then delivered their prisoner into the hands of the man who had got what he called the "latificat", while Frank said:

"That's the way to do business, my lad, and not to be looking for any of your latitats nor rattle-traps neither. If you take my advice, you never will have any call to the law. It would be long before one of your three-and-ninepenny schemers would show you how to serve that bit of paper after you had got it”.

It happened that the man was a tenant of his uncle, who, on hearing of the affair, took Frank under his patronage, which he still continued to afford him, with some

restraint, however, on his favourite inclinations, as Mr. Tobin's character obliged him to maintain some degree of decorum towards his old foes, a circumstance which many thought would prey upon his health.

Besides these were Will Buffer, so named for his prodigious strength of limb and wonderful agility of muscle, which almost enabled him to realise the fables of Fleetfoot in the fairy tale; and Mr. Dungan, Frank's old tutor, whom his grandmother had engaged for no other reasons, according to their humble neighbours, who are often as shrewd as their superiors, than that "he was just as cracked as she was herself". He had some strange notions about the pronunciation of the letter C, which had gone against him all through life, but which he would rather die than surrender.

Such were the principal individuals of the company, whom Mr. Moynehan was asked to meet to-night at Castle Tobin.

He was received with a tumult of delight, Frank Tobin undertaking, when they had sat down, to make him acquainted with the people in the room.

"That's Will Buffer sitting near my uncle. Did you ever meet Will Buffer before? He's one of the ablest fellows in Ireland. I saw him lift a deal table with his teeth. He can somerset over his horse. You never saw such a smart fellow. He can run like the wind".

"And who is that next your father?"

"That! Oh, that's Tom Goggin. You'll soon know who Tom Goggin is. He's a great wit. You never heard a fellow tell such stories, nor say such good things, as Tom. He'd make you split your sides laughing, listening to him".

There was something in the appearance of Tom Goggin and the Buffer, which Mr. Moynehan did not altogether relish, nor was his prejudice removed by the manners of both in the course of the evening. The Buffer was one of