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"Divil a lie in it! Wasn't his head on one side of the horizon and his tail on the ithir whin I seed him?

Answer me that."

"D'ye think me sitch a born nat'ral as to be after stomachin' that? The divil a baste there ever was o' thim there immensions—lave alone a sarpint—or sayin' it was, faith thin shure enough it must have been a whopper."

"A whopper!-Ah! tare-an-nouns! do you think, now, nobody knows what kind of a baste the whopper is whin he sees him beyant yoursilf?-but shure an' it was neither a whopper nor a sarpint—wasn't it a differint kind of a baste intirely?"

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Oh, be asy! how could any ither baste, barring it was a fish, live in the water? What thin d'ye mane for to say was the name the cratur went by?"

"Aye, there's the matter!-but kaap yoursilf asy a bit, and may be I'll be behouldin' it to ye. Thin! wasn't I spaking to Mister O'Flaherty about the baste-an' divil the like o' him at larning I've mysilf ever seen far or nearr-hasn't he the natur of all the bastes and ither birds at his finger-ends, for all the world like a big showman? Well! wasn't I in

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scribin' to him the monster's immensions-didn't I

tell him the baste could jist take and twist himsilf round ould Irelind, for all the world like one o' the hoops round a whiskey keg—an' didn't he say, 'the divil a sea sarpint could do that—that must be an adder?'"

"An adder!!—was it an adder thin you saad doin' thim wonders intirely? Shure an' that may be; but to talk of a say sarpint doin' the like is beyant the beyants complately."

This admission of Dennis' friend as to the capability of the adder to perform "thim wonders intirely" silenced all further argument; though we rather suspect that the learned Mr. O'Flaherty was attempting a bit of wit, and intended to grow satirical upon Dennis' exaggerations, when he said, upon hearing the overdrawn description of the "sea sarpint"-"that it must be an adder!" What sort of creature, however, the adder was, was all greek to Dennis' friend, who, unwilling to betray his ignorance, concealed his deficiency with the usual ingenuity of his countrymen, and put an end to any further discussion by resuming his former occupation. This, however, lasted but for

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the usual short period, when they again came to a pause.

"Why, then," said Dennis, pointing to the timepiece at St. Giles's Church, "that's the largest paice of mechanics mortal eyes was ever set upon. Faith, an' wid their stame ingins, their stame boats, and their stame coaches, divil the likes there'd be of a stame clock, say I-shure an' that would make the time go fast enough—so it would. Blur an' agers if that ould cripple of an overgrown watch hasn't been thray hours an' more doin' the work o' one."

"May be an' it stands," said his companion. “Divil a stand there," replied Dennis, “shure an' it only lies instid."

"Thin its a goin', you mane to say.”

"Troth an' it is-you see, Larry, it an't one o' them stop-watches-so as long as it's up there, divil a once will it ever be down. Faith, an' I wish the ould daudle would be after gettin' on for dinner-time, so I do."

"Troth an' small's the use of that to me, for divil a taste of a pinny it's I'm kaaping-an' few's the frends, sure enough I know, that's fit to hould a candle to myself in the regard of money matters."