himself up in Scripture; at another moment questioning his daughter
about her opinion on Popery--sometimes dealing about political and
religious allusions with great sarcasm, in which he was a master when he
wished, and sometimes with considerable humor of illustration, so far,
at least, as he could be understood.

"Confound these Jesuits," said he; "I wish they were scourged out of
Europe. Every man of them is sure to put his finger in the pie and then
into his mouth to taste what it's like; not so the parsons--Hallo! where
am I? Take care, old Folliard; take care, you old dog; what have you to
say in favor of these same parsons--lazy, negligent fellows, who snore
and slumber, feed well, clothe well, and think first of number one?
Egad, I'm in a mess between them. One makes a slave of you, and the
other allows you to play the tyrant. A plague, as I heard a fellow say
in a play once, a plague o' both your houses: if you paid more attention
to your duties, and scrambled less for wealth and power, and this
world's honors, you would not turn it upside down as you do. Helen!"

"Well, papa."

"I have doubts whether I shall allow you to sound Reilly on. Popery."

"I would rather decline it, sir."

"I'll tell you what; I'll see Andy Cummiskey--Andy's opinion is good
on any thing." And accordingly he proceeded to see his confidential
old servant. With this purpose, and in his own original manner, he went
about consulting every servant under his roof upon their respective
notions of Popery, as he called it, and striving to allure them, at one
time by kindness, and at another by threatening them, into an avowal