before, was a perfect thunder-cloud this night: bedad, he was nothing
less than near bursting with vexation, bekaise the thieving ould sinner
intended to have Jack's head upon the hook, but he fell short in his
reckoning now as well as before. Jack sung 'Love among the Roses,' and
the 'Black Joke,' to help him into better timper.

"'Jack,' says he, striving to make himself speak pleasant to him,
'you've got two difficult tasks over you; but you know the third time's
the charm--take care of the next.'

"'No matter about that,' says Jack, speaking up to him stiff and stout,
bekase, as the dog tould him, he knew he had a friend in coort--'let's
hear what it is, any how.'

"'To-morrow, then,' says the other, 'you're to rob a crane's nest, on
the top of a beech-tree which grows in the middle of a little island in
the lake that you saw yesterday in my demesne; you're to have neither
boat, nor oar, nor any kind of conveyance, but just as you stand; and if
you fail to bring me the eggs, or if you break one of them,--look here!'
says he, again pointing to the odd hook, for all this discoorse took
place in the bloody room.

"'Good again,' says Jack; 'if I fail I know my doom.'

"'No, you don't, you spalpeen,' says the other, getting vexed with him
entirely, 'for I'll roast you till you're half dead, and ate my dinner
off you after; and, what is more than that, you blackguard, you must
sing the 'Black Joke' all the time for my amusement.'

"'Div'l fly away with you,' thought Jack, 'but you're fond of music, you