would be? and it plashin' as if it came out of methers! Sure the life
would be dhrownded out of both of ye, and yees might colch a faver into
the bargain."

"Sit down, gintlemen," said Ned; "sit down, Father Ned, you and Father
Pether--we'll have another tumbler; and, as it's my turn to tell a
story, I'll give yez something, amuse yez,--the best I can, and, you all
know, who can do more?"

"Very right, Ned; but let us see"--replied father Ned, putting his head
out of the door to ascertain what the night did; "come, pether, it's
good to be on the safe side of any house in such a storm; we must only
content ourselves until it gets fair. Now, Ned, go on with your story,
and let it be as pleasant as possible."

"Never fear, your Reverence," replied Ned--"here goes--and healths
a-piece to begin with."




THE THREE TASKS.


"Every person in the parish knows the purty knoll that rises above the
Routing Burn, some few miles from the renowned town of Knockimdowny,
which, as all the world must allow, wants only houses and inhabitants
to be as big a place as the great town of Dublin itself. At the foot of
this little hill, just under the shelter of a dacent pebble of a rock,
something above the bulk of half a dozen churches, one would be apt to