"Ay, will I; so you may as well give up talking about it Arrah, woman!"
said. Phaddhy, raising his voice, "who does it ever make betther--show
me a man now in all the neighborhood, that's a pin-point the holier of
it? Isn't there Jemmy Shields, that goes to _his duty_ wanst a month,
malivogues his wife and family this minute, and then claps them to a
Rosary the next; but the ould boy's a thrifle to him of a fast day,
afther coming from the priest. Betune ourselves, Katty, you're not much
behind him."

Katty made no reply to him, but turned up her eyes, and crossed herself,
at the wickedness of her unmanageable husband. "Well, Briney," said she,
turning abruptly to the son, "don't take patthern by that man, if you
expect to do any good; let him be a warning to you to mind yer duty, and
respect yer clargy--and prepare yerself, now that I think of it, to go
to Father Philemy or Father Con on Thursday: but don't be said or led by
that man, for I'm sure I dunna how he intends to face the Man above
when he laves this world--and to keep from his duty, and to spake of his
clargy as he does!"

There are few men without their weak sides. Phaddhy, although the
priests were never very much his favorites, was determined to give
what he himself called a _let-out_ on this occasion, simply to show his
ill-natured neighbors that, notwithstanding their unfriendly remarks,
he knew "what it was to be dacent," as well as his betters; and Katty
seconded him in his resolution, from her profound veneration for the
clargy. Every preparation was accordingly entered into, and every plan
adopted that could possibly be twisted into a capability of contributing
to the entertainment of Fathers Philemy and Con.

One of those large, round, stercoraceous nosegays that, like many other