'Augh! thin, _was_ she?' says a voice that I cudn't see, tho' 'twas close to my left ear! 'Who's there?' says I. 'Where?' says it, on th' other side. 'Anywhere,' says I, 'to plaze ye;' and wid that I fell into a could sweat, for I began to think it was Mihilmas Eve, an' divil a grain of salt I had about me to keep me from harm! 'Crass o' Christ on us!' says I, 'an' God bless ye!' for I thought it was one of the good people, yir honor! so I made up my mind to get in-_doors_ as soon as I could. But that wasn't so aisy as wishin', for there wasn't a village nearer than five miles, nor a cabin by the way-side. At last I spies a light at a distance in the fields aff the road, and away we set, I and my _horse_, full gallup. Oh! many's the ditch we cleared without seein'; but still, never a bit did we come nearer to the light! 'Is it a _Will_,' says I to myself, 'or a _Jack_?' an' wid that out it goes on a suddent, and l_a_ves me up to my chin in a bog. Augh! then, hadn't I a cruel time of it there? I was, for all the world, like a _flay_ on Father Fogarty's pock-mark'd nose, or a blind horse in a tan-yard,--no sooner out o' one hole than into another! At last I got upon dry land, and wasn't I thankful for that same? for I got hoult ov a stone wall that directed me straight on to a gate that was only hasp'd; so I opened it, an' let myself out upon a _rodeiene_, that I knew by the tracks o' the wheels; so, turnin' myself round three times for _look_, (and bad _look_ it was,) I steps out into a ditch that was handy by the way-side,--for it was acrass the _rodeiene_ I went 'stead of lengthways either up or down; but how could I do betther in the dark? Well, afther a while floundherin' about like a litther of pups in a bag, I got on my feet agen clane out o' the mud, shiverin' an' shakin' as if I had Jack Nulty's ague 'pon me! 'Well,' says I to myself, 'it was _looky_ I stopp'd to have a drop at the berrin', or I'd av' nothin' to keep the could out o' me now! It was Providence as well as dacency that put it into my head!" "If you had not stopped," said I, "you would not have been overtaken by the night, and exposed to such a disagreeable accident!"