He gripped it as he spoke, and the old boy immediately sung out; Bill pulled, and the nose went with him like a piece of warm wax. He then transferred the tongs to Judy, got a ladder, resumed the tongs, ascended the chimney, and tugged stoutly at the nose until he got it five feet above the roof. He then fixed the hat upon the top of it, and came down. "There's a weather-cock," said Billy; "I defy Ireland to show such a beauty. Faith, Nick, it would make the purtiest steeple for a church, in all Europe, and the old hat fits it to a shaving." In this state, with his nose twisted up the chimney, Satan sat for some time, experiencing the novelty of what might be termed a peculiar sensation. At last the worthy husband and wife began to relent. "I think," said Bill, "that we have made the most of the nose, as well as the joke; I believe, Judy, it's long enough." "What is?" says Judy. "Why, the joke," said the husband. "Faith, and I think so is the nose," said Judy. "What do you say yourself, Satan?" said Bill. "Nothing at all, William," said the other; "but that--ha! ha!--it's a good joke--an excellent joke, and a goodly nose, too, as it _stands_. You were always a gentlemanly man, Bill, and did things with a grace; still, if I might give an opinion on such a trifle----" "It's no trifle at all," says Bill, "if you spake of the nose." "Very well, it is not," says the other; "still, I am decidedly of opinion, that if you could shorten both the joke and the nose without further violence, you would lay me under very heavy obligations, which I shall be ready to acknowledge and _repay_ as I ought." "Come," said Bill, "shell out once more, and be off for seven years. As much as you came down with the last time, and vanish." The words were scarcely spoken, when the money was at his feet, and Satan invisible. Nothing could surpass the mirth of Bill and his wife at the result of this adventure. They laughed till they fell down on the floor.