"And thin, me jewel, he put in his fingers afther another, but it wasn’t there, for the Leprechawn made a ijit av him, an’ instid o’ givin’ him the right purse, gev him wan just like it, so as onless ye looked clost, ye cudn’t make out the differ betune thim. But the face on Dinnis was a holy show when he seen the Leprechawn had done him, an’ he wid only a shillin’, an’ half a crown av dhrink down the troats av thim. "’To the divil wid you an’ yer Leprechawns, an’ purses, an’ magic shillin’s,’ schreamed Miss Clooney, belavin’, an’ small blame to her that’s, that it was lyin’ to her he was. ’Ye’re a thafe, so ye are, dhrinkin’ up me dhrink, wid a lie on yer lips about the purse, an’ insultin’ me into the bargain,’ says she, thinkin’ how he called her a shkeleton, an’ her a load fur a waggin. ’Yer impidince bates owld Nick, so it does,’ says she; so she up an’ hits him a power av a crack on the head wid a bottle; an’ the other felly’s, a-thinkin’ sure that it was a lie he was afther tellin’ them, an’ he laving thim to pay fur the dhrink he’d had, got on him an’ belted him out av the face till it was nigh onto dead he was. Then a consthable comes along an’ hears the phillaloo they did be makin’ an’ comes in. "’Tatther an’ agers,’ says he, ’lave aff. I command the pace. Phat’s the matther here?’ "So they towld him an’ he consayved that Dinnis shtole the purse an’ tuk him be the collar. "’Lave go,’ says Dinnis. ’Sure phat’s the harrum o’ getting the purse av a Leprechawn?’ "’None at all,’ says the polisman, ’av ye projuice the Leprechawn an’ make him teshtify he gev it ye an’ that ye haven’t been burglarious an’ sarcumvinted another man’s money,’ says he. "But Dinnis cudn’t do it, so the cunsthable tumbled him into the jail. From that he wint to coort an’ got thirty days at hard labor, that he niver done in his life afore, an’ afther he got out, he said he’d left lookin’ for Leprechawns, fur they were too shmart fur him entirely, an’ it’s thrue fur him, bekase I belave they were." [Illustration: "Playing his pranks"] THE HENPECKED GIANT. [Illustration: Initial: "The Henpecked Giant"]