Well, they got in a great fright, but when he told them his adventures, they were easier in mind, and all went to bed in great content. "Father," says Jack, next morning, "go over to the landlord, and tell him I wish to be married to his daughter." "Faith, I'm afraid he'd only set the dogs at me. If he asks me how you made your money, what'll I say?" "Tell him I am a master thief, and that there is no one equal to me in the three kingdoms; that I am worth a thousand pounds, and all taken from the biggest rogues unhanged. Speak to him when the young lady is by." "It's a droll message you're sending me on: I'm afraid it won't end well." The old man came back in two hours. "Well, what news?" "Droll news, enough. The lady didn't seem a bit unwilling: I suppose it's not the first time you spoke to her; and the squire laughed, and said you would have to steal the goose off o' the spit in his kitchen next Sunday, and he'd see about it." "O! that won't be hard, any way." Next Sunday, after the people came from early Mass, the squire and all his people were in the kitchen, and the goose turning before the fire. The kitchen door opened, and a miserable old beggar man with a big wallet on his back put in his head. "Would the mistress have anything for me when dinner is over, your honour?" "To be sure. We have no room here for you just now; sit in the porch for a while." "God bless your honour's family, and yourself!" Soon some one that was sitting near the window cried out, "Oh, sir, there's a big hare scampering like the divil round the bawn. Will we run out and pin him?" "Pin a hare indeed! much chance you'd have; sit where you are." That hare made his escape into the garden, but Jack that was in the beggar's clothes soon let another out of the bag. "Oh, master, there he is still pegging round. He can't make his escape: let us have a chase. The hall door is locked on the inside, and Mr. Jack can't get in." "Stay quiet, I tell you." In a few minutes he shouted out again that the hare was there still, but it was the third that Jack was just after giving its liberty. Well, by the laws, they couldn't be kept in any longer. Out pegged every mother's son of them, and the squire after them. "Will I turn the spit, your honour, while they're catching the _hareyeen_?" says the beggar. "Do, and don't let any one in for your life." "Faith, an' I won't, you may depend on it." The third hare got away after the others, and when they all came back from the hunt, there was neither beggar nor goose in the kitchen. "Purshuin' to you, Jack," says the landlord, "you've come over me this time."