“Ay, all you see, and as far and farther than you can see. My Lord
Clonbrony wrote, and ordered plantations here, time back; and enough
was paid to labourers for ditching and planting. And, what next?--Why,
what did the under-agent do, but let the goats in through gaps, left
o’ purpose, to bark the trees, and then the trees was all banished.
And next, the cattle was let in trespassing, and winked at, till the
land was all poached: and then the land was waste, and cried down:
and Saint Dennis wrote up to Dublin to Old Nick, and he over to the
landlord, how none would take it, or bid any thing at all for it: so
then it fell to him a cheap bargain. Oh, the tricks of them! who knows
‘em, if I don’t?” Presently, Lord Colambre’s attention was roused
again, by seeing a man running, as if for his life, across a bog, near
the roadside: he leaped over the ditch, and was upon the road in an
instant. He seemed startled at first, at the sight of the carriage;
but, looking at the postilion, Larry nodded, and he smiled and said,
“All’s safe!” “Pray, my good friend, may I ask what that is you have
on your shoulder?” said Lord Colambre. “_Plase_ your honour, it
is only a private still, which I’ve just caught out yonder in the
bog; and I’m carrying it in with all speed to the gauger, to make a
discovery, that the jantleman may benefit by the reward: I expect
he’ll make me a compliment.”
“Get up behind, and I’ll give you a lift,” said the postilion.
“Thank you kindly--but better my legs!” said the man; and, turning
down a lane, off he ran again, as fast as possible.
“Expect he’ll make me a compliment,” repeated Lord Colambre, “to make
a discovery!”
“Ay, plase your honour; for the law is,” said Larry, “that, if an
unlawful still, that is, a still without licence for whiskey, is
found, half the benefit of the fine that’s put upon the parish goes to
him that made the discovery: that’s what that man is after; for he’s
an informer.”
“I should not have thought, from what I see of you,” said Lord
Colambre, smiling, “that you, Larry, would have offered an informer a
lift.”
“Oh, plase your honour!” said Larry, smiling archly, “would not I give
the laws a lift, when in my power?”
Scarcely had he uttered these words, and scarcely was the informer out
of sight, when, across the same bog, and over the ditch, came another
man, a half kind of gentleman, with a red silk handkerchief about his
neck, and a silver-handled whip in his hand.
“Did you see any man pass the road, friend?” said he to the postilion.
“Oh! who would I see? or why would I tell?” replied Larry in a sulky
tone.
“Come, come, be smart!” said the man with the silver whip, offering
to put half-a-crown into the postilion’s hand; “point me which way he
took.”
“I’ll have none o’ your silver! don’t touch me with it!” said Larry.
“But, if you’ll take my advice, you’ll strike across back, and follow
the fields, out to Killogenesawce.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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