"Indeed and I have, and rather a strongish one, you will allow, Misther Frenche, after what passed before--there, I got that _billy_ this very blessed morning handed to me with my shaving water, by an ould villain that I hired to wait on me, and feed the pigs for an hour every marning; and who swore might the fiend fly away wid him, if he knowed from Adam how it comed beneath the jug--there"---- The _billy_ ran as follows:-- "12 o'clock at night--_no moon_! "TREACLE--You small lousy spalpeen--the _man himself_, ould Lathom Frenche, and his nevey, young Brail, and that blessed ould woman, Misthress Julia, are all, every mother's son of them, at this present spaking in Kilkenny. So turn out, you ould tief o' the world, and make room for the _rale_ Ballywindles (you pitiful, mouldy _imitation_), Orangemen although they be, for _they_ never lived out of Ould Ireland, when they could live in it. And show me one of the name who ever grudged the poor a bit and a sup--so out wid you, Treacle, or you shall swing as high as _hangman_" (_Haman_, I presumed) "before the mont be done; like one of your own dirty farthing candles, which a rushlight overshines like the blessed sun a pace of stinking fish. "Your servant till death--that is, till _your_ death, if you don't behave yourself like a jontleman, and do the bidding of "CAPTAIN ROCK. "_To the nasty little grocer, Treacle, (who has no right) at Ballywindle._" "Really," said my uncle, laughing, "this is very honest of you, Treacle, but I have no intention of buying back the old place. So, good-by--go home, and be a little kinder to your poor neighbours, and no fear of you--good-by." "Go home, did you say?--go home?--and that's what I will do, Master Frenche, this blessed day--but to the ould shop in Cark, to my nephew Thady behind the counter _there_. But if ever I darken a door of Ballywindle again, unless on the day of sale, with the mounted police on the lawn, and the footers in the hall, may"----Here he clapped his hand on his mouth, as if to stop the oath that trembled on his tongue. "Why, Treacle, I _have_ made some money--but if I _would_, I _could not_ repay you your purchase money. So"---- The grocer caught at this.--"Ah, there I have you--if the money be the difficulty, it is a bargain already, by the powers. I will leave all the money on it if you choose, sir--and at four per cent--there, now." To make a long story short, before that day fortnight, Ballywindle opened its once hospitable door again to a Frenche--to the last of the name, in a long line of owners. At length the day of execution arrived, and I was happily married; after which, as if we had been guilty of something to be ashamed of, we split away the same forenoon down the north road, as fast as four horses could carry us.