Meanwhile Mrs. Sullivan was also enjoying herself prodigiously among the matrons of her acquaintance. It was the essence of a whole London season compressed into a few hours. She talked over 'matches,' the shocking price of butter, and the terrible fall in pigs; she accepted a cup of tea from one friend, and a glass of sherry wine from another (leaving, according to polite custom, a certain portion in the glass), she made several cautious purchases, and at five o'clock set out in search of Micky.

She soon discovered him in his glory, the centre of a smiling crowd; he was bargaining with a bearded stranger for a somewhat dilapidated animal, cast from the Kenmare hearse.

'Is it a harse as yer losin' your time over, Micky?' she expostulated in her shrillest key. An' what would we do with a great black baste like that, as would neither fit in the car nor the byre, and would just ate us out av house and home?'

'Oh, he's a fine baste, and barin' a couple av splints and a back sinew, has a power av work in him yet,' rejoined Micky. 'Sure, won't I hire him out for ploughing, and in the saison he can carry the ladies through the gap, an' always great show for the money.'

'A show yourself! don't be going on wid yer blathering and nonsense; it's an ass we came to buy, and not a big elephant like that. The fair is thinnin', old Tim has got shut av his pony, so ye best to buy something to take us home; I'll be no party to harsedealing, and hiring out, and when ye have the right size of baste, ye will find me and the cart at Mrs. Flood's,' and with an angry toss of her yellow head, and a whisk of her blue cloak, Mrs. Sullivan fell back into the crowd, leaving a very favourable impression upon the women folk, although one bold bachelor called out, Sure, what do ye want with the ould hearse horse at all, Micky, or any horse whatever, when ye have such an elegant grey mare av yer own?'

An hour later, Micky arrived at Flood's jubilant and talkative, followed by two men leading a smart-looking brown ass.

'Here ye are, Bridgie,' he screeched. 'I've waited to a good purpose, ye see; I've been and bought the gayest little donkey in Munster.'

An' time for ye,' rejoined his better half. Sure every wan is going. How much?"

'Three pounds five shillings. I bet them down from five pounds, and they were axing five pounds ten.'

'Oh, axin' is one thing, and gettin' another. How old is he?' 'He's four off, Mam,' replied his former owner, a decent looking man in frieze,' and he is well used to a family, and I know he will giv' ye every satisfaction; ye have only to spake to him, and, whoop! away he goes. Faix I'll go bail, that within the week, ye will be looking on him as an ould friend.'

In ten minutes' time, Neddy was in the shafts, and Micky Sullivan, having taken a potent stirrup cup, relinquished the rope reins to his consort, who was a donkey driver of no mean skill— there was no stronger wrist to chuck a mouth, no keener eye for a vulnerable place in an animal's hide, than hers in the whole barony.

However, the new purchase required neither prodding nor other modes of persuasion, but took the road in gallant style, leaving a considerable circle of admirers round the door of 'The Three Shamrocks.' He travelled well, and at twelve o'clock at night brought his new owners safe and sound to the door of their own crooked cabin.

Judy, hearing the wheels, ran out with a candle in her hand to welcome her parents and their purchase, and by the light of her dip accorded the warmest admiration to the latter. Finally she unyoked him and turned him loose to look for his supperafter the manner of old Jerry.

The following morning by nine o'clock the neighbours had assembled in great force to inspect the new ass-in fact the only ass that Thady's Corner could boast. He was passed by a committee of seventeen-men, women, and children-as a nice shapely little baste, of a fine colour, and as well shod as if he wer' a racer.'

'None of the crumpled claw hoofs of ould Jerry, and wid a beautiful docked forelock, and an eye of his own in his head.' The new purchase was suffered to rest, and to remain on view for the space of that day, whilst Bridget and Mick-who had scarcely recovered from the delightful excitement of the fair-regaled their hearers with items of intelligence, news of distant friends and what 'I said' and ' he said' and 'she said' and 'they said;' and 'how Micky was in two minds to buy a coach horse, but that Bridget had put him out of consate wid him, forby making a holy show of Micky himself before half the boys. She was bent on an ass, an' an ass she'd have, and it had ended in her having her say and in bringing home the grandest little baste in the fair, as they could all see wid their own two eyes.'

Early the next morning, Micky Sullivan yoked his new investment to the car, and set off briskly to the bog in order to cut turf. The sultry forenoon gradually developed into a thick grey mist, and finally into an angry downpour. At first Micky and Thady Flynn, being Kerry men, paid no attention to the elements, but at length they were both compelled to shelter at the lee side of a turf clamp, where, with a sack over his shoulders and a dhudeen in his mouth, Micky made the best of circumstances. He and Flynn discussed the fair, the fishing, the potato spray, the last Land Act, and the prospects of Cork Park races.

'An' talking of racing, Micky, I suppose there's no chance of your young two-year-old taking the road of his own accord?' asked Flynn rather anxiously.

'Not at all! In the first place, I have him tethered with a bit av a suggawn; besides, he has as much sense as an old man.' 'Well, it would be hard to bate old Jerry for cuteness: he was a great ass in his day.'

'He was so, but he was getting foundered in the feet and shabby in the coat, and an eyesore to herself, so I had to get shut av him; an' I was main sorry, for Matty and him was reared together and I always had a wish for the baste. Well, maybe we'd better be making a push for home now. The new little chap may be getting unaisy in himself standing so long in the pouring rain.' And Micky, with some difficulty got upon his legs, drew the sack over his head, and hobbled stiffly away to where he had left his yoke.

Yes, there indeed was the cart, but where was the new chap, the gay little brown donkey?

Micky stared in appalled silence, then pinched himself vigorously, finally turned fiercely to his companion, and shouted in a hoarse, tremulous voice:

'Now what pistrogue is this? casting spells on me grand new ass? Thady Flynn?'

What old witch has been

What do you call yon baste,

'Faix, av I didn't know that I was sober, an' av I hadn't me sivin senses, I'd call him ould Jerry. An' may I never, if he doesn't know his name!' he added in an awestruck key.

"Tis some blaggard as has gone and robbed me,' shouted Micky; 'taken off the young wan, and left me with this old God help us! 'Tis either that, or the fairies! I'm thinking

'An' I'm thinking as it is the tinker as has been playing his

little tricks on ye agin. Sure, they are the greatest horse copers in the wide warld. See how well he has pared and shod the ould one's hoofs, and filed his teeth, and fed him up, an', an',' with a yell of laughter, 'painted him. But the paint wouldn't wash, ye see. Look how it has all run off av him, as if he was a threepenny calico,' and he held up his hand, covered with a dark brown stain.

'Oh, mother av Moses! What sort of thievery do ye call this?' screamed Micky, now rubbing the donkey's thick wet coat with the same result.

'Begor, them tinkers is too clever to live!' exclaimed Thady with another violent outburst. They took in a power besides yerself. Sure, not one in Thady's Corner but thought he was a new baste, and them acquainted with Jerry this twenty year! Holy smoke! but it's as elegant a joke as I've come across this many a day.'

"'Tis fine to be you, roaring and bawling, and staggering there, but, sure, I'll be the laughing-stock of the barony, and what will herself say?'

'Ye wouldn't,' now gasping for breath, and drying his eyes on his coat-sleeves, 'give him another coat av paint, I suppose?' asked Thady in a choked voice, as he hitched himself up on the car.

'Augh! paint indeed! Don't be talkin' to me av paint,' rejoined the other furiously, as, with a savage bang on poor Jerry's hide, he rattled away homewards.

At first he turned a deaf ear to all his companion's sympathy, blandishments, and affectionate efforts at consolation; the only thing that could afford him the smallest relief was the tinker's blood. 'Now take it aisy, Micky, me darlin',' urged his counsellor, as they began to breast the last hill; 'ye had a good ass yesterday, ye have the same animal to-day. Sure, ye never half valued him afore; with clever shoeing, and a few odd locks of hay, ye won't know him for ould Jerry, and when the laugh is raised against you, take my advice, and laugh too, and that will soon stop them.’

Mrs. Sullivan, when her first shrieks of horror and amazement

had subsided, received the news with astonishing fortitude.

'Faix, I misdoubted something was not right, when he turned the chapel corner so clivir,' she said in a voice of tragic calm, but, at the worst, I thought he was a fairy.'

'An' I thought it mighty quare when he made straight for the pig's tub the moment he was out of the shafts,' added Judy, 'but I never suspicioned it was Jerry himself. Oh! but those tinkers would bate the divil.'

Before night the news of the manner of Jerry's return had penetrated into every cabin within a radius of two miles, and Micky Sullivan took Thady Flynn's hint, and received the grinning condolences of his friends with the aplomb of a man of the world, made quite the best of the situation, laughed till, as he subsequently expressed it, he hadn't an eye in his head,' and dwelt persistently upon the fact that he was no worse took in than the whole "Corner," nor half the fair.'

The Flynns and Connors, who had been secretly envious of the splendid brown trotting ass, were now both relieved and goodhumoured.

'Begor, I always said as ould Jerry come of a good stock, was a great fellow, and had a power of work in him,' proclaimed Mrs. Flynn in her loudest key.

'Ye did so,' acquiesced Micky, and knows a good baste when ye see him, not like me, as couldn't keep a valuable article when I had it, till it was, so to speak, forced on me again! An' Matt will be terrible proud to know as we have the old playfellow still.'

'But what will Matt be after saying to ye, Mick, when he hears how ye spent the good four pounds he sent home? What will he suspicion when he hears that ye went and laid it out in buying yer own ould ass?' demanded a malicious female voice. But to this question Micky Sullivan, the inventive and ready in retort, could find no fitting reply.

B. M. CROKER.