Page 142 - The snake's pass

130 ! THE SNAKE'S PASS.
Faix! an' I thought that ye wor about to jump from
an iv the mountain into the say, like a shtag."
" Why, what do you know about stags, Andy? There
are none in this part of the country, are there?" I
thought I would drag a new subject across his path.
The ruse of the red herring drawn across the scent
succeeded
" Phwhat do I know iv shtags? Faix, I know this, that
there does be plinty in me Lard's demesne beyant at
Wistport. Sure wan iv thim got out last autumn an'
nigh ruined me garden. He kem in at night an' ate
up all me cabbages an' all the vigitables I'd got. I
frightened him away a lot iv times, but he kem back
all the same. At last I could shtand him no longer, and
I wint meself an' complained to the Lard. He tould
me he was very sorry fur the damage he done, 'an',-' sez
he, ' Andy, I think he's a bankrup,' sez he, ' an' we
must take his body.' ' How is that, Me Lard ? ' sez I.
Sez he, 'I give him to ye, Andy. Do what, ye like wid
him ! ' An' wid that I wint home an' I med a thrap iv
a clothes line wid a loop in it, an' I put it betune two
threes ; and shure enough in the night I got him."
"And what did you do with him, Andy?" said I.
" Faith, surr, I shkinned him and ate him ! " He said
this just in the same tone in which he would speak of
the most ordinary occurrence, leaving the impression on
one's mind that the skinning and eating were matters
done at the moment and quite offhand.
I fondly hoped that Andy's mind was now in quite