gourself asy, an' the strangers in the house, or I vow to my God, ma'am, you'll send me for the bit iv a switch, you know. Take her up to the bed, Poll," to an old gaunt woman, looking older, though not stronger than she really was, who had been the first of the "Mrs. Nowlans," and therefore, in every way useful on occasions like thisjist put poor Kitty to bed, poor thing," advancing to where she lay motionless, neither hurt nor in a swoon, and yet, from causes he suspected, with a right to be motionless— "see how she's fairy-sthruck all in a sudden ;-ha!"-the particle, fully pronounced, invariably serving him for his utmost approach to a laugh, You're fairy sthruck, Kitty, so you are;-ha!-come in to the company, Masther Johnny, sir."

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Leaving the insensible unfortunate to the care of her fit duenna, Aby opened a door at the left of the hall, and John followed him into an apartment, in which, at a table dimly lighted, sat five or six bacchanalians, to whom the preceding scene seemed to have given no disturbance; they were so used to it.

A second hospitable cheer welcomed Aby into his own parlour, and hands were patronizingly held out to him, no one standing up.

The young guest is saluted with profane ribaldry, and is, what is termed Hebernice, "filled drunk."

The room swam round; every face became two faces; four candles instead of two burned on the table; and it might be about two o'clock in the morning, he heard a yelling cry for

"The divil! the divil!-come Aby, you must give us a divil!—there's the half o' the goose we had to-day, and the beef can be sliced up with it, and plenty of gizzards, and livers, and lots of mustard and pepper;-run, you ugly mother's daughter!"-to the girl who, since their first "screech," had been in attendance"run! an' if it isn't a right divil, may the divil entirely take you home an' slice you for his own supper."

She disappeared. John had afterwards a confused apprehension of loud voices in his ears; of his uncle and a double sitting bolt upright, by his side, while the seasoned toper emptied into himself tumbler after tumbler, with as little effect as if he had been pouring them into an empty tun; and then "the divil" went round, shoved from one to another on a large cracked dish; and, a few moments after he had swallowed some of it, and subsequently, a draught of malt liquor, a sensation arose in his abdomen and stomach as if there were a great serpent winding up within him and in his head, as if the roof of it was flying off; and down he "tumbled," and so closed, at fourteen years, his first night's initiation into his uncle's domestic habits.

:

Next morning, at a late hour, he found himself in a large room, containing three beds, exclusive of that in which he lay; all of them in disorder, as if they had been recently occupied; and his own, too, appearing as if one companion, at least,-perhaps two-had, during the night, shared it with him. Remorse and fear possessed the boy's mind at a recollection of the debauch of which he had been guilty; remorse for the sin; fear of the anger of his uncle, and, more than that, of the anger of his mother, whose instructions he had thus so soon outraged. Added to the nausea of his stomach, the reeling and throbbing of his head, and the whole horrible fever in which Bacchus wraps, the morning after their first essays, his boyish votaries, poor John Nowlan was made, by these thoughts, utterly miserable; and when he had dressed himself, and was about to enter the parlour, he grew almost faint at the idea of confronting his uncle.

But this part of his unhappiness was superfluous. The young sportsman having, soon after daybreak, hurried off after Aby's grouse, John found him standing alone at the parlour window, breathing his low whistle, with a cup of tea in one hand and an old almanack in the other; and he was no sooner conscious of his nephew's presence, than he turned round in perfect good humour, and only saying-" Well, lad; hope your early risin' 'ill do you no harm;-would a bit of breatfast lay in your vay, I wondher?" pointed to the table, and turned round, to look out at nothing through the barred and dirty window.

John proceeded to fill himself some tea out of a tea-pot, once, and very recently too, of a good kind of English china, but that now had a wooden lid, and only half a snout; and he poured it into a saucer which was no match to his cup, and added to it some rich but dabbled cream, found in an ewer, the remnant of a suit differing from every other article of tea-equipage on the table, as each individual article differed from the other. He required some water for his tea-pot, and discovered it in a tin saucepan, covered down with a wooden platter, by the hearth, "for the copper kettle wanted a bottom, and the tin kettle a handle this half-year;" his eye rested on the table-cloth; it was full of holes and rents, though not of an old texture; stained and creased, and

yellow, out of the last wash. His tea tasted weak, after the dilution of greasy water, but the remedy was at hand, in a saucerfull of black-and-green, lying on the mantlepiece; more than a pound of dirty butter was scattered on scraps of small plates over the table; more than four pounds of bread, served on nothing at all; a silver spoon was left to boil away in an egg-saucepan, on the fire; while a leaden one (the pig having eaten more than half a dozen of the silver set in her mess, from time to time,) served for his cup; and, to finish the pleasing display, five or six cups and saucers, or (in the same service) bowls and plates, together with as many dinner plates and dishes, knives and forks, were huddled together at the far end of the table, all still at variance in size, shape, or pattern, and all showing slops, or half-picked bones and egg-shells, that told what a breakfast had been dispatched, partly by their agency, at an earlier hour that morning.

John looked around him. The parlour was of a good size and shape, but, though begun twenty years ago, had never been finished. The walls, smoothly prepared for painting or papering, remained bare; the surbases and door frames were just as the carpenter had nailed them up, except that the deal had turned brownish from time and smoke; the furniture, once of a good, substantial, and not inelegant fashion, was covered with dust; some of the chairs wanting a leg, some a back, some a bottom: yet none thus reduced from regular service, but rather from hard usage, in the kitchen, or up stairs, or when the company" knocked them about, or played "leap-frog" over them of an evening; or when the dogs scratched the hair out of them; or " Mrs. Nowlan's" pet raven picked it out;-and ever since, although every day promising to send them to be mended, or to send for some one to mend them," the masther had let them stand, or totter, rather, as they were, with abundance of means, and facilities too, to attend to their reduced condition. And then the carpet, of an expensive description, had not been nailed down, and was always crumpled at the door, so that every one that went in or out should stoop, with a curse, to arrange it; and the holes scraped in it by the dogs, or by the hob-nails of many brogues, ran riot for want of a darn, and the dust came up through it for want of a shaking. In a word-all was expensive waste, indolent wreck, and miserable mismanagement.

His uncle invited him to a walk out, and John, attending him, was supplied with abundant evidences of the same presiding spirit of thoughtless and careless ruin.

The "masther" receives some letters in his walk:

John saw his uncle deliberately thrust, unread, into his surtout pocket, crumpled hard or torn across, two or three letters out of a batch he had received, with the soliloquizing remark-" Know enough about that, an' that, an' that;" but one particular epistle seemed more to interest him. He looked long on the superscription; then at the seal; then at vacancy, as he held the letter in his hand at last he opened it; fixed his back against the avenue wall; read and spelt it, though it contained but a few lines, over and over again; put it slowly into his pocket; took it out a second time; conned it a twentieth; and more than an hour elapsed before it was finally put up, and he in motion from the wall towards a door, that, at the top of the avenue, led into the garden.

In about half an hour afterwards, "How do you like our garden, Masther Johnny?" he asked, as they were obliged to come to a halt in the middle of a walk, rendered impassable by weeds, creepers, and a capsized wheel-barrow; while all around lay beds of vegetables, suffered to rot and run to seed, and never trenched upon for Aby's own table, or that of any neighbour who might prize a present of such things, and be

thankful for it.

John fitly answered, adding, "Maybe you'd have any commands for my father, sir, as I'm thinking it's time to be going home."

"Home!" echoed Aby, staring at him; "can't you as well stay here? If it's the Latin you want, we'll spake about that to-morrow or next day, Masther Johnny, to a good hand in Limerick; a good hand, depend on it, sir; for there's some in Limerickif they're alive yet-we wouldn't send the dog to, let alone you, lad."

John was thankful, and said so. Retracing their steps along the forbidden path, Aby led the way through other tangled mazes of the neglected garden; and perhaps in another hour again spoke.

"Masther Johnny."

"Well, sir."

Aby stared at him; moved his lips; but turned off in a secret whistle. Again he addressed his nephew; again got a response; again was silent. The third attempt was, however, more successful.

"Are you as handy at the figures as at the Latin, Masther Johnny?” Pretty well, I believe, sir." "Aha!" pause again. You are, are you?"-Again. "Aha!-well-maybe you could tell a body what's the mainin' of all this;" taking out the letter that had so much puzzled him, and presenting it to his nephew.

John looked over the letter; and saw with astonishment, that it was from the agent of the head landlord pressing for an arrear of four years' head rent, together with the costs of a distress brought, some time before, for non-payment of two years' rent, but which had been arranged by giving security for a speedy settlement, and a promise of more care in future. The boy's astonishment arose from reflecting that the claim was, originally, so very trifling, nothing but absolute lethargy could have left it a moment undischarged. He explained to his uncle the import of the half dozen rows of figures that seemed to have been a little too complex for his talents or recollections, and Aby said" Aha; four years! no; they're out, wise as they are; no such thing; can't be; but we'll see, Johnny lad; to-morrow or next day we'll write them a letter together, sir." The "to-morrow or next day" never arrived; the letter was never written.

Here we have an entertainment, followed by a too faithful description of the way in which they pay the piper in Ireland :—

The sportsmen returned home to dinner, bringing with them Masther Tony Ferret, three or four field companions, picked up during the day, and, exclusive of Aby's dogs, all of whom had been in their service, nearly a dozen of canine guests. Their bags were well stuffed; and John saw them, with amazement and anger, send every bird and hare they had killed "up to Mount Nelson, to the magistrate," by the hands of all the lounging fellows about the house, not a single one being even offered to Aby; and, immediately after, sit down, tantivying and shouting, to a smoking table of roast beef, boiled mutton, steaks, chops, and veal-cutlets; the whole mess supplied on old credit, and at arbitrary prices, by the village butchers, while no fowls of any kind, no bacon, no ham, in fact, nothing that the farm-yard should have furnished, appeared to qualify the heavy expense of such an entertainment.

And, on this evening, "Mrs. Nowlan" had also her usual little coterie "above stairs." Ere dinner was announced, Matthew passed the open window of the parlour, coming, a second time, over the stile from the village, and laden with two large parcels, one of tea, the other of sugar, and three black bottles of whiskey;-and"Where are you goin' wid them, you sprissaun o' the divil?" inquired Aby. "To the misthress, to be sure,' answered Matthew; "there's te be tay an' fine language up stairs this evenin', so there is."

The night closed even more gloriously than the last: John, although by a visit to the garden after dinner, where he met his beautiful cousin, contrived to keep himself more temperate than his initiation had been, remaining up, at his uncle's desire, to witness it. The gentlemen guests now amounted to about nine; and as "the more the merrier," seems especially to apply to a set of topers, their spirits rose, after twelve o'clock, into something ecstatic. More "tumblers" and glasses were broken, more chairs dislocated, on this occasion, than had been known for weeks; and, at last, John saw them all start up, form themselves into opposite lines, arrange a country-dance, and, to the music of their own shouts, cut the strangest vagaries, in the name of figures, as they capered "up the middle, down again, hands across, and turned their partners;" Aby, all the while, sitting steadily in his chair, and, every now and then, crying ha;" until, at last, an answering screech of female voices came from the upper regions, followed by the misthress," heading half a dozen " ladies," with flushed cheeks, swimming eyes, and disarranged dresses, to whom immediately arrived an accession of the two kitchen-wenches, and old Poll; and now partners were really chosen, and a country dance, "somethin' like the thing," ensued, as was observed by Matthew, who, with a crowd of workmen, that scarce ever worked, " poor relations and followers of the masther," stood at the open door of the parlour, to bless their visions with a view of the company."

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And scarce a week elapsed without witnessing some such gala night; and not a day without its guests, of one kind or another; its mean extravagance; its vulgar riot; its heartless waste-its "wilful waste," that, on the faith of a good old adage, promised a "woeful want;" and its filthy, stupid vice, that, according to a higher warning, was ominous of retribution.

John, it will be recollected, was to have been sent "afther the Latin to-morrow or next day;" but so was the agent's letter to have been answered "to-morrow or the next day;" and the chairs to have been mended; and the parlour papered; and the

carpet nailed down; and the avenue cleared; and the garden trimmed; and, more than that, the numerous creditors who, day after day, sent the letters that Aby never read, all settled with; and his tenants " brought to account," as to whether they were in arrear or advance, or, "how it was between them and him at-all-at-all;" and exactly as all these other resolutions were kept, the promise to send John "to a good hand in Limerick," was kept too. But why, the curious reader may ask, why were not all kept? We can see nothing to hinder Aby from doing so but the want of means: granted; and yet there was no such want up to this time. But the head landlord and the numerous creditors? surely he wanted means to settle with them? No, indeed. Every shilling he owed, at the time John entered the house, might have been cleared off, with scarcely a downright sacrifice of a single farm he held, or any eventual diminution of his good thousand a-year of profit rent; and if he had but reformed, in a degree, his domestic economy, Aby Nowlan might still have been what his neighbours termed "a strong man." What then? We cannot answer upon any rational principle; but he couldn't bring his mind to it;" or, " to-morrow or next day would do;" or, in a word, we can only plead the nature of the blockhead; his lethargic indolence; his dull sensitiveness of any thing like an arrangement of any thing; or, and we may say it not lightly, the Power whose bounty he had abused, whose likeness in his own soul he had degraded, whose long forbearance he had not respected, might have listened to the hundred curses, wrung from the broken hearts of fathers, mothers, and at last, of the wretches he had made, and cursed him in an answering curse, with the inveterate paralysis of mind and heart that surely, though slowly, encompassed him with his ruin.

In about a year after John came to the house, he began to be somewhat more occupied, but still not as a student. The head landlord, rather in anger at the impu dent neglect with which his agent's applications had been treated, than in apprehension of not being paid, or, indeed, out of consideration for the debt, issued a summary distress, and, upon a fine morning, there was an unparalleled commotion through the house and lands, the women, of all kinds, running about, clapping their hands, and cursing, in Irish, "the villains o' the world" that could dare come to take the poor master's cows and horses; and Matthew and his colleagues, speeding out to the fields with sticks in their hands, to "smash the bones" of the " beggarly dhrivers," and the agent's own bones, "if he was to the fore." But, notwithstanding broken heads on both sides, for which, upon one side, Matthew and his merry men were afterwards tried and sentenced to be confined at the sessions, the cows and horses lodged that night in the village pound; and next morning, John Nowlan was sent, very leisurely, by his uncle, to rise an advance from his tenants," in order to get them out. Many a weary ride, day and night, John took, in consequence of this new appointment, over hill and valley, meeting à ready belief from some of the wealthier tenants, but excuses, equivocations, and trickery from the greater part, who, either that they were already too much in advance, or that, from their private forebodings, they did not like the thing at all, generally contrived to send him home empty handed. More than enough was, however, obtained, to redeem the cattle; and things looked as they had ever been, when the house was stormed by a strong body of other claimants, such as " Mrs. Nowlan " was in the habit of getting John to write to, and repeated efforts, and new contrivances, became necessary; money was borrowed wherever it could be had, and such places were seldom found; but notes were also passed, bills accepted, and bonds executed, with tenants' security; and again all grew sunshine in Aby's heart, and to the view of all around him; such trifles could not harm any gentleman of a thousand a-year; it was just a drop of water to the Shannon; and "the company "still came to patronize Aby; by hook or crook the mistress went as brave as ever; " and, in fact, nearly two years more elapsed pretty well, taking into account that the bills had been twice renewed at the instance of a douceur, and with clearance of interest, and judgment duly entered on the bonds.

But at last the scene rather changed. Writs and latitats grew out of the notes and bonds; summonses and processes, or civil-bills, out of every lesser debt, contracted in the mean time, and then devices and jeopardy again. Interest, and compound interest, costs upon costs, and interest on them too: the cattle were, over and over, taken to the pound by various creditors; head rent was once more in arrear; and Aby became a "Sunday man," and John was out, every day, begging from the tenants, not one of whom would be liable to a claim for two years to come, 66 any thrifle they liked" to provide for the house expenses, no longer supported by credit. One of the best farms was sold, at, of course, a bad price; and, by dint of clearing costs and interest a

second time, another year rolled over; but the real debts remained still unpaid: as many new ones as meanness and stratagem could incur, were added to them; and more astonishing than all, the greater portion of the purchase-money of the farm ran like quicksilver through Aby's hands, while he remained worse than ever.

John, now about seventeen, ventured to speak to his uncle concerning the state of his affairs, and urged him to look into them. Aby said "he would so, to-morrow or next day"-John afterwards sought some clue to their real state himself, with a view to some effort of his own;-Aby could, in truth or fact, give him no information, and to stir himself to acquire it was a romantic hope:-"there was some ould books of his father's, an' one of his own; and there was bills and receipts about the house, and some of the leases and titles, but 'torney Screw had the most o' them, he believed ;an', some day or other, he certainly would get John to look over every thing; but it would take a great while; a year for what he knew; so," &c. &c.

John hinted the policy of a reduced establishment, and a more limited hospitality; such as getting rid of Matthew and some more of the men, and two or three of the women; and not entertaining so often Master Tony Ferret, (who was the only one of the magistrate's clan that now continued to patronise Aby, but he stuck close, even to the carrion,) and the sub-sheriff's four sons, who came in lieu of the magistrates, always bringing with them their sthockacks too, half-pay cousins and cronies, and other non-descript idlers from Limerick; and " faith," Aby said, "so he would turn out that omadhaun o' the divil, to-morrow or next day; an' others besides; an' he didn't half like Masther Tony, neither; an' he would look sharper, sure enough, andhe never did. As to the sheriff's sons, they were not to be spoken of. Like many indolent minds, Aby thought he was freeing himself from peril when he removed it to a little distance; like many mean and silly ones, he studied in his own stupid way so to remove it; and, in this view, his grouse, his dogs, his remaining horses, and remaining means, were cunningly held out as so many temptations to the sons of the old perpetual sheriff, who played with him as a cat plays with a mouse, allowing him to race about a little, within reach of his claws, and ready for one decisive craunch, at his own good time. No other kind of measures would Aby take to relieve himself: yet in such measures he was rather energetic. Not only the young third-bred spawn of the sheriff, but the very process-servers, drivers, and common bailiffs, became objects of his courteous attention; and John often caught a sight of his legs, and those of some such confidant, at a turn in the avenue up from the house, while their heads and bodies were hidden by the umbrageous bushes, "where," as Matthew used to tell him, he spent the blessed day, callodgin' wid' a divil's mother's son, that, sooner or later, 'ud make him sorely rue it."

Matthew was a prophet. In about another year, creditors of every description became determined, and law-officers of every kind too, from the sheriff to the bum." Aby's house was regularly invested, and, with its garrison, made a regular defence. Matthew took up his post, morning, noon, and evening, at the bottom of the hill; Yomen on its top, within call of "the masther;" and all eyes were active within doors. When a posse approached, away went the few remaining cattle to a neighbour's field, away went all the rickety furniture into a neighbour's cabin, and away went Aby into a potatoe-pit, or up to a cabin-loft; and, when the attack had subsided, all came back to their places again. This happened almost every week. Sometimes, nay, twenty times, the vedettes were taken by surprize; of course the garrison; and (Aby being in the house) the bailiffs came up to the very doors and windows, and a desperate battle ensued; Matthew and his corps thwacking their foes outside; all the women holding down their windows from within, courageously led on by the misthress and seconded by Miss Maggy; if a window happened to be raised, or a pane broken, and then a head thrust in, hitting at it with a poker; until at last the assaulters retreated, and the garrison could breathe for a few days more, and vauntingly reckon up the number of skulls and ribs they had fractured.

In good time Aby is, of course, completely ruined. We wish that this picture may be seen by all the jontlemen in Ireland, that they may learn from it the ridiculous light in which the imagined virtue of extravagant hospitality, and recklessness of all economy, is regarded. We must observe, however, that the author has made a most extraordinary mistake, in quoting Mr. Aby's income at one thousand a year. No Irish gentleman has less than three thousand a year; that is the very smallest income ever acknowledged in the Emerald