“I’m four tumblers too low for that yet,” growled out the major.
“Well, then, Charley, be you the man; or why not Dennis himself? Come, Dennis, we cannot better begin our evening than with a song; let us have our old friend ‘Larry M’Hale.’”
“Larry M’Hale!” resounded from all parts of the room, while O’Shaughnessy rose once more to his legs.
“Faith, boys, I’m always ready to follow your lead; but what analogy can exist between ‘Larry M’Hale’ and the toast we have just drank I can’t see for the life of me; not but Larry would have made a strapping light company man had he joined the army.”
“The song, the song!” cried several voices.
“Well, if you will have it, here goes:”—
LARRY M’HALE.
AIR,—“It’s a bit of a thing,” etc.
Oh, Larry M’Hale he had little to fear,
And never could want when the crops didn’t fail;
He’d a house and demesne and eight hundred a year,
And the heart for to spend it, had Larry M’Hale!
The soul of a party, the life of a feast,
And an illigant song he could sing, I’ll be bail;
He would ride with the rector, and drink with the priest,
Oh, the broth of a boy was old Larry M’Hale!
It’s little he cared for the judge or recorder,
His house was as big and as strong as a jail;
With a cruel four-pounder, he kept in great order,
He’d murder the country, would Larry M’Hale.
He’d a blunderbuss too, of horse-pistols a pair;
But his favorite weapon was always a flail.
I wish you could see how he’d empty a fair,
For he handled it neatly, did Larry M’Hale.
His ancestors were kings before Moses was born,
His mother descended from great Grana Uaile;
He laughed all the Blakes and the Frenches to scorn;
They were mushrooms compared to old Larry M’Hale.
He sat down every day to a beautiful dinner,
With cousins and uncles enough for a tail;
And, though loaded with debt, oh, the devil a thinner,
Could law or the sheriff make Larry M’Hale!
With a larder supplied and a cellar well stored,
None lived half so well, from Fair-Head to Kinsale,
As he piously said, “I’ve a plentiful board,
And the Lord he is good to old Larry M’Hale.”
So fill up your glass, and a high bumper give him,
It’s little we’d care for the tithes or repale;
For ould Erin would be a fine country to live in,
If we only had plenty like LARRY M’HALE.
“Very singular style of person your friend Mr. M’Hale,” lisped a spooney-looking cornet at the end of the table.
“Not in the country he belongs to, I assure you,” said Maurice; “but I presume you were never in Ireland.”
“You are mistaken there,” resumed the other; “I was in Ireland, though I confess not for a long time.”