The host was the publican, and the stick that he held up was the tally stick on which were marked in nicks all the drinks poor MacBrady had taken—a usual way of keeping accounts in old times. The sight of the score brought him to his senses at once—cured his hiccup.
A verse of which the following is a type is very often found in our Anglo-Irish songs:—
'The flowers in those valleys no more shall spring,
The blackbirds and thrushes no more shall sing,
The sea shall dry up and no water shall be,
At the hour I'll prove false to sweet graw-mochree.'
So in Scotland:—'I will luve thee still, my dear, till a' the seas gang dry.' (Burns.)
A warning sometimes given to a messenger:—'Now don't forget it like Billy and the pepper': This
is the story of Billy and the pepper. A gander got killed accidentally; and as the family hardly ever tasted meat, there was to be a great treat that day. To top the grandeur they sent little Billy to town for a pennyworth of pepper. But Billy forgot the name, and only remembered that it was something hot; so he asked the shopman for a penn'orth of hot-thing. The man couldn't make head or tail of the hot-thing, so he questioned Billy. Is it mustard? No. Is it ginger? No. Is it pepper? Oh that's just it—gandher's pepper.
A man has done me some intentional injury, and I say to him, using a very common phrase:—'Oh, well, wait; I'll pay you off for that': meaning 'I'll punish you for it—I'll have satisfaction.'