“Was there not a very celebrated character styled St. Patrick, who flourished at one time among the Irish?” inquired the young merchant.
“Certainly there was,” replied Fortyfolios. “Patrick, Pater Rick—or Rick being the abbreviation of Richard—Father Richard, was a poor monk——”
“That I deny!” eagerly exclaimed the doctor. “For, as it is stated in a very ancient poem I have met with,
‘St. Patrick was a gintleman
And born of dacent paple.’”
“That is no authority,” resumed Fortyfolios. “I affirm that he was a poor monk and——”
“I maintain that he was a gentleman,” replied the other.
“I insist that you do not interrupt me, Dr. Tourniquet,” exclaimed the professor angrily. “He was an exceedingly pious and virtuous man, and by his example and precepts did a great deal of good among his countrymen.”
“Yes,” said the surgeon, gravely, “I have met with an authority that says
‘He gave the frogs and toads a twist,
And banished all the varmint.’
Now the usual reading of this couplet is that he drove the frogs and toads out of the country; but if we look to the meaning of the word twist, we shall find that it means an appetite: a man with a twist means a man with a certain facility in swallowing anything eatable that comes before him; and as we know that frogs at one time were considered a great delicacy by the ancients, it is not unreasonable to imagine that St. Patrick was a great epicure, and swallowed all the frogs and toads in the island.”