“I'm not disparagin' it, Larry; I'd be long sorry; but about the furniture? What are they to begin the world wid?”
“Hut,” said Devlin, “go to the sarra wid yez!—What 'ud they want, no more nor other young people like them, to begin the world wid? Are you goin' to make English or Scotch of them, that never marries till they're able to buy a farm an' stock it, the nagurs. By the staff in my hand, an Irish man 'ud lash a dozen o' them, wid all then prudence! Hasn't Phelim an' Peggy health and hands, what most new-married couples in Ireland begins the world wid? Sure they're not worse nor a thousand others?”
“Success, Antony,” said Phelim. “Here's your health for that!”
“God be thanked they have health and hands,” said Donovan. “Still, Antony, I'd like that they'd have somethin' more.”
“Well, then, Paddy, spake up for yourself,” observed Larry. “What will you put to the fore for the colleen? Don't take both flesh an' bone!”
“I'll not spake up, till I know all that Phelim's to expect,” said Donovan. “I don't think he has a right to be axin' anything wid sich a girl as my Peggy.”
“Hut, tut, Paddy! She's a good colleen enough; but do you think she's above any one that carries the name of O'Toole upon him? Still, it's but raisonable for you to wish the girl well settled. My Phelim will have one half o' my worldly goods, at all evints.”
“Name them, Larry, if you plase.”
“Why, he'll have one o' the goats—the gray one, for she's the best o' the two, in throth. He'll have two stools; three hens, an' a toss-up for the cock. The biggest o' the two pots; two good crocks; three good wooden trenchers, an'—hem—he'll have his own—I say, Paddy, are you listenin' to me?—Phelim, do you hear what I'm givin' you, a veehonee?—his own bed! An' there's all I can or will do for him. Now do you spake up for Peggy.”
“I'm to have my own bedstead too,” said Phelim, “an' bad cess to the stouter one in Europe. It's as good this minute as it was eighteen years agone.”