“I answered:
'Discere justitiam moniti et non temnere divos.' *
* He is evidently drawing the long-bow here; this
anecdote has been told before.
“'Depend upon it,' said he, 'you will be a luminary. The morning star will be but a farthing candle to you; and if you take in the learning as you do the cheese, in a short time there won't be a man in Munsther fit to teach you,' and he laughed, for you see he had a tendency to jocosity.
“He did not give me up here, however, being determined to go deeper wid me.
“'Can you translate a newspaper into Latin prose?' said he.
“Now the divil a one o' me was just then sure about the prose, so I was goin' to tell him; but before I had time to speak, he thrust the paper into my hand, and desired me to thranslate half-a-dozen barbarous advertisements.
“The first that met me was about a reward offered for a Newfoundland dog and a terrier, that had been stolen from a fishing-tackle manufacturer, and then came a list of his shabby merchandise, ending with a long-winded encomium upon his gunpowder, shot, and double-barrelled guns. Now may I be shot with a blank cartridge, if I ever felt so much at an amplush in my life, and I said so.
“'Your honor has hooked me wid the fishing hooks,' said I; 'but I grant the cheese was good bait, any how.'
“So he laughed heartily, and bid me go on.