“Ah! Thady, Thady—”
“I'll give you my oath I hav'n't!—so don't be suspecting me. If I'd abilities, do you think I'd be such a blackguard as to consale them? Not I, thin!”
“Well but, Thady, boy, hav'n't you three-and-sixpence?—hav'n't you now?”
“I have,—I won't deny it.”
“And hav'n't I abilities?”
“I won't deny that either, unless you've lost them since we last saw one another,—that's two years ago, I think:—I won't deny but you've abilities, Michael; if I did I'd be giving you the lie; for it's often you tould me you had grand ones, if you'd only a field large enough to display them. But where'll we get a field, big or little, for a bull? I would'nt risk more than that of my money upon your abilities,—though it's much I respect them.”
“Thady, you're a fool, with your big field and your bull!—Besides, I've a reaping hook, and a long rope.”
“I see you have: but tell me, Michael, as we're spaking of reap-hooks and abilities, how did you lose your last place? Wasn't your master a good one?”
“Say 'employer,' Thady, the next time you mintion him. Well, thin, he wasn't so bad, but for two things:—being an Englishman, he hadn't exactly got into our mode of transacting things, don't you see, Thady?—he stuck to the letter o' the law too closely for me.”
“You didn't rob him Michael,—did you?”