himself to be at least a foot higher.  His whole family were certainly tall, and one of the greatest calamities of the poor fellow’s life was a bitter reflection that he himself was by several inches the lowest of his race.  This was the only exception he made with respect to height, but so deeply did it affect him that he could scarcely ever allude to it without shedding tears.  The life he had was similar in most respects to that of his unhappy class.  He wandered about through the country, stopping now at one farmer’s house, and now at another’s, where he always experienced a kind reception, because he was not only amusing and inoffensive, but capable of making himself useful as a messenger and drudge.  He was never guilty of a dishonest act, nor ever known to commit a breach of trust; and as a quick messenger, his extraordinary speed of foot rendered him unrivalled.  His great delight, however, was to attend sportsmen, to whom he was invaluable as a guide and director.  Such was his wind and speed of foot that, aided by his knowledge of what is termed the lie of the country, he was able to keep up with any pack of hounds that ever went out.  As a soho man he was unrivalled.  The form of every hare for miles about was known to him, and if a fox or a covey of partridges were to be found at all, he was your man.  In wild-fowl shooting he was infallible.  No pass of duck, widgeon, barnacle, or curlew, was unknown to him.  In fact, his principal delight was to attend the gentry of the country to the field, either with harrier, foxhound, or setter.  No coursing match went right if Torn were not present; and as for night shooting, his eye and ear were such as, for accuracy of observation, few have ever witnessed.  It is true he could subsist a long time without food, but, like the renowned Captain Dalgetty, when an abundance of it happened to be placed before him, he displayed the most indefensible ignorance as to all knowledge of the period when he ought to stop, considering it his bounden duty on all occasions to clear off whatever was set before him—­a feat which he always accomplished with the most signal success.

“Aha” exclaimed Tom, “dat Red Rapparee is tall man, but not tall as Tom; him no steeple like Tom; but him rogue and murderer, an’ Tom honest; him won’t carry off Cooleen Bawn dough, nor rob her fader avder.  Come, Tom, Steeple Tom, out with your two legs, one afore toder, and put Rapparee’s nose out o’ joint. Cooleen Bawn dats good to everybody, Catlieks (Catholics) an’ all, an’ often ordered Tom many a bully dinner.  Hicko! hicko! be de bones of Peter White—­off I go!”

Tom, like many other individuals of his description, was never able to get over the language of childhood—­a characteristic which is often appended to the want of reason, and from which, we presume, the term “innocent” has been applied in an especial manner to those who are remarkable for the same defect.

Having uttered the words we have just recited, he started off at a gait, peculiar to fools, which is known by the name of “a sling trot,” and after getting out upon the old road he turned himself in the direction which Willy Reilly and his party had taken, and there we beg to leave him for the present.