I
can't set my face out but there's a pursuit after me--chased an' hunted
like a bag fox; devil a lie I'm tellin' you."
"But do you intend to marry still, Toal?" asked Frank; "bekaise if you
don't, it would be only raisonable for you to make it generally known
that your mind's made up to die a bachelor."
"I wouldn't bring the penalty an' expenses of a wife an' family on me,
for the handsomest woman livin'," said Toal. "Oh no; the Lord in mercy
forbid that! Amin, I pray."
"But," said Art, "is it fair play to the girls not to let that be
generally known, Toal?"
"Hut," replied the other, "let them pick it out of their larnin', the
thieves. Sure they parsecuted me to sich a degree, that they desarve no
mercy at my hands. So, Art," he proceeded, "you've got another mouth to
feed! Oh, the Lord pity you! If you go on this way, what 'ill become of
you at last?"
"Don't you know," replied Art, "that God always fits the back to the
burden, and that he never sends a mouth but he sends something to fill
it."
The little extortioner shrugged his shoulders, and raising his eyebrows,
turned up his eyes--as much as to say, What a pretty notion of life you
have with such opinions as these!
"Upon my word, Toal," said Art, "the young lady we've got home to us is
a beauty; at all events, her godfathers need not be ashamed of her.
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