124 MARTIN RATTLER.

with the sides and the floors and the ceilin’s all of a
blaze with glittering di’monds, an’ top’zes, an’ purls,
an’ what not; with Naigeurs be the dozen picking
them up in handfuls. An’ sure,” he would add, “if
we was wance there, we could fill our pockets in no
time, an’ then, hooray for ould Ireland! an’ live like
imperors for ivermore.”

“But you forget, Barney, the account the hermit
has given us of the mines. He evidently does not
think that much is to be made of them.”

“Och! niver mind the hermit. There’s always
good luck attends Barney O’Flannagan. An’ sure if
nobody wint for fear they would git nothing, all the
di’monds that iver came out o’ the mines would be
lyin’ there still, An’ didn’t he tell us there was wan
got only a short time since, worth I don’t know how
many thousand pounds? Arrah! if I don’t go to the
mines an’ git one the size o’ me head, I'll let ye rig
me out with a long tail an’ set: me adrift in the woods
for a blue-faced monkey.”

It so happened that this was the time when the
hermit was in the habit of setting out on one of his
trading-trips ; and when Martin told him of the desire
that he and Barney entertained to visit the interior,
he told them that he would be happy to take them
along with him, provided they would act the part of