Paddy O’Kelly and the Weasel 49

- While Paddy and the hag were talking, the dog kept
moving in all the time, till at last he gave a leap and caught
the hag by the throat. She screeched and said:

“Paddy Kelly, take off your dog, and I’ll make you a
rich man,”

Paddy made the dog loose his hold, and said :

“Tell me who you are, or why did you kill my horse
and my cows ?”

“And why did you bring away my ‘gold: that I was
gathering for five hundred years throughout the -hills and
hollows of the world ?”

“I thought you were a weasel,” said Paddy, “or~I
wouldn't touch your gold ; and another thing,” says he, “ if
you're for five ee years in this world, it’s time for
you to go to rest now.” i

“T committed a great crime in my youth,” said the hag,
“and now I am to be released from my sufferings if you
can pay twenty pounds for a hundred and birce: -score
masses for me.”

““Where’s the money ? ” said Paddy.

“Go and dig under a bush that’s over a little well in the
corner of that field there without, and you'll get a pot
filled with gold. Pay the twenty pounds for the masses,
and yourself shall have the rest. When you'll lift the flag
off the pot, you'll see a big black dog coming out; but
don’t be afraid before him; he is a son of mine, When
you get the gold, buy the house in which you saw me at
first. You'll get it cheap, for it has the name of there
being a ghost in it. My son will be down in the cellar,
He'll do you no harm, but he’ll be a good friend to you. I
shall be dead a month from this day, and when you get me

D