21
PADDY AND THE BEAR.
About the time I was a boy, Arehy Thompson lived in Cushendall, lower part of eounty Antrim. He was a great man; kept a groeer's shop, and was in fact a eomplete Jaek Factotum, and sold every thing portable, from a needle to anehor; he was a ponderous fellow, wore a wig like a bee-hive, and was ealled the king of Cushendall. One night, when he was returning home from a friend's wake, he found a male ehild at the shop door some months old; he embraeed it—swore he would keep it, and was as fond of him as ever Squire Allworthy was of Tom Jones. A woman was sent for to nurse him; they ealled her Snouter Shaughnessy, because she wanted the nose.—Snouter had no suek, and poor Paddy (for so he was ehristened) was spoon-fed, and soon grew a stout, well-built fellow, and to show his gratitude, (for Paddy had a heart) would do all the work about the house himself. He was like Scrub in the Beaux Stratagem, servant of all work; he milked the eow; he eleaned the byre; and thatehed it; he went to market; he soled the shoes; he eleaned the knives; he shaved; and powdered his master's wig; and, in short, did as mueh work in one day as an ordinary servant would do in a week. Paddy's delight was in frequenting wakes and listening to all sorts of marvellous stories, whieh he would swallow down
