The exception we speak of was no other than Mr,
Hycy Burke, and the family was that of the Hogans. As for Teddy
Phats, he was not the man to trouble himself by the loss of a moment's
indifference upon any earthly or other subject, saving and excepting
always that it involved the death, mutilation, or destruction in some
shape, of his great and relentless foe, the Gauger, whom he looked upon
as the impersonation of all that is hateful and villainous in life, and
only sent into this world to war with human happiness at large.
That great professional instinct, as the French say, and a strong
unaccountable disrelish of Hycy Burke, were the only two feelings that
disturbed the hardened indifference of his nature.
One night, shortly after Bryan's visit to his landlord, the Hogans and
Phats were assembled in the kiln between the hours of twelve and one
o'clock, after having drunk nearly three quarts of whiskey among
them. The young savages, as usual, after the vagabond depredations or
mischievous exercises of the day, were snoring as we have described them
before; when Teddy, whom no quantity of liquor could affect beyond a
mere inveterate hardness of brogue and an indescribable effort at mirth
and melody, exclaimed--"Fwhy, dhen, dat's the stuff; and here's bad luck
to him that paid fwor it."
"I'll not drink it, you ugly _keout_," exclaimed Philip, in his deep and
ruffianly voice; "but come--all o' yez fill up and drink my toast.
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