Now, of the five individuals in whose houses the "stations" were
appointed to be held, we will select _Phaddhy Sheemus Phaddhy_ for
our purpose; and this we do, because it was the first time in which a
station was ever kept in his house, and consequently Phaddhy and his
wife had to undergo the initiatory ceremony of entertaining Father
_Philemy_ and his curate, the Reverend _Con M'Coul_, at dinner.

_Phaddhy Sheemus Phaddhy_ had been, until a short time before the period
in question, a very poor man; but a little previous to that event, a
brother of his, who had no children, died very rich--that is, for a
farmer--and left him his property, or, at least, the greater part of it.
While Phaddhy was poor, it was surprising what little notice he excited
from his Reverence; in fact, I have heard him acknowledge, that during
all the days of his poverty, he never got a nod of recognition or
kindness from Father Philemy, although he sometimes did, he said, from
Father Con, his curate, who honored him on two occasions so far as to
challenge him to a bout at throwing the shoulder-stone, and once to
a leaping match, at both of which exercises Father Con, but for the
superior power of Phaddhy, had been unrivalled.

"It was an unlucky day to him," says Phaddy, "that he went to challenge
me, at all at all; for I was the only man that ever bate him, and he
wasn't able to hould up his head in the parish for many a day afther."

As soon, however, as Phaddhy became a man of substance, one would almost
think that there had been a secret relationship between his good
fortune and Father Philemy's memory; for, on their first meeting, after
Phaddhy's getting the property, the latter shook him most cordially by
the hand--a proof that, had not his recollection been as much improved