A !AIMS CHAEMBB.
Musha Merry first retired behind a wicker partition Or screen, which ran half sr cross the waste Apar tment at its upper end, expressing modestly an inten. to charm away his own broken bead before he engaged in the service of other afflicted person ; and after having been invisible for a short time, he reappeared, ; o every previous mark of' violence effaced from his cheek and temple, erhidden under a more ample wig, while his crabbed old features simpered all Over with their usual insinuating good-nature. and his glossy gray eyes were slated shut up in their pucker of wrinkles, which the bland expression induced
round them.
RySio pale, melancholy, over-watched woman arose, curtseying, and calling him sir," and stated the first case that claimed his professional attention. " The people" had sent a great " fever " (fever) to her only. son, and the doctor e e.boy up, and the priest gave him up, and what was she to do? Musha t Merry male very light of the matter, and the skill of his learned brethren, the doctor and the priest ; and, speaking smooth words of comfort and assurance, Rive her a viol filled with some coloured liquid, murmured at her ear direc- hons for administering it, received his fee, and the sorrowful woman slipt
lightly over the threshold.
A half-starved catlier next represented, in a whining, miserable voice, how his one cow had been "overlooked." The fairy-man handed him a little bag to tie under her left ham, and smilingly pocketed sixpence snore. A second wornl mother, holding an emaciated, silent, starving infant upon her arms, rose from her squatting position at the wall ; and her words were, ‘,Arocb, Misther Moshe Merry, Sir, sure this poor crature of a baby isn't wid me at all, but gone off wid them." Meaning, and plainly understood to mu, notwithstanding the seeming puzzle of two identities, that the child which, a few months before, she had brought into the world, had been kid- /upped by the fairies, and the certainly preternatural looking babe she held out for inspection, left in its stead. Another poor peasant applied to have " the fairy-worum pult out of his tooth, became it wouldn't let him sleep night or day, wid the atin' it war givin' him." And Musha Merry procured a cow's horn, burnt a reed in it, put the pointed end into the patient's gaping mouth, whispered at the other end, then shook it over the palm of his hand till a little red worm fell out ; and the man departed with a happy grin on his features, declaring that his toothache was perfectly cured.
We may observe that a few of these tales appear to be reprints, or awir subject is public property ; for, though we cannot identify the handling of the story, we are familiar with the incident on which several are made to turn.
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