Cinder Path Tales

174 CINDER-PATH TALES We alight before a corner drug-store, and Paddy calls the " Connemara man " an " Irish thief" when Tom pays him an exorbitant' charge. He is easily placated, however, and goes into the store to inquire after Dinny, while we wait outside. We look through the window, between the red bottle on the right and the blue bottle on the left, and see him go up to the clerk at the soda fountain. The latter, a tall, pale-facedyouth, answers shortly, and points toa big directory on a little shelf in the corner. Paddy walks over, upsetting a r ck of spongeson the way, . opens the directory doubtfully, turns over its leaves, runs his finger down a page or two, looks more and more puzzled, and at last beckons us in. We enter,and find him looking blankly at an almost unending list of Dennis Sullivans, engaged inmany occupations, and several of them " on the force." After acareful exam­ ination, befittingthe seriousnessof the occa­ sion, we pronounce the task hopeless, and file out again. Our departure is apparently greatly to the relief of the pale young man, for we had laughed until the bottles rattled when Paddy described his cousin as a " big chunk av a man, wid a taste for gin, an' abad habit av snorin'." We halt in the lee of the mortar and pestle,