Curiosities and wonders > Sleeping beauty of the wood

21
PADDY AND THE BEAR.
About the time I was a boy, Archy Thompson
lived in Cushendall, lower part of county Antrim.
He was a great man; kept a grocer’s shop, and
was in fact a complete Jack Factotum, and sold
every thing portable, from a needle to an anchor;
. he was a ponderous fellow, wore a wig like a bee-
' hive, and was called the king of Cushendall
j One night, when he was returning home from a
| friend’s wake, he found a male child at the shop
| door some months old ; he embraced it—swore he
would keep it, and wras as fond of him as ever
| Stjnire Allworthy was of Tom Jones. A woman
was sent for to nurse him ; they called her Snou-
i! ter Shaughnessy, because she wanted the nose.—
I Snouter had no suck, and poor Paddy (for so he
was christened) was spoon-fed, and soon grew a
I stout, well-built fellow, and to show his grati-
i; tude, (for Paddy had a heart) would do all the
I work about the house himself. He was like
Scrub in the Beaux Stratagem, servant of all
work; he milked the cow; he cleaned the byre,
and thatched it; he went to market; he soled the
shoes; he cleaned the knives; he shaved; and
powdered his master’s wig; and, in short, did as
much work in one day as an ordinary servant
! would do in a week. Paddy’s delight was in fre¬
quenting wakes and listening to all sorts of mar¬
vellous stories, which he would swallow down