“But,” said Dick again, in an under tone, “she is as mild and as beautiful as the moon."
"If she was as mild and as beautiful as the sun, moon, and stars, all put together, I tell said the Priest, stamping his right foot, "you can't marry her, she being a fish."
“But she has all the gold that's down in the sea only for the asking, and I'm a made man if I marry her; and,” said Dick, looking up slily, “I can make it worth any one's while to do the job.”
"Oh! that alters the case entirely," replied the Priest: why there's some reason now in what you say: why didn't you tell me this before?-marry her by all means if she was ten times a fish. Money, you know, is not to be refused in these bad times, and I may as well have the hansel of it as another, that may be would not take half the pains in counselling you that I have done.”
So Father Fitzgibbon married Dick Fitzgerald to the Merrow, and like any loving couple, they returned to Gollerus well pleased with each other. Every thing, prospered with Dick—he was at the sunny side of the world; the Merrow made the best of wives, and they lived together in the greatest contentment.
It was wonderful to see, considering where she had been brought up, how she would busy herself about the house, and how well she nursed the children; for, at the end of three years, there were as many young Fitzgeralds—two boys and a girl. In short, Dick was a happy man, and so he might have continued to the end of his days, if he
