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folks, she became fond of dumb animals, which were her chief companions; and of these she always had numbers; people, indeed, have said hundreds, and others have declared she could call as many on the earth as she pleased; but this is fabulous, for I never saw more than ten at a time. Dogs and cats were the principal companions of her retirement, which, being of the smallest breed, would, as she sat. creep from different parts of her garments, and not a little surprise those that came to see her, and, indeed, frightened many; though, to do her justice, she desired her visitors not to bo terrified at her domestics, as she termed them, for they were not like many that attended on the gentry, saucy, imperious, and unfaithful, but were always attendant on the will of her whose hand fed them, nor would injure without provocation, a lesson, she used to say, she wished was learned by all mankind.
Of a pipe of tobacco our Bridget was exceedingly fond, and, indeed, was continually whiffing; and as she indeed, humourously used to observe, she had "sent more puffs into the world, than all the quacks in the kingdom;" from a long contracted habit, likewise, when she was smoking, of ever being seated so that her knees almost touched her visage, her limbs became so contracted, that when she became in years, she was almost double, which, together with her enormous length of nose and chin, her pipe, and the number of animals about her, made her cut a most hideous figure, and appear rather uncommonly terrifying to those who were not apprised of it.
