HOW HUNKS WENT TO IRELAND.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 215, 7 September 1912, Page 21

HOW HUNKS WENT TO IRELAND.

CBr MAX ADELEE.) ! They were all silting around the stove **t the grocery store, and Huoks, who (hud beeu a sailor, was relating his adventures. "Were you ever in Ireland, Mr Hunks?" asied Judge ritoian. '• "Never, but once, ,, replied Hunks; "and then I went there undtr very extraordinary tlrcumstanccs. l\>u see we was on a voyago from Liverpool to New York, and just as we was getting out of eigtH of Irish land the men they mutinied and seized the ship. I was second male. They killed the captain and the first mate, and mc they knocked In the head. Then, jus' out of cr.ssedness, I • e'pose, they stuffed mc into a beef bar'l, j headed the cask up, and hove mc overboard. "I duiino how long I was Insensible, bat, ! howsoinedever, when 1 come to I found j myself in the bar'l, and tie har'l layin on j shore apparently, for it didn't roll any. I tried to kick the head out. but I was so! weak I couldn't. But I felt for the bung, ■ and busted it out so's to sit some fresh, air. j Directly I felt some-thin' kinder tickling mc , boss. I thought It -was a fly; so I knocked j at It, and ketched one end of a straw. I Jive the straw a Jerk, and I heard somethin* knock agin' the bar'l, and a voice exclaim: " 'Gosh! , "Then I knowird there was a feller outBide tryln' to suck somethin out of that. barl with, a straw. Directly he stuck an- j other straw in and I sive It a. harder jerk ] and jammed his nose agin , tic bar'l tollnbly lively; and I heard him i-aj: "'Mnniflccut Moses, but that's quare!" "But he put tie straw through the bunghole the third time, lie was so eager for Hcker, and Hie way I bounced that nose of hls'n agin' tie side of that bar'l -was simply tmlnman. Then tie jumped back, and says it: "■Be the sowl of St. Pathrick, if that don't bate Bannpher! What's in yan bar'l. anyhow? , "With that lie pave the head a kick and It caved in. I crawled out, and looking kinder solemn at him, I said for a bit of fan: 'I don't know much about your mann-ers 'we, but it seems to mc you might be more civil than that to a man In his own house!' "Bnn! Well he jes' legced it; and I heard afterwards that he went up to tlie town Tellln , that the devil liart come ashore In a tan. But I Jps' wont to QueenstOTvn, dipped for borne cm a brig, and quit. And that's ion- I Trent to Ireland."