George A. Birmingham

“ Langton would come all the way to Ballymoy to look for a boat if he couldn't sail her when he got her? Sail her! I'll answer for it he can sail her right enough."
Mr. Doyle was anxious to preserve an air of fine impartiality. He praised Mr. Langton's seamanship, of which he knew nothing, with an air of profound conviction, just as he praised Meldon's boat, of which he knew all there was to know. His argument was powerful and unanswerable. Why should a man travel all the way to Ballymoy, which is twenty miles! ”

“ Langton wants her for. But thirty pounds! Come now. The gentleman here is a friend of mine. You mustn't be hard on him. Say twenty pounds."
"Thirty," said Meldon. "After all, I don't want to let the boat at all. I'd just as soon keep her for my own use."
Like every one else in Ballymoy, Doyle knew exactly what Meldon had paid for the boat, and was very well aware of the rottenness of her hull and the dilapidated condition of her rigging.
"You're a hard man, so you are," he said. ”

“ It was impossible to ride and almost impossible to wheel the machine. With the perfect confidence in everybody's honesty which residence in the West of Ireland begets in a man, he laid the machine in the ditch and walked on. His card was in the tool-bag, and he felt sure that some carter would bring the thing into the town in the morning. He whistled cheerfully as he tramped along. The Rev. J. J. Meldon had an excellent temper. It took more than a trifling accident and a few cuts to upset it. He didn't even use unkind language about the donkey.
It was late when he arrived in Ballymoy. ”