Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SHAM US O'BRIEN Jist afther the war, in the year '98, As soon as the boys wor all scattered and bate, 'Twas the custom, whenever a pisant was got, To hang him by thrial — barrin' sich as was shot. There was trial by jury goin' on by daylight, And the martial law hangin' the lavins by night. It's them was hard times for an honest gosson: If he missed in the judges — he'd meet a dragoon ; An' whether the sodgers or judges gev sentence, The divil a much time they allowed for repentance. An' it's many's the fine boy was then on his keepin' Wid small share iv restin', or atin,' or sleepin', An' because they loved Erin, an' scorned to sell it, A prey for the bloodhound, a mark for the bullet — Unsheltered by night, and unrested by day, With the heath for their barrack, revenge for their pay ; An' the bravest an' hardiest boy iv them all Was Shamus O'Brien, from the town iv Gling;ill. His limbs were well set, an' his body was light, An' the keen-fanged hound had not teeth half so white ; But his face was as pale as the face of the dead, And his cheek never warmed with the blush of the red ; An' for all that he wasn't an ugly young bye, For the divil himself couldn't blaze with his eye So droll an' so wicked, so dark and so bright, Like a fire-flash that crosses the depth of the night! An' he was the best mower that ever has been, An' the illigantest hurler that ever was seen. An' his dancin' was sich that the men used to stare, An' the women turn crazy, he done it so quare ; An' by gorra, the whole world gev it into him there. An' it's he was the boy that was hard to be caught, An' it's often he run, an' it's often he fought, An' it's many the one can remember right well The quare thi...