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: HOW CONN RAFFERTY MISSED £5,000 A YEAR " Indeed, and 'tis so," said the Doctor, as he brushed down his vest with his napkin. " What's so ? " said everybody round the table, for the remark seemed apropos of nothing. " That there 's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip," said the Doctor. " Wasn't my friend, Moloney, decanting upon that, shortly back ? " " You mean descanting, Doctor." " Do I ? Well, the other is no libel on Moloney." Neither it was. By an effort we recalled the fact that Moloney had quoted that proverb somewhere close after the dinner began. " There 's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip, exempli gratia, the case of Conn Rafferty." " And who was Conn Rafferty ? " said we, " and what was his case ? " " Both of which," said the Doctor, said he, "I was about to tell you. " Conn Rafferty was an old and particular chum of my own, and, indeed, if I would say it, a distant relation, too. Our mothers, I think, were somewhere between third and fourth cousins. My own mother'sname was M'Grath, but her mother's mother went by Rafferty afore she got married, and that's how I trace back into the Rafferty family. But no matter for that, it wasn't because of our blood relationship that Conn and myself were comrades. " He had an uncle by his father's side, living within a half quarter of a mile of our house at home ; and, when himself and myself were bits of brats with short clothes on us, he used to come and spend half a year at a time in this uncle's house of his. And the both of us scampered about together, and were close companions for years, and used to murder each other like brothers every day. He went through school with me for a good part of my early course ; but, when he had got what Father Donelly styled ' a thorough, everyday educa...