{"product_id":"2940012865656","title":"The Christmas Books of Mr. M.A. Titmarsh","description":"CHRISTMAS STORIES.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMrs. Perkins's Ball\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOur Street\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDr. Birch and his Young Friends\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Kickleburys on the Rhine\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Rose and the Ring; or, The History of Prince Giglio and Prince Bulbo\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMRS. PERKINS'S BALL.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE MULLIGAN (OF BALLYMULLIGAN), AND HOW WE WENT TO MRS. PERKINS'S BALL.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI do not know where Ballymulligan is, and never knew anybody who did.\u003cbr\u003eOnce I asked the Mulligan the question, when that chieftain assumed a\u003cbr\u003elook of dignity so ferocious, and spoke of \"Saxon curiawsitee\" in a\u003cbr\u003etone of such evident displeasure, that, as after all it can matter very\u003cbr\u003elittle to me whereabouts lies the Celtic principality in question, I\u003cbr\u003ehave never pressed the inquiry any farther.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI don't know even the Mulligan's town residence. One night, as he bade\u003cbr\u003eus adieu in Oxford Street,--\"I live THERE,\" says he, pointing down\u003cbr\u003etowards Oxbridge, with the big stick he carries--so his abode is in that\u003cbr\u003edirection at any rate. He has his letters addressed to several of\u003cbr\u003ehis friends' houses, and his parcels, \u0026amp;c. are left for him at various\u003cbr\u003etaverns which he frequents. That pair of checked trousers, in which you\u003cbr\u003esee him attired, he did me the favor of ordering from my own tailor,\u003cbr\u003ewho is quite as anxious as anybody to know the address of the wearer. In\u003cbr\u003elike manner my hatter asked me, \"Oo was the Hirish gent as 'ad ordered\u003cbr\u003efour 'ats and a sable boar to be sent to my lodgings?\" As I did not\u003cbr\u003eknow (however I might guess) the articles have never been sent, and the\u003cbr\u003eMulligan has withdrawn his custom from the \"infernal four-and-nine-penny\u003cbr\u003escoundthrel,\" as he calls him. The hatter has not shut up shop in\u003cbr\u003econsequence.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI became acquainted with the Mulligan through a distinguished countryman\u003cbr\u003eof his, who, strange to say, did not know the chieftain himself. But\u003cbr\u003edining with my friend Fred Clancy, of the Irish bar, at Greenwich, the\u003cbr\u003eMulligan came up, \"inthrojuiced\" himself to Clancy as he said, claimed\u003cbr\u003erelationship with him on the side of Brian Boroo, and drawing his chair\u003cbr\u003eto our table, quickly became intimate with us. He took a great liking\u003cbr\u003eto me, was good enough to find out my address and pay me a visit: since\u003cbr\u003ewhich period often and often on coming to breakfast in the morning I\u003cbr\u003ehave found him in my sitting-room on the sofa engaged with the rolls\u003cbr\u003eand morning papers: and many a time, on returning home at night for an\u003cbr\u003eevening's quiet reading, I have discovered this honest fellow in the\u003cbr\u003earm-chair before the fire, perfuming the apartment with my cigars and\u003cbr\u003etrying the quality of such liquors as might be found on the sideboard.\u003cbr\u003eThe way in which he pokes fun at Betsy, the maid of the lodgings, is\u003cbr\u003eprodigious. She begins to laugh whenever he comes; if he calls her a\u003cbr\u003educk, a divvle, a darlin', it is all one. He is just as much a master\u003cbr\u003eof the premises as the individual who rents them at fifteen shillings a\u003cbr\u003eweek; and as for handkerchiefs, shirt-collars, and the like articles of\u003cbr\u003efugitive haberdashery, the loss since I have known him is unaccountable.\u003cbr\u003eI suspect he is like the cat in some houses: for, suppose the whiskey,\u003cbr\u003ethe cigars, the sugar, the tea-caddy, the pickles, and other groceries\u003cbr\u003edisappear, all is laid upon that edax-rerum of a Mulligan.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe greatest offence that can be offered to him is to call him MR.\u003cbr\u003eMulligan. \"Would you deprive me, sir,\" says he, \"of the title which was\u003cbr\u003ebawrun be me princelee ancestors in a hundred thousand battles? In\u003cbr\u003eour own green valleys and fawrests, in the American savannahs, in the\u003cbr\u003esierras of Speen and the flats of Flandthers, the Saxon has quailed\u003cbr\u003ebefore me war-cry of MULLIGAN ABOO! MR. Mulligan! I'll pitch anybody out\u003cbr\u003eof the window who calls me MR. Mulligan.\" He said this, and uttered the\u003cbr\u003eslogan of the Mulligans with a shriek so terrific, that my uncle (the\u003cbr\u003eRev. W. Gruels, of the Independent Congregation, Bungay), who had\u003cbr\u003ehappened to address him in the above obnoxious manner, while sitting at\u003cbr\u003emy apartments drinking tea after the May meetings, instantly quitted the\u003cbr\u003eroom, and has never taken the least notice of me since, except to state\u003cbr\u003eto the rest of the family that I am doomed irrevocably to perdition.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWell, one day last season, I had received from my kind and most\u003cbr\u003eestimable friend, MRS. PERKINS OF POCKLINGTON SQUARE (to whose amiable\u003cbr\u003efamily I have had the honor of giving lessons in drawing, French, and\u003cbr\u003ethe German flute), an invitation couched in the usual terms, on satin\u003cbr\u003egilt-edged note-paper, to her evening-party; or, as I call it, \"Ball.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBesides the engraved note sent to all her friends, my kind patroness had\u003cbr\u003eaddressed me privately as follows:--","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47078965444848,"sku":"2940012865656","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012865656_p0.jpg?v=1763573664","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012865656","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}