midday
At length I got out of all patience , for I saw that , instead of devoting his fortune to his relatives , he was determined to have a spree , and I let him go without another word of remonstrance . He conducted himself precisely as I anticipated . For one week two thirds of his countrymen suspended work , and drank cheap whiskey at Mike 's expense . His gold vanished like snow on the top of Mount Alexander at midday , and although many of the better class of Irish visited our store every day , and begged that we would interfere and help save a portion of his wealth , we declined to do so ; and even Mr. Brown , who was appealed to , shrugged his shoulders , and made an oft-quoted remark that `` a fool and his money were soon parted . '' The most that we would do was to promise that Mike should not buy a single sixpence worth of liquor at our store , and we kept our word , for which we got most heartily abused by our late employee 's friends ; and one day we were obliged to have two or three arrested , owing to a display of pugilism which they made . All things must have an ending , and to follow out Mike 's fortunes , I may as well state that he soon lost all of his money , was deserted by those who called themselves his friends , and that he was left without the means of buying a loaf of broad , or a glass of whiskey to keep off the _ delirium tremens _ . He applied to us for employment , and we gave him something to do ; but the thoughts of his folly weighed heavily on his mind , and one morning we found Mike hanging by his neck , in the rear of the store where we stabled our horses .