"There was a gentleman sent him a present one time, and he bade a little
lad to bring it to him. Shut up in a box it was, and he bade the boy to
give it to himself, and not to open the box. So the little lad brought
it to O'Connell to give it to him. 'Let you open it yourself,' says
O'Connell. So he opened it, and whatever was in it blew up and made an
end of the boy, and it would have been the same with O'Connell if he had
opened it."