Dreamthorp : $b A book of essays written in the countrySmith, Alexander
General
Dreamthorp : $b A book of essays written in the country
Smith, Alexander
Essays
their suppers, and retired to their several couches to sleep,
peacefully enough no doubt. About the same time, too, Green, the
English overseer, threw down his weary limbs, and entered on his last
sleep--little dreaming what the morning had in store for him.
Uprose the sun, and uprose Doolan and Redding, and dressed, and thrust
each his sufficient iron poker up the sleeve of his blouse, and went
forth. They took up their station on a temporary wooden bridge which
spanned the line, and waited there. Across the bridge, as was
expected, did Green ultimately come. He gave them good morning; asked,
"why they were loafing about?" received no very pertinent answer,
perhaps did not care to receive one; whistled--the unsuspecting
man!--thrust his hands into his breeches pockets, turned his back on
them, and leaned over the railing of the bridge, inspecting the
progress of the works beneath. The temptation was really too great.
What could wild Irish flesh and blood do? In a moment out from the
sleeve of Doolan's blouse came the hidden poker, and the first blow was
struck, bringing Green to the ground. The friendly Redding, who had
bargained for the second, and who, naturally enough, was in fear of
being cut out altogether, jumped on the prostrate man, and fulfilled
his share of the bargain with a will. It was Redding it was supposed
who sped the unhappy Green. They overdid their work--like young
authors--giving many more blows than were sufficient, and then fled.
The works, of course, were that morning in consternation. Redding and
Hickie were, if I remember rightly, apprehended in the course of the
day. Doolan got off, leaving no trace of his whereabouts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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