"Glory be to th' saints," he said, "but it's been a thryin' five days.
I've been mean enough to commit murdher without th' strength even to
kill a fly. I expect to have a fight on me hands; f'r I've insulted
half th' road, an' th' on'y thing that saved me was that no wan was
sthrong enough to come over th' bar. 'I cud lick ye f'r that, if it
was not so hot,' said Dorsey, whin I told him I'd change no bill f'r
him. 'Ye cud not,' says I, 'if 'twas cooler,' I says. It's cool enough
f'r him now. Look, Jawn dear, an' see if there's an ice-pick undher me
chair.
"It 'd be more thin th' patience iv Job 'd stand to go through such
weather, an' be fit f'r society. They's on'y wan man in all th'
wurruld cud do it, an' that man's little Tim Clancy. He wurruks out in
th' mills, tin hours a day, runnin' a wheelbarrow loaded with
cindhers. He lives down beyant. Wan side iv his house is up again a
brewery, an' th' other touches elbows with Twinty-Percint Murphy's
flats. A few years back they found out that he didn't own on'y th'
front half iv th' lot, an' he can set on his back stoop an' put his
feet over th' fince now. He can, faith. Whin he's indures, he breathes
up th' chimbley; an' he has a wife an' eight kids. He dhraws wan
twinty-five a day--whin he wurruks.
"He come in here th' other night to talk over matthers; an' I was
stewin' in me shirt, an' sayin' cross things to all th' wurruld fr'm
th' tail iv me eye. ''Tis hot,' says I. ''Tis war-rum,' he says. ''Tis
dam hot,' says I. 'Well,' he says, ''tis good weather f'r th' crops,'
he says. 'Things grows in this weather. I mind wanst,' he says, 'we
had days just like these, an' we raised forty bushels iv oats to an
acre,' he says. 'Whin Neville, th' landlord, come with wagons to take
it off, he was that surprised ye cud iv knocked him down with a
sthraw. 'Tis great growin' weather,' he says. An', Jawn, by dad,
barrin' where th' brewery horse spilt oats on th' durestep an' th'
patches iv grass on th' dump, sare a growin' thing but childher has
that little man seen in twinty years.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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