"By dad, if it wasn't f'r that there Molly Donahue," said Mr. Dooley
to Mr. McKenna, "half th' life 'd be gone out iv Bridgeport." "What
has Molly Donahue been doin'?" asked Mr. McKenna.
"She have been causin' Felix Pindergasht to be sint to th' Sisters iv
Mercy Hospital with inflammathry rhoomatism. Ye know Felix. He is a
musical janius. Before he was tin year old he had me mind disthracted
be playin' wan iv thim little mouth organs on th' corner near me
bedroom window. Thin he larned to play th' ack-car-jeen, an' cud swing
it between his legs an' give an imitation iv th' cathedral bell that
'd make ye dig in ye'er pocket to see iv ye had a dime f'r a seat.
Thin he used to sit in his window in his shirt-sleeves, blowin' 'Th'
Vale iv Avoca' on a cornet. He was wan whole month before he cud get
th' 'shall fade fr'm me heart' right. Half th' neighborhood 'd be out
on th' sidewalk yellin' 'Lift it, Felix,--lift an' scatther it. Shall
fade fr'm me ha-a-rt,--lift it, ye clumsy piper.'
"A few months back th' stupid gawk begun to be attintive to Molly
Donahue, an', like th' wild wan she is, she dhrew him on. Did ye iver
see th' wan that wudden't? Faith, they're all alike. If it ain't a
sthraight stick, it's a crooked wan; an' th' man was niver yet born,
if he had a hump on his back as big as coal-scuttle an' had a face
like th' back iv a hack, that cudden't get th' wink iv th' eye fr'm
some woman. They're all alike, all alike. Not that I've annything
again thim: 'tis thim that divides our sorrows an' doubles our joys,
an' sews chiny buttons on our pa-ants an' mends our shirts with blue
yarn. But they'll lead a man to desthruction an' back again, thim same
women.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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