Phelim Otoole's Courtship and Other Stories: Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of; William Carleton, Volume ThreeCarleton, William
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Phelim Otoole's Courtship and Other Stories: Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of; William Carleton, Volume Three
Carleton, William
Ireland -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
Nothing in life gives a man such an inclination for active industry as
to find that he is prospering; he has then heart and spirits to work,
and does work blithely and cheerfully; so was it with Art. He and his
employer were admirably adapted for each other, both being extremely
well-tempered, honest, and first-rate workmen. About the expiration of
the first twelve months, Art had begun to excite a good deal of interest
in the town of Ballykeerin, an interest which was beginning to affect
Owen Gallagher himself in a beneficial way. He was now pointed out to
strangers as the man, who, almost naked, used to stand drunk and begging
upon the bridge of Ballykeerin, surrounded by his starving and equally
naked children. In fact, he began to get a name, quite a reputation for
the triumph which he had achieved over drunkenness; and on this account
Owen Gallagher, when it was generally known in the country that Art
worked with him, found his business so rapidly extending, that he was
obliged, from time to time, to increase the number of hands in his
establishment. Art felt this, and being now aware that his position in
life was, in fact, more favorable for industrious exertion than ever,
resolved to give up journey work, and once more, if only for the
novelty of the thing, to set up for himself. Owen Gallagher, on hearing
this from his own lips, said he could not, nor would not blame him, but,
he added--
“I'll tell you what we can do, Art--come into partnership wid me, for I
think as we're gettin' an so well together, it 'ud be a pity, almost a
sin, to part; join me, and I'll give you one-third of the business,”--by
which he meant the profits of it.
“Begad,” replied Art, laughing, “it's as much for the novelty of the
thing I'm doin' it as any thing else; I think it 'ud be like a dhrame to
me, if I was to find myself and my family as we wor before.” And so they
parted.
It is unnecessary here to repeat what we have already detailed
concerning the progress of his early prosperity; it is sufficient, we
trust, to tell our readers that he rose into rapid independence, and
that he owed all his success to the victory that he had obtained over
himself. His name was now far and near, and so popular had he become,
that no teetotaller would employ any other carpenter. This, at length,
began to make him proud, and to feel that his having given up drink,
instead of being simply a duty to himself and his family, was altogether
an act of great voluntary virtue on his part.
“Few men,” he said, “would do it, an' may be, afther all, if I hadn't
the ould blood in my veins--if I wasn't one of the great Fermanagh
Maguires, I would never a' done it.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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