Phelim Otoole's Courtship and Other Stories: Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of; William Carleton, Volume ThreeCarleton, William
General
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
Phelim whistled “_ulican dim oh_,” or, “the song of sorrow.” At length
he bounced to his feet, and exclaimed in a loud, rapid voice:--“_Ma
chuirp an diouol!_ ould couple, but I'm robbed of my ten guineas by Sam
Appleton!”
“Robbed by Sam Appleton! Heavens above!” exclaimed the father.
“Robbed by Sam Appleton! _Gra machree_, Phelim! no, you aren't!”
exclaimed the mother.
“_Gra machree_ yourself! but I say I am,” replied Phelim; “robbed clane
of every penny of it!”
Phelim then sat down to breakfast--for he was one of those happy mortals
whose appetite is rather sharpened by affliction--and immediately
related to his father and mother the necessity which Appleton's
connection had imposed on him of leaving the country; adding, that while
he was in a state of intoxication, he had been stripped of Appleton's
clothes; that his own were left beside him; that when he awoke the next
morning, he found his borrowed suit gone; that on searching for his own,
he found, to his misery, that the ten guineas had disappeared along with
Appleton, who, he understood from his father, had “left the neighborhood
for a while, till the throuble he was in 'ud pass over.”
“But I know where he's gone,” said Phelim, “an' may the divil's luck go
wid him, an' God's curse on the day I ever had anything to do wid
that hell-fire Ribbon business! 'Twas he first brought me into it, the
villain; an' now I'd give the town land we're in to be fairly out of
it.”
“_Hanim an diouol!_” said the father, “is the ten guineas gone? The
curse of hell upon him, for a black desaver! Where's the villain,
Phelim?”
“He's gone to America,” replied the son* “The divil tare the tongue
out o' myself,' too! I should be puttin' him up to go there, an' to get
money, if it was to be had. The villain bit me fairly.”
“Well, but how are we to manage?” inquired Larry. “What's to be done?”
“Why,” said the other, “to bear it an say nothin'. Even if he was in his
father's house, the double-faced villain has me so much in his power,
that I couldn't say a word about it. My curse on the Ribbon business, I
say, from my heart out!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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