Scribner's Magazine, Volume 26, August 1899Various
General
Scribner's Magazine, Volume 26, August 1899
Various
American periodicals
"I am unabil, bein' mesilf uneddi_cay_ted and a plain man, to deshcribe
to yez just phwat I'm wantin' to tell yez. But maybe you'll know from
this. Twinty year ago come the tinth av this prisint month, I wint to
worruk for a certin gintleman, to do chores about the place and phwat
gyardenin' and potherin' round the grounds was nicissary. He had a purty
place in the country—a rale pur-rty place, and there was a shweet little
house there he putt me in—all for mesilf and me wife and me baby—a
little gurrul she was, wan year old. I had been to worruk in the city,
where I lived in a tinimint—noomber t'ree Gay's Alley, so called it was.
Me wife was ailin', and the baby was takin' afther her modther at the
time; so, shure, it was deloighted we was at the chanst to live in the
country and wid our new place. A lovely home it was. Well, just tin days
afther we kem, me wife was tuk wid fever—typhide fever it was—and two
days afther little Mollie was tuk, too, just the same. Oh! wurra! wurra!
but thim was heart-breakin' days! But niver moind, I'll not bodther you
wid ahl av it. Wan night me wife was terrible bad, little Mollie bein'
ashleep in the nixt room, and not near so bad as her modther, to my
thinkin'. The docthor kem, and wid him the gintleman that emplyed me.
Whin the docthor had looked at the two, he sez to me, 'The modther is
very low,' he sez, 'but she will come t'rough all right; but the young
un,' he sez, 'is in a viry criticil condition. She'll need conshtant
attintion,' he sez, 'and I cannot be here mesilf,' he sez, 'to save her
life!' Me heart died in me that minute.
"But quick, wid no hesitation, the gintleman sez to the docthor, callin'
him by name, he bein' a frind av his, he sez, 'John,' he sez, 'I'll look
afther the little one mesilf durin' the night,' he sez. 'I've done it
before this, as you know,' he sez; 'and come again, you, in the mornin','
he sez."
Here the old man paused. There was perfect silence in the room. When he
again spoke, it was in a hoarse whisper, but he could be distinctly heard.
"For t'ree whole nights—long, sad, weary nights—the gintleman niver
lift the side av Mollie's bed, onliss whin he crep' in to putt his
hand on me shoulder and say to me, 'Keep up, me man. We'll pull 'em
both t'rough, all right'—and we did that same. Glory be to God and the
Blessed Virgin! they're alive and well this day, the two av thim.
"Well, Mr. Prisidint and gintlemin, I am not eddi_cay_ted and I dunno-o—I
may be wrong, but to my moind that gintleman is the kind av a man that
hav fitness for the job av managin' the affairs av odthers beside himself.
And that gintleman is Mr. Hinry Haitch Cutting, Esquire."
He paused and looked about him sheepishly; then turning so as to face
Mr. Walker, he said:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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