Scribner's Magazine, Volume 26, October 1899Various
History
Scribner's Magazine, Volume 26, October 1899
Various
American periodicals
"It was you I wished to see, sor," the old man went on, placing his tall
hat on my desk and his moist red handkerchief within the hat. "Ye have
been a friend to me more than once, and I wish your advice." He slowly
drew an honest, well-worn wallet from his hip pocket. I protested.
"Ye are a young felly, sor, and this is different," he said. "'Tis me
intention to pay you for the service I ask."
From "young felly" to "little felly" was a quick mental transition, and
instantly I grasped the opportunity that would enable me, as well as
the senior counsel, to bear gifts to the Heir Apparent, so I said:
"Well, Mr. O'Connor, if you wish to employ me, of course—" I paused,
while he extracted and laid upon my desk a battered ten dollar bill. I
immediately secluded it.
In justice to my poor self I must digress once more. The "little felly"
now possesses, in addition to a silver mug, (and the "mug" Heaven gave
him as a lineal descendant) a silver spoon and a silver fork of no mean
dimensions, suitably inscribed. However, that is nobody's business but
my own. Probably that is why I tell it. I never could keep my business
to myself, any more than I now can O'Connor's.
"'Tis like this, sor," the old fellow proceeded. "I have it in me moind
to go to th' ould counthree. I kem over whin I was a lad, so-o—well,
sor, there is much I dishremember now. But I would like some day to
tell the little felly all about it, and—" Here he paused a moment. "Me
sister is there, too," he added, "and sor, well—I would be afther askin'
you to arrange the thrip for me. I wish to have it done decent, d'ye
moind, and, whishper! I don't know the ropes mesilf, and I don't want
the odthers to know I don't know them, d'ye moind?"
Here was confidence from a client, indeed.
Never mind about the succeeding details, consisting of a letter of
credit, exchange, passage, and an excellent stateroom in the second
cabin. To all these details I attended personally, and can and do vouch
for their careful accomplishment.
On a certain day I shall never forget—it was in the latter part of the
same August—I stood looking out of the window of our office. From it
I had a clear view of the harbor and of the vessels that came to and
left it. Soon, a Cunarder glided into my vista, and, passing out, left
a quickly lost picture of white wake, purple sea, and low hanging gray
smoke. But the thought in my heart as I stood and watched remains:
"God bless his kindly old heart! and God grant he may return safe and
sound to the 'little felly.'"
I speak of it as a thought. It must have been a prayer, so quickly was
it answered. As I stood watching the slow blending of the smoke with the
mellow light of the afternoon, I heard behind me a gentle, initiatory
cough.
I turned. There stood O'Connor himself, hat in hand, in the centre of
the office. I can tell you nothing of his entrance.
"What in the world!" I exclaimed and asked.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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