The Emigrants Of Ahadarra: The Works of William Carleton, Volume TwoCarleton, William
General
The Emigrants Of Ahadarra: The Works of William Carleton, Volume Two
Carleton, William
Ireland -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
“Childre,” he exclaimed, wiping away his tears that had indeed flowed
in all the bitterness of grief and undeserved affliction; “childre',”
he replied, “you must be manly now; it's because I love you an' feels
anxious to keep you from beggary and sorrow at a future time, and
destitution and distress, such as we see among so many about us every
day in the week, that I've made up my mind to go. Our landlord wont give
us our farm barrin' at a rent that 'tid bring us down day by day, to
poverty and distress like too many of our neighbors. We have yet some
thrifle o' money left, as much as will, by all accounts, enable us to
take--I mane to purchase a farm in America--an' isn't it betther for us
to go there, and be independent, no matther what it may cost our hearts
to suffer by doin' so, than to stay here until the few hundre' that
I've got together is melted away out of my pocket into the picket of a
landlord that never wanst throubles himself to know how we're gettin'
on, or whether we're doin' well or ill. Then think of his conduct to
Bryan, there; how he neglected him, and would let him go to ruin widout
ever movin' a finger to save him from it. No, childre', undher sich a
man I won't stay. Prepare yourselves, then, to lave this. In biddin' you
to do so, I'm actin' for the best towards you all. I'm doin' my duty by
you, and I expect for that raison, an' as obedient childre'--which I've
ever found you--that you'll do your duty by me, an' give no further
opposition to what I'm proposin' for your sakes. I know you're all
loath--an' you will be loath--to lave this place; but do you think?--do
you?--'that I--I--oh, my God!--do you think, I say, that I'll feel
nothing when we go? Oh! little you know of me if you think so! but, as
I said, we must do our duty. We see our neighbors fallin' away into
poverty, and distress, and destitution day by day, and if we remain in
this unfortunate country, we must only folly in their tracks, an' before
long be as miserable and helpless as they are.”
His family were forced to admit the melancholy truth and strong sense
of all he had uttered, and, although the resolution to which he had come
was one of bitterness and sorrow to them all, yet from a principle of
affection and duty towards him, they felt that any opposition on their
part would have been unjustifiable and wrong.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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