The Ned M'Keown Stories: Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of; William Carleton, Volume ThreeCarleton, William
General
The Ned M'Keown Stories: Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of; William Carleton, Volume Three
Carleton, William
Ireland -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
“'Yes;' but what can I do, Larry? He's the only man I have that I could
trust them to.'
“'Then it's your honor needn't say that anyhow; for rather then see them
spoiled, I'd come down myself and put them up for you.'
“'Oh, I couldn't expect that, Larry.'
“Why, then, I'll do it, your honor; and you may expect, me down in the
morning at six o'clock, plase God.'
“Larry would keep his word, though his own corn was drop-ripe; and
havin' once undertaken the job, he couldn't give it up till he'd, finish
it off dacently. In the meantime, his own crop would go to destruction;
sometimes a windy day would come, and not leave him every tenth grain;
he'd then get some one to cut it down for him--he had to go to the big
house, to build the master's corn; he was then all bustle--a great
man entirely--there was _non_ such; would be up with, the first light,
ordering and commanding, and directing the Squire's laborers, as if he
was the king of the castle. Maybe, 'tis after he'd come from the big'
house, that he'd, collect a few of the neighbors, and get a couple of
cars and horses from the Squire, you see, to bring home his own oats to
the hagyard with moonlight, after the dews would begin to fall; and.
in a week afterwards every stack would be heated, and all in a reek of
froth and smoke. It's not aisy to do anything in a hurry, and especially
it's not aisy to build a corn-stack after night, when a man cannot see
how it goes on: so 'twas no wonder if Larry's stacks were supporting one
another the next day--one leaning north and another south.
“But, along with this, Larry and Sally were great people for going to
the dances that Hance used to have at the crass-roads, bekase he wished
to put money into his own pocket; and if a neighbor died, they were sure
to be the first at the wake-house--for Sally was a great hand at washing
down a corpse---and they would be the last home from the berril; for
you know, they couldn't but be axed in to the dhrinking, after the
friends would lave the churchyard, to take a sup to raise their spirits
and drown sorrow, for grief is always drouthy.
“When the races, too, would come, they would be sure not to miss them;
and if you'd go into a tint, it's odds but you'd find them among a knot
of acquaintances, dhrinking and dancing, as if the world was no trouble
to them. They were, indeed, the best nathured couple in Europe; they
would lend you a spade or a hook in potato time or harvest, out of pure
kindness, though their own corn, that was drop-ripe, should be uncut,
or their potatoes, that were a tramping every day with their own cows or
those of the neighbors, should be undug--all for fraid of being thought
unneighborly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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