The Station; The Party Fight And Funeral; The Lough Derg Pilgrim: Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of; William Carleton, Volume ThreeCarleton, William
General
The Station; The Party Fight And Funeral; The Lough Derg Pilgrim: Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of; William Carleton, Volume Three
Carleton, William
Ireland -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
I dare say it would be difficult to find a more motley and diversified
company than sat down to the ungarnished fare which Katty laid before
them. There were first Fathers Philemy, Con, and the Auxiliary from the
far part of the diocese; next followed Captain Wilson, Peter Malone, and
Father Philemy's two nephews; after these came Phaddhy himself, Parrah
More Slevin, with about two dozen more of the most remarkable and
uncouth personages that could sit down to table. There were besides
about a dozen of females, most of whom by this time, owing to Katty's
private kindness, were in a placid state of feeling. Father Philemy _ex
officio_, filled the chair--he was a small man with cherub cheeks as red
as roses, black twinkling eyes, and double chin; was of the fat-headed
genus, and, if phrenologists be correct, must have given indications
of early piety, for he was bald before his time, and had the organ of
veneration standing visible on his crown; his hair from having once been
black, had become an iron gray, and hung down behind his ears, resting
on the collar of his coat according to the old school, to which, I must
remark, he belonged, having been educated on the Continent. His coat
had large double breasts, the lappels of which hung down loosely on each
side, being the prototype of his waistcoat, whose double breasts fell
downwards in the same manner--his black small-clothes had silver buckles
at the knees, and the gaiters, which did not reach up so far, discovered
a pair of white lamb's-wool stockings, somewhat retreating from their
original color.
Father Con was a tall, muscular, able-bodied young man, with an
immensely broad pair of shoulders, of which he was vain; his black hair
was cropped close, except a thin portion of it which was trimmed quite
evenly across his eyebrows; he was rather bow-limbed, and when walking
looked upwards, holding out his elbows from his body, and letting the
lower parts of his arms fall down, so that he went as if he carried a
keg under each; his coat, though not well made, was of the best glossy
broadcloth--and his long clerical boots went up about his knees like
a dragoon's; there was an awkward stiffness about him, in very good
keeping with a dark melancholy cast of countenance, in which, however, a
man might discover an air of simplicity not to be found in the visage of
his superior Father Philemy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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