"Here the heart was near lavin' me all out intirely. I went
wandtherin' down to the quay among the ships, and what should
there be but a ship goin' to Scotland that very night wid pigs.
In throth it was fun to see the sailors at cross-purposes wid
'em, for they didn't know the natur iv the bastes. I did. I
knew how to coax 'em. I set to an' I deludhered an' coaxed the
pigs, an' by pullin' them by the tail, knowing that if they took
a fancy I wished to pull 'em back out of the ship they'd run
might an' main into her, and so they did. Well, the sailors were
mightily divarted, an' when the pigs was aboord I wint down to
the place; an' the short iv it is that in three days I was in
Glasgow town, an' the captain an' the sailors subscribed up tin
shillins an' guv it into my hand. Well, I bought a raping-hook,
an' away I trudged till I got quite an' clane into the counthry,
an' the corn was here and there fit to cut. At last I goes an' ax
a farmer for work. He thought I was too wake to be paid by the
day, but one field havin' one corner fit to cut, an' the next
not ready, 'Paddy,' says he, 'you may begin in that corner, an'
I'll pay yees by the work yees do,' an' he guv me my breakfast
an' a pint of beer. Well, I never quit that masther the whole
harvest, an' when the raping was over I had four goolden guineas
to carry home, besides that I was as sthrong as a lion. Yees
would wonder how glad the sailors was to see me back agin, an'
ne'er a farthin' would they take back iv their money, but tuk me
over agin to Belfast, givin' me the hoighth of good thratemint of
all kinds. I did not stay an hour in Belfast, but tuk to the road
to look afther the ould man an' little Biddy. Well, sorrows the
tidins I got. The ould man had died, an' the grief an' disthress
of poor little Biddy had even touched her head a little. The
dacent people where she was, may the Lord reward 'em, though they
found little use in her, kep her, hoping I would be able to come
home an' keep her myself, an' so I was. I brought her away wid
me, an' the sight iv me put new life in her. I was set upon not
being idle, an' I'll tell yees what I did next.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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