Irish Americans -- Juvenile fiction; Mothers and sons -- Juvenile fiction; Poor -- Juvenile fiction; Widows -- Juvenile fiction
"I knowed you would be glad, Moike, for 'tis yoursilf as sees that when
your brother gets up you get up with him. It's bad when wan brother
thinks to be gettin' ahead of all the rest." And she looked gravely at
Jim. "Brothers are made each wan to do his part, and be glad when wan
and another gets up."
But little Jim appeared discontented. All this praise of Andy quite took
the edge off what he himself had received. His mother sighed.
"But I'll not give him up yet," she thought after a moment. "No, I'll
not give him up, for he's Tim's b'y, though most unlike him. I do moind
hearin' wanst that Tim had a brother of that sort. Jim's loike him, no
doubt, and he come to a bad end, so he did, a-gettin' to be an agitator,
as they calls 'em. And sure what's an agitator but wan that's sour at
iverybody's good luck but his own, and his own good luck turnin' out bad
on account of laziness and consate? I'm needin' more wisdom than I've
got when I'd be dealin' with Jim."
While the mother sat silent her sons were talking together in low tones.
Andy and Jim told of the rabbits they had trapped in the hazel brush,
and how they had eaten some and some they had sold in the stores. And
Mike, in his turn, told them how many rabbits there were in the Brady
neighborhood, and how nobody seemed to wish to have them disturbed.
"What are they good for, if you can't catch 'em?" asked Jim, who could
never catch enough.
"Good to look pretty hopping about, I guess," responded Mike.
"Huh!" exclaimed Jim, who, like many a one older than he, had small
respect for opinions that clashed with his own.
"He'll be turnin' to be an agitator sure, only maybe I can head him
off," thought the mother, who had been idly listening.
"Jim," she said, "'twas your father as was iver for hearin' both sides
of iverything. If there's them that thinks rabbits looks pretty jumpin'
around, why, no doubt they do. 'Tisn't iverybody that's trappin', you'll
moind. If you was a horse now, you'd be called strong in the mouth, and
you'd need a firm hand on the lines. And if you'd been brung up among
horses, as your father was, you'd know as them obstinate wans as wants
the bits in their teeth are the wans as gets the beatin's. You're no
horse, but things will go crossways to you all your loife if you don't
do different. When there's nayther roight nor wrong in the matter let
iverybody have their own way."
And then little Jim became downright sulky.
[Illustration: "Little Jim became downright sulky."]
"Rabbits is for trappin'," he said stubbornly.
"Well, well," thought the widow, "I'll have to be waitin' a bit. But
I'll be makin' something out of Jim yet."
Then she turned to Mike. "And how are you comin' on at the Gineral's?"
she inquired. "It's hopin' I am you're watchin' him close and larnin' to
be loike him."
"I'm trying, mother," was the modest answer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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