Mrs. Riley came in for a bottle which was consciously awaiting her in
front of the leeches, and identified it as "the liniment," before Mr.
Ekings could call to mind where he'd stood it. She remarked, while
calculating coppers to cover the outlay, that she understood it was to
be well r-r-r-rhubbed in with the parrum of her hand, and that she was
to be thr-rusted not to lit the patiint get any of it near his mouth,
she having been borrun in Limerick morr' than a wake ago. She remarked
to Uncle Mo that his boy was looking his bist, and none the wurruss for
his accidint. Uncle Mo felt braced by the Celtic atmosphere, and thanked
Mrs. Riley cordially, for himself and Dave.
"Shouldn't do that, if I was you, Mr. Wardle," said Mr. Ekings the
Apothecary, as Uncle Mo hoisted Dolly on his shoulder to carry her home.
"No more shouldn't I, if you was me, Dr. Ekings," was the intractable
patient's reply. "Why, Lard bless you, man alive, Dolly's so light it's
as good as a lift-up, only to have her on your shoulders! Didn't you
never hear tell of gravitation? Well--that's it!" But Uncle Mo was out
of his depth.
"It'll do ye a powerful dale of good, Mr. Wardle," said Mrs. Riley.
"Niver you mind the docther!" And Uncle Mo departed, braced again, with
his _elixir vitae_ in his left hand, and Dolly on his right shoulder,
conversing on a topic suggested by Dr. Ekings's remarks about diet.
"When Dave tooktid Micky to see the fisses corched in the Turpentine,
there was a jenklum corched a fiss up out of the water, and another
jenklum corched another fiss up out of the water...." Dolly was pursuing
the subject in the style of the Patriarchs, who took their readers'
leisure for granted, and never grudged a repetition, when Uncle Mo
interrupted her to point out that it was not Dave who took Michael
Ragstroar to Hy' Park, but _vice versa_. Also that the whole proceeding
had been a disgraceful breach of discipline, causing serious alarm to
himself and Aunt M'riar, who had nearly lost their reason in
consequence--the exact expression being "fritted out of their wits." If
that young Micky ever did such a thing again, Uncle Mo said, the result
would be a pretty how-do-you-do, involving possibly fatal consequences
to Michael, and certainly local flagellation of unheard-of severity.
Dolly did not consider this was to the point, and pursued her narrative
without taking notice of it. "There was a jenklum corched a long fiss,
and there was another jenklum corched a short fiss, and there was
another jenklum corched a short fiss...." This seemed to bear frequent
repetition, but came to an end as soon as history ceased to supply the
facts. Then another phase came, that of the fishers who didn't corch no
fiss, whose name appeared to be Legion. They lasted as far as the arch
into Sapps Court, and Uncle Mo seemed rather to relish the monotony than
otherwise. He would have made a good Scribe in the days of the Pharaohs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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