Alexander Irvine

“ The order at Sam's was usually a sixpenny loaf, three ha'pence worth of tea and sugar and half an ounce of tobacco.
There were times when Barney had no work for my father, and on such occasions I came home empty-handed. Then Jamie would go out to find work as a day laborer. Periods like these were glossed over by Anna's humor and wit. As they sat around the table, eating "stir-about" without milk, or bread without tea, Jamie would grunt and complain.
"Aye, faith," Anna would say, "it's purty bad, but it's worse where there's none at all!" ”

“ As they worked near the window, Anna sat in her corner and by the light of a candle in her little sconce made waxed ends for the men. I browsed among the lasts, clipping, cutting and scratching old leather parings and dreaming of the wonderful days beyond when I too could make a boot and sing "Black-eyed Susan." ”

“ I gave God a plowman, but your father says I must chalk half of that to his account. Hold tight the handles and plow deep. We watch the candle and every wee spark thrills our hearts, for we know it's a letter from you. ”

“ Their first child was two years of age when the famine came—the famine that swept over Ireland like a plague, leaving in its wake over a million new-made graves. They had been in their own house for over a year. It was scantily furnished, but it was home. As the ravages of the famine spread, nearly every family in the town mourned the absence of some member. Men and women met on the street, one day were gone the next. Jamie put his bench [Pg 23] to one side and sought work at anything he could get to do. Prices ran up beyond the possibilities of the poor. ”

“ An old quilt made a pallet on the hard floor. I found myself being pressed gently down from the low creepie to the floor. I pretended to sleep. Her hot tears fell on my face. Her dear toil-worn fingers were run gently through my hair. She was on her knees by my side. The tender mysticism of her youth came back and expressed itself in prayer. ”

“ Not all th' world, by a spoonful, but a wheen of thim like Sandy Somerville, who's got a signboard in front of his back that tells he ates too much while the rest of us haave backbones that could as aisily be felt before as behine! ”

“ CHAPTER X THE EMPTY CORNER
hen I walked into Pogue's entry about fifteen years later, it seemed like walking into another world—I was a foreigner.
"How quare ye spake!" Jamie said, and Mary added demurely:
"Is it quality ye are that ye spake like it?"
"No, faith, not at all," I said, "but it's the quality of America that makes me!"
"Think of that, now," she exclaimed.
The neighbors came, new neighbors—a new generation, to most of whom I was a tradition. Other boys and girls had left Antrim for America, scores of them in the course of the years. ”

“ Anna said one day.
"It's dotin' ye are, Anna," Jamie replied. She read the account.
[Pg 45] "How cud a machine make a boot, Anna?" he asked in bewilderment.
"I don't know, dear."
Barney McQuillan was the village authority on such things. When he told Jamie, he looked aghast and said, "How quare!"
Then makers became menders—shoemakers became cobblers. There was something of magic and romance in the news that a machine could turn out as much work as twenty-five men, but when my brothers moved away to other parts of the world to find work, the romance was rubbed off. ”

“ He pressed her hand tighter and replied:
"Aye, that's thrue, fur then it's only half a cup."
Jamie was a shoemaker's apprentice. His parents were very poor. The struggle for existence left time for nothing else. As the children reached the age of eight or nine they entered the struggle. Jamie began when he was eight. He had never spent a day at school. His family considered him fortunate, however, that he could be an apprentice.
The cup that old Mary saw in the tea leaves seemed something more than "blether" when it was noised abroad that Anna and Jamie were to be married. ”

“ We've proven that, Jamie, haven't we?"
"But what haave ye decided?"
"That love is bigger than religion. That two things are sure. One is love of God. He loves all His children and gets huffed at none. The other is that the love we have for each other is of the same warp and woof as His for us, and love is enough, Jamie."
"Aye, love is shure enough an' enough's [Pg 19] as good as a faste, but what about childther if th' come, Anna?" ”

“ It was ever the harbinger of the thing that was most indispensable in that home of want—a cup of tea. Often it was tea without milk, sometimes without sugar, but always tea. If it came to a choice between tea and bread, we went without bread.
Anna did not relish the reflection on her judgment and remained silent.
There was a loud noise at the door.
"Jazus!" Jamie exclaimed, "it's snowin'." Some one was kicking the snow off against the door-post. The latch was lifted and in walked Felix Boyle the bogman.
"What th' blazes are ye in th' dark fur?" Felix asked in a deep, hoarse voice. ”

“ The other is dated Antrim, July, 1884, and is her answer to my sectarian appeal.
[Pg 170] "Dear boy," she says, "Antrim has had many soldier sons in far-off lands, but you are the first, I think, to have the privilege of visiting the Holy Land. Jamie and I are proud of you. All the old friends have read your letter. They can hardly believe it. Don't worry about our souls. When we come one by one in the twilight of life, each of us, Jamie and I, will have our sheaves. They will be little ones, but we are little people. I want no glory here or hereafter that Jamie cannot share. ”

“ What Jamie saw on the way to the pigsty made the perspiration stand in big beads on his furrowed brow. Silhouetted against the sky were several figures. Some were within a dozen yards, others were farther away. Two sat on a low wall that divided the Adair and Mulholland gardens. They were silent and motionless, but there was no mistake about it. He directed Anna's attention to them and she made light of it. When they returned to the house Jamie expressed [Pg 123] fear for the life of the beggar-man. ”

“ Now when the spirit laves th' body we say th' body's dead, but it's jist a partnership gone broke, wan goes up an' wan goes down. I've always thot that kissin' a corpse was like kissin' a cage whin the bird's dead—there's nothin' in it. Now answer me this, 'Liza Lecky: Is Henry a livin' spirit or a dead body?"
"A livin' spirit, God prosper it."
"Aye, an' God is th' same kind, but Henry's can be at but wan point at once, while God's is everywhere at once. He's so big He can cover the world an' so small He can get in be a crack in th' glass or a kayhole."
"I've got four panes broke, Anna!" ”

“ You've got more love than any man that ever wooed a woman—so I'm richer, amn't I?"
"Oh, God," Jamie said, "but isn't this th' lovely world, eh, Anna?"
Within a mile of Antrim they saw a cottage, perched on a high bluff by the roadside. It was reached by stone steps. They climbed the steps to ask for a drink of water. They were kindly received. The owner was a follower of Wesley and his conversation at the well was in sharp contrast to the philosophy at the stone-pile. [Pg 20] The young journeyman and his wife were profoundly impressed with the place. The stone cottage was vine-clad. ”

“ She pointed out to the fanatics around her that the basis of religion was love and that religion that expressed itself in faction fights must have hate at the bottom of it, not love. She had a philosophy of religion that worked. ”

“ All through life ye'll haave thim plow handles in yer han's an' ye'll be goin' down th' furrow. Ye'll crack a stone here and there, th' plow'll stick often an' things'll be out of gear, but yer in th' furrow all the time. Ye'll change horses, ye'll change clothes, ye'll change yerself, but ye'll always be in the furrow, plowin', plowin', plowin'! I'll go a bit of th' way, Jamie'll go a bit, yer brothers an' sisters a bit, but we'll dhrap out wan b' wan. ”

“ The slimmer the resource the fewer the ingredients. The pot was an index to every condition and the talisman of every family. It was an opportunity to show off. When Jamie donned a "dickey" once to attend a funeral and came home with it in his pocket, no comment was made; but if Anna made poor broth it was the talk of the entry for a week.
Good broth consisted of "kitchen," barley, greens and lithing. Next to "kitchen" barley was the most expensive ingredient. Folks in Pogue's entry didn't always have it, but there were a number of cheap substitutes, such as hard peas or horse beans. ”

“ Sometimes Anna would take an unfinished job and finish it herself. There were things in cobbling she could do as well as Jamie. Her defense of doing it in the early hours of the Sabbath was: "Sure God has more important work to do than to sit up late to watch us mend the boots of the poor; forby it's better to haave ye're boots mended an' go to church than to sit in th' ashes on Sunday an' swallow the smoke of bad turf!"
"Aye," Jamie would say, "it's jist wondtherful what we can do if we haave th' right kind ov a conscience!" ”

“ The neighbors were alarmed and came to assist. The farmer felt Anna's pulse. It was feebly fluttering.
"She's not dead," he said. "Get some [Pg 36] cold wather quickly!" They dashed the water in her face and brought her back to consciousness. When she looked around she said:
"Who's this kind man come in to help, Jamie?"
"He's a farmer," Jamie said, "an' he's brot ye a pint ov nice fresh milk!" The man had filled a cup with milk and put it to Anna's lips. She refused. "He's dying," she said, pointing to the boy, who lay limp on the lap of a neighbor. ”

“ Up comes the purtiest chariot in the city of Heaven an' finest charioteer.
"'Me boy,' says God, 'take a million tons ov th' choicest seeds of th' flowers of Heaven an' take a trip around th' world wi' them. Scatther them,' says He, 'be th' roadsides an' th' wild places of th' earth where my poor live.'
"'Aye,' says the charioteer, 'that's jist like ye, Father. It's th' purtiest job of m' afther-life an' I'll do it finely.'
"'It's jist come t' Me in a dream,' says th' Father, 'that th' rich have all the flowers down there and th' poor haave [Pg 60] nown at all. ”

“ That takes in God an' maan an' Pogue's entry an' th' world."
The town clock struck twelve. Each clang "a knife cutting a cord" and each heavier and sharper than the last. Each one vibrating, tingling, jarring along every nerve, sinew and muscle. A feeling of numbness crept over me.
[Pg 196] "That's the end of life for me," she said slowly. There was a pause, longer and more intense than all the others.
"Maybe ye'll get rich an' forget."
"Yes, I shall be rich. I shall be a millionaire—a millionaire of love, but no one shall ever take your place, dear!" ”

“ Of the hundred who knew her face, less than half of them were familiar enough to call her "Anna." Of all the peo [Pg 87] ple who had lived in Antrim as long as she had, she was the least known.
No feast or function could budge her out of her corner. There came a time when her family became as accustomed to her refusal as she had to her environment and we ceased to coax or urge her. She never attended a picnic, a soirée or a dance in Antrim. One big opportunity for social intercourse amongst the poor is a wake—she never attended a wake. ”

“ Some didn't move because they had lost the power to do so. Others just stood.
"It's a hoax an' a joke," Anna said. "Now wan of you men go down there an' see!"
No one moved. Every eye was fixed on the pigsty. A long-drawn-out, mournful cry was heard. It was all that tradition had described as the cry of the Banshee.
"The Banshee it is! Ah, merciful God, which ov us is t' b' tuk, I wondther?" It was Eliza who spoke, and she continued, [Pg 107] directing her talk to Anna, "An' it's th' long arm ov th' Almighty it is raychin' down t' give us a warnin', don't ye think so now, Anna?" ”

“ Before his hand touched it Jamie sprang at him with the ferocity of a panther. There was a life and death tussle for a few seconds and both men went down on the road—Jamie on top. Sitting on the man's chest he took a wrist in each hand and pinned him to the ground.
[Pg 34] "Ye think I'm a thief," he said to the man as he looked at him with eyes that burned like live coals. "I'm not, I'm an honest maan, but I haave a chile dying wi' hunger—now it's your life or his, by —— an' ye'll decide!"
"I think yer a liar as well as a thief," the man said, "but if we can prove what ye say I'm yer friend." ”

“ Sunday was ever the day of Broth and Romance. Anna made the best broth and told the best stories. No Sunday was complete without a good story. On the doorstep that night she told one of her best. As she finished the church bell tolled the curfew. Then the days of the month were tolled off.
"Sammy's arm is gey shtrong th' night," Willie said.
"Aye," Jamie said, "an' th' oul bell's got a fine ring."
[Pg 85] CHAPTER V HIS ARM IS NOT SHORTENED
hen Anna had to choose between love and religion—the religion of an institution—she chose love. ”

“ Anna said, smiling.
"What's this world but an ant-hill?" he asked. "Jist a big ant-hill an' we're ants begorra an' uncles, but instead ov workin' like these wee fellas do—help aych other an' shouldther aych other's burdens, an' build up th' town, an' forage fur fodder, begobs we cut aych other's throats over th' color ov ribbon or th' kind ov a church we attind! ”

“ I would starve nobody—and far be it from me to accuse—"
"Accuse," said Anna, raising her gentle voice. "Why, acushla, nobody needs t' accuse th' poor; th' guilty need no accuser. We're convicted by bein' poor, by bein' born poor an' dying poor, aren't we now?"
[Pg 77] "With the Lord there is neither rich nor poor, Anna."
"Aye, an' that's no news to me, but with good folks like you it's different."
"No, indeed, I assure you I think that exactly."
"Well, now, if it makes no diff'rence, dear, why do ye come down Pogue's entry like a bailiff or a process-sarver?" ”