Herminie Templeton

“ Darby'd say. “If you're going along the lonely boreen at night and you hear, from some fairy fort, a sound of fiddles, or of piping, or of sweet woices singing, or of little feet patthering in the dance, don't turn your head, but say your prayers an' hould on your way. The pleasures the Good People'll share with you have a sore sorrow hid in them, an' the gifts they'll offer are only made to break hearts with.” ”

“ Illustration: “Lit his pipe, and let his mind go free”
“I want the castle set on this hill—the Divil's Pillow—where we two stand,” says Darby. Then sweeping with his arm, he says, “I want the land about to be my demesne.”
The Leprechaun stuck his awl on the ground. “That wish I give you, that wish I grant you,” he says. With that he straightened himself up, and grinning most aggravatin' the while, he looked Darby over from top to toe. “You're a foine, knowledgeable man, but have a care of the fourth wish!” says he. ”

“ All the handsomeness in Darby's childher came from his own side of the family. Even Father Cassidy said the childher took afther the O'Gills.
“If I were rich,” said Darby, to a lazy ould bumble bee who was droning an' tumbling in front of him, “I'd have a castle like Castle Brophy, with a great picture gallery in it. On one wall I'd put the picture of the O'Gills and the O'Gradys, and on the wall ferninst them I'd have the O'Hagans an' the O'Shaughnessys.” ”

“ If one only fix the glance of his eye on the cobbler, that look makes the fairy a presner—one can do anything with him as long as a human look covers the little lad—and he'll give the favors of three wishes to buy his freedom,” says Maurteen.
At that Darby, smiling high and knowledgeable, made answer over the heads of the crowd.
“God help your sinse, honest man!” he says. “Around the favors of thim same three wishes is a bog of thricks an' cajoleries and conditions that'll defayt the wisest. ”

“ The place of honor on the right wall was given to Darby's fourth cousin, Phelem McFadden, an' he was painted with a pair of handcuffs on him. Wullum O'Gill had a squint in his right eye, and his thin legs bowed like hoops on a barrel.
Illustration: “'Castle Brophy couldn't hold a candle to it'”
If you have ever at night been groping your way through a dark room, and got a sudden, hard bump on the forehead from the edge of the door, you can understand the feelings of the knowledgeable man. ”

“ Well, after a time people used to come from miles around to see Darby and sit under the straw stack beside the stable to adwise with our hayro about their most important business—what was the best time for the settin' of hins, or what was good to cure colic in childher, an' things like that.
Any man so parsecuted with admiration an' hayrofication might aisily feel his chest swell out a bit, so it's no wondher that Darby set himself up for a knowledgeable man.
He took to talkin' slow an' shuttin' one eye whin he listened, and he walked with a knowledgeable twist to his chowlders. ”

“ After this, Darby never looked back again or to the right or the left of him, but kept straight on till he found himself, panting and puffing, at his own kitchen door. 'Twas tin minutes before he could spake, but at last, whin he tould Bridget to make ready herself and the childher to go up to the Divil's Pillow with him, for once in her life that raymarkable woman, without axing, How comes it so? What rayson have you? or Why should I do it? set to work washing the childher's faces. ”

“ A dozen foine threes that stood in a little grove bent their heads quickly together, and thin by some inwisible hand they were plucked up by the roots an' dhropped aside much the same as a man might grasp a handful of weeds an' fling them from his garden. ”

“ That last disloike I'm tould is a great sign entirely of gentle blood the worruld over,” says he.
As for the wife's people, the O'Hagans an' the O'Shaughnessys, well—they were no great shakes, he said to himself, at laste so far as looks were consarned. ”

“ The grand servants towered cowldly on their side, their chins tilted, but they kep' throwing over their chowlders glances so scornful and haughty that Darby shivered at the thought of showing any uncultivaytion.
While our hayro sat thus in unaisy contimpylation an' smouldherin' mortification an' flurried hesitaytion, a powdhered head was poked over his chowlder, and a soft, beguiling woice said, “Is there anything else you'd wish for?” ”

“ A high-backed chair stood ready for aich of the family, an' 'twas a lovely sight to see them all whin they were sitting there—Darby at the head, Bridget at the foot, the childher—the poor little paythriarchs—sitting bolt upright on aich side, with a bewigged and befrilled serving man standing haughty behind every chair. ”