Katherine Frances Purdon

“ It was like oil on lit turf to Julia, to hear her put in a good word for Peetcheen. When you want the woman to come round, in the case of any little difference between her and the husband, you should find all the fault you can with him. Then you’ll find the wife will wear horns, and stand up for her husband, and turn on you. And Moll knew that as well as any one. She could see how mad Julia would get, when she and old Mrs. Caffrey would be all for compassionating Peetcheen, and saying how good he was, and all to that. ”

“ When she was laid up that way, it left Kitty there, nothing but a bird alone, as you might say; the mother good for nothing, only having to be fed and minded, the same as an infant child, and twice as hard to please as any baby. Kitty was that tender-hearted, that she fretted, night, noon, and morning, when the old woman wasn’t able to speak; though what all the neighbours were saying was, “Won’t poor Kitty have great ease, now that the mother’s tongue is stopped, the ould torment!” ”

“ Mickey was very proud to think that the business with Nelly had gone no further; any man would feel the same. But instead of this taking the edge off him for getting married, it only made him the more anxious to hear of some other girl that would come in upon the floor of the Furry Farm. Julia was gone out of his way; so why would he not strive to bring a wife in there?
Little Kitty Dempsey was the next he looked to get; and a very curious way that came about. Not that any man was to be blamed for fancying Kitty! She had every one’s good word, the same little girl. ”

“ I often wish I was done with everything....”
“Ora, what kind of talk is that to be having!” said Moll; “you’re just down a bit in yourself, girl dear! But you won’t be so! To-morrow’s a new day. And did you hear the great fine wedding they’re to have above at Dempsey’s; for Kitty and old Mickey Heffernan?”
“I heard nothing about it, only that it was to be,” said Marg, “and could scarce believe it. But sure, let every one please themselves! But as for the wedding, I don’t know a ha’porth about it!”
“No, nor couldn’t,” said Moll, “living the way you do, up this lonesome place! ”

“ In due course, the day for the wedding came round. There was a great gathering of the neighbours and friends at Dempsey’s, and everything done in the greatest of style, four bridesmaids for Kitty no less. Cusack wanted to do the thing right, when he went about it, and he took on the ordering of it all.
Up bowls Heffernan’s side-car, and himself and his friends; and he with a sprig of spearmint in his coat for a buttonhole-bit; feeling as fresh in himself as a rolled ass. ”

“ In one part of the Furry Hills there was a gap, like a cleft, and the old people said it had been made there by a fairy sword. A narrow road, no more than a boreen, ran through that cleft; and hardly any one used it, though it was handy enough for many purposes. But there was great talk of fairies being thereabouts, and that fairy music could be heard there, and so on. It might be, too, that the old boreen was deserted because there was another road made, better and even handier for cattle that would be going to fairs at Ardenoo or Balloch. ”

“ So, out with her, one time, and she slipped along, very quiet and easy, till she heard a laugh from behind the turf-clamp. Round it she went; and there were Kitty and Dan, with the can of water on the ground between them.
There’s where they were in error, not to have talked their fill below at the well, and have done with the thing. But sure, young people are all the same. When they begin to chatter and talk with one another, they get it as hard to stop as if it was the sea they were striving to empty out with a sieve. ”

“ Brigid, that had been rushing about, laughing and shouting, stopped like a shot at that, and looked up at Moll.
“Where, where are they?” she said; “who’s Pat and Judy? ... where do you see them...?”
“Look at them! Off there, beyant your mammy’s spinning-wheel, hiding themselves ... that’s why you can’t see them ... and there, now! there they are, going off good to their beds as soon as they’re told....” ”

“ She and Dark Moll were out—sitting by the roadside, watching a clutch of young ducks just out of the shell, when they heard a noise, and looked round, to see, first the two heifers, and then the jennet and cart, with Peetcheen leading them, and Julia seated up in state, driving along. She had come to pretty well by that time. People that have tempers are often like that. They’ll be mad one minute, and abusing you into the ground, and before you have had time to take in all they were saying, they are ready to forget it, and be quite agreeable again. ”

“ Kitty sighed.
“It’s a seldom thing for that to occur with Dan!” said Margaret.
“Oh, ay! there’s not much to fault in Dan!” said his wife; “only a body gets a bit anxious, for fraid he might get the fashion of being late ... maybe begin stravaguing the roads....”
“Well, if the American is the way you say, with the bad foot, they’ll not go far, if they want his company!”
“Ay! that’s only God’s truth! and now speaking of a lame leg and the like, what remedy are you trying for Mickey?”
“Nothing; for there seems no good in anything I can apply to give him ease!” said Marg. ”

“ In the course of time, there was a Heffernan in the Furry Farm, Michael by name, that was what you might call a chip of the old block. Quiet-going [4] in himself, he was; silent and fond of industering; and a bit near about money, on the top of all. You’ll often see people like that; as if them that worked hard had no time for enjoying what they make; whereas people that are poor and through-other will spend their last penny twice as free as what one like Heffernan would spend his first. And what’s more, they’ll get far better value out of it, too. ”

“ Betimes you’d hear it remarked in Ardenoo, how that they and their land were well matched. For if some of their bottom-land was sour, so was the Heffernan temper; and they could be as crabbed and contrary in their ways as the furze that was bristling over their own hills. And in another thing they were like their farm. Whatever treatment they got, that’s what they’d give. If you acted well by a Heffernan, they’d do the same by you; but they’d never pass over a bad turn; and, troth! there’s more than the Heffernans of the opinion that it’s only a fool that forgets! ”

“ But they were holding back, out of good-nature; while Margaret’s heart was swelling with pity for him, and anger at their indifference.
“To think that Dan and the whole of them are there! and they well knowing ... but when people is engaged with sport for themselves, they forget very easy!” she ended, as with a great deal to do, she got Mickey ready for the road.
“I’m obliged to ye!” said Heffernan, that never used two words where one would do.
“It’s little enough, after all you done for me!” Margaret made answer.
Then he dropped his stick and she picked it up and handed it to him on the car. ”

“ Dempsey it was take all and give nothing; above all, for labour. She would keep no help for the house. So it was Kitty! here; and Kitty! there, from dawn to dark. Kitty was never done. She was the most willing little creature you could find in a day’s walk; as good as ever was wet with water. But what avails all one girl can do on a farm? with poultry and milk, turkeys and pigs, and then be expected as well to do haymaking, or the thinning of turnips, or dropping potatoes, and I don’t know what all besides. ”

“ Mickey went on, “only standing about, watching a hen to go lay! I’m well rid of Jack! But I’ll have to get some one in his place! I’m not all out as souple as I used to be!”
Well, that minute a new plan came into Moll’s mind. She saw only too plainly that Jack Rorke would have no chance of a character from Heffernan; and without that, from the last man that had employed him, Jack would never get the herding.
So, as quick as a flash, she began on a new tack.
“It’s a woman you want here, Mr. Heffernan! getting married is what you have a right to be thinking about....” ”

“ It was more than ever Mickey expected that she would give in so easily as she did, without making any great objection to Peetcheen, who, of course, was no great things for one of the Heffernans to take up with. But she gave in to take him. Heffernan and Peetcheen sprung the thing on her suddenly, and she was taken unawares, as you’ll see it done with a baulking horse. You can trick him into taking a jump that he has refused many a time before, if you bring him up to it without his knowing what you want. ”

“ Young boys and girls are a bit too ready to forget that a man’s courting days doesn’t be always over, when the grey begins to show in his beard. No, in troth! and so by Heffernan. There was a warm stir about his heart and he stepping along up the boreen, back to his own place, and a feel like the spring sunshine came over him, and he tried to sing a bit of “The Bunch of Green Rushes,” but sure he hadn’t it right, nor couldn’t remember it, he hadn’t heard it those years past. ”

“ But sure, it’s better for a body be moving somewhere, even if it’s only to get you a prod of a thorn in the toe!”
“Marg? that’ll be a dauther of old Molally’s beyant, that is only after dying?” said Heffernan.
“The very person,” said Moll; “nice and even-going and quiet, and the girl the same. And not one in it now, only herself!”
“It’s a poor thing, to be with only a body’s self, then!” said Mickey; “the same as me; I haven’t one about the place inside or out, but meself; and I wanting to go to the fair to look for a couple or three calves and pigs. ”

“ I don’t know, in this world wide, what the boys can be thinking about, that she’s not married long ago! They have no sense, or one of them would have had her before this!”
“Well, it’s often I heard it said,” answered Moll, “that every dog has his day; and that every woman gets her chance; and so it will be with Marg!”
She was thinking of the young cousin she had in her mind, to marry Marg. Little she or any one else except herself and the one boy knew that Margaret Molally had had her chance, years ago, and had let it pass her by! Marg was like other girls in that. ”

“ But Mickey was always weak about the legs; born on a fair-day, as the saying is, with the two knees of him boxing for sugar-sticks!”
“Lame of a leg, and grey in the head!” said Ratigan; “that’s a fancy man for a girl to go take!”
[233] “Marg was none too young herself, though fresh and active still,” said Moll; “and when all fruit fails, welcome haws! She wanted some one. But if you have any wish for more information than a poor ould blind body can give you, sir, can’t you go give them a call at the Furry Farm? They do be mostly always within.” ”

“ Why, there was no more snug, well-looked-after place in the whole of Ardenoo than Heffernan’s always was, with full and plenty in it for man and beast, though it wasn’t to say too tasty-looking.
And it was terrible lonesome. There wasn’t a neighbour within the bawl of an ass of it. Heffernan of course had always been used to it, so that he didn’t so much mind; still, he missed Art, after he going off with little Rosy Rafferty. That was nigh-hand as bad upon him as losing the girl herself. He had got to depend on Art for every hand’s turn, a thing that left him worse when he was without him. ”

“ That is how it happened that scarcely any one that was there took notice of Margaret; and Heffernan in particular knew nothing of her being there among the other people, until he had done the dance with Kitty. It was no right thing to do, to persuade a man like Mickey that was on in years, and stiff, as well as lame of one leg, till they got him out on the floor to dance, just to raise a laugh. But what do young people think of only to get their bit of fun where they can! ”

“ She stopped at that, because, like many another that might be wishing to give directions, she didn’t know very well herself what ought to be done. She used to listen to Marg and Mickey, without appearing to mind them, and then, whatever they said, she would repeat it to the Comrade Children, when no one would be by that would maybe laugh at her. There’s nothing a child hates more than to be made fun of. But she managed so that there wasn’t a hand’s turn done about the Furry Farm but she would have the same going on, with herself and Pat and Judy. ”

“ But Marg is that particular! And what is little Brigeen there, only a cuckoo?”
“Not at all!” said Kitty; “where there’s a cuckoo in a nest, he’ll be pushing out the other young birds, to take all himself. But there’s no one at the Furry Farm for little Bride to be interfering with; there she is, bird alone! And so, that’s how it comes to pass, what Dan was telling me about, only last night, that he seen at Heffernan’s. He chanced to be there a bit late, and a windy sort of a night it was, and neither raining nor letting it alone, only the air dark with the wet that ought to fall and wasn’t. ”

“ She would do nothing she was bid, only running this way and that way, and laughing when Marg pretended to get angry with her.
But at long last, Moll, knowing that Mickey was getting worn out with it all and she herself in the want of her supper, thought she’d put in her word.
So she said, “There now; too much laughing ends in crying. See here, Bridie, be a good child! Look at ... look at how well little Judy and Pat are behaving, playing about there and no bother to any one ...” and she pretended to be watching, or rather listening to a couple of children at the other end of the kitchen. ”

“ But Hughie was puzzled, too, by the look of relief he saw on Mickey’s face. He understood nothing of what Heffernan was after passing through. It’s an old saying and a true one, “Them that has the world has care!” but them that hasn’t it, what do they know about it?
While Hughie was turning this over in his mind, Mickey was throwing an eye upon the calves, and then, seeing they were all right, he was bandying off with himself, when Hughie said, “Terrible dry work it is, driving stock along them dusty roads since the early morning!” ”

“ Farming is a grand business for them that are fond of keeping a pipe in their mouths and their hands in their pockets. It’s often remarked that when you do that, not much else finds its way in! But, then, not much finds its way out. You’ll not get rich, maybe, but you can keep going. Anyway, money isn’t everything.
Before Peetcheen had been very long at the Furry Farm, he began to notice that Heffernan would seem a bit uneasy at times. He was very silent. Often of an evening, he would go off somewhere with himself, either limping on his stick, or maybe driving himself on the side-car. ”