Lucy Fitch Perkins

“ Mr McQueen said to Michael.
“There do be faults with her,” Michael answered, “and I’ll never be the man to say otherwise. There’s plenty of things to be said about America that would leave you thinking ’tis a long way this side of Heaven. But whatever it is that’s wrong, ’tis the people themselves that make it so, and by the same token it is themselves that can cure the trouble when they’re so minded. It’s not like having your troubles put down on you by the people that’s above you, and that you can’t reach at all for to be correcting them! ”

“ They were a little bit scared.
“Do you suppose it might be a Leprechaun?” Eileen whispered.
“’Tis a tapping noise they make; not a crying noise at all,” Larry answered.
“Maybe it’s a Banshee,” Dennis said. “They do be crying about sometimes before somebody is going to die.”
“’Tis no Banshee whatever,” Eileen declared. “They only cry at night.”
They heard the squealing sound again.
“’Tis right over there,” cried Eileen, pointing to a black hole in the bog where turf had been cut out. “Indeed, and it might be a beautiful baby like Deirdre herself! Let’s go and see.” ”

“ Grannie Malone jumped out of her chair and ran to the door. “Och, if it’s not the McQueen Twins—the two of them!” she cried. “Bless your sweet faces! Come in, Larry and Eileen! You are as welcome as the flowers of spring. And how is your Mother, the day? May God spare her to her comforts for long years to come!” She swung the door open as she talked, took the jug from Eileen’s hand, and poured the milk into a jug of her own that stood on the dresser. ”

“ The big man has just time to say, “Sure, Eileen, you were always a great one for burning yourself. Do you remember that day at Grannie Malone’s”—when out into the kitchen tumble a little Larry and a little Eileen, and a Baby. They have heard his voice, and they fall upon the King of the Crossing as if he weren’t a King at all—but just a plain ordinary Uncle. ”

“ When they were all safely on board the lighter, and Michael had counted their bundles to be sure they had not lost anything, the Twins and their Father and Mother, with Michael and Grannie, stood by the deck rail and looked back at the dock. It was crowded with people running to and fro. There were groups of other emigrants like themselves, surrounded by great piles of luggage—waiting for the next lighter, for one boat would not carry all who wanted to go. ”

“ The little cakeen was broken open and buttered, and, “Musha, ’tis fit for the Queen herself,” said Larry, when he had taken his first bite.
And Eileen said, “Indeed, ma’am, it’s a grand cook you are entirely.”
“Sure, I’d need to be a grand cook with the grand company I have,” Grannie answered politely, “and with the fine son I have in America to be sending me a fortune in every letter! ’Tis a great thing to have a good son, and do you be that same to your Mother, the both of you, for ’tis but one Mother that you’ll get in all the world, and you’ve a right to be choice of her.” ”

“ Some speckled hens that had been sunning themselves on the doorstep fluttered out of the way, and then ran after her to the well. “Shoo—get along with you!” cried Grannie Malone. She flapped her apron at them. “’Tis you that are always thinking of something to eat! Sure, there are bugs enough in Ireland, without your always being at my heels to be fed! Come now,—scratch for your living like honest hens, and I’ll give you a sup of water if it’s dry you are.” The well had a stone curb around it, and a bucket with a rope tied to it stood on the curb. ”

“ Eileen began to cry and Larry’s lip trembled.
“Come here now, you poor dears,” their Mother said. “Sit down on the two creepeens by the fire, and have a bite to eat before you go to bed. Indeed, you must be starved entirely, with the running, and the fright, and all. I’ll give you a drink of cold milk, warmed up with a sup of hot water through it, and a bit of bread, to comfort your stomachs.”
While the Twins ate the bread and drank the milk, their Father and Mother talked about the Tinkers. “Sure, they are as a frost in spring, and a blight in harvest,” said Mrs McQueen. ”

“ One day, when he was minding the sheep on the hills, he found a lump of silver, and he met a Tinker and asked him the value of it.
“‘Wirra,’ says the Tinker, ‘’tis naught but a bit of solder. Give it to me!’ But Saint Patrick took it to a smith instead, and the smith told him the truth about it, and Saint Patrick put a curse on the Tinkers, that every man’s face should be against them, and that they should get no rest at all but to follow the road.”
“Some say they do be walking the world forever,” said Mrs McQueen, “and I never in my life met any one that had seen a Tinker’s funeral.” ”

“ Mrs McQueen came running to the door to greet them and hear all about the Fair.
Eileen and Larry told her about the prize, and about Lady Kathleen buying the pig, and about seeing the Tinker, while their Father was putting up Colleen.
Then when he came in with all his bundles, and took the three golden sovereigns out of his pocket, to show to the Mother, the Twins couldn’t keep still another minute. “It’s for you! To pay the rent!” they cried.
The Father and Mother looked at each other. “Now, what are they at all,” said Mrs McQueen, “but the best children in the width of the world? ”

“ Eileen answered back, “and there’s no luck in that same! Do you come away now, Larry McQueen, or he might be casting his spells on yourself and turning you into something else entirely, a goat maybe, or a Leprechaun!”
This seemed quite likely to Larry, too, so they slipped hurriedly out under the elbows of the crowd just as the Juggler was in the very act of finding a white rabbit in the crown of his hat. They never stopped running until they found themselves in the middle of a group of people in a distant part of the Fairgrounds. ”

“ Through the open door comes the smell of something good cooking, and he sees a plump woman with blue eyes that have smile wrinkles in the corners, just like his own, and crinkly dark hair, just like his own, too, bending over the stove. ”

“ And beside the road, not so far away from where the Twins stood, there was a camp, like a gypsy camp.
“’Tis the Tinkers!” whispered Larry. He took Eileen’s hand and pulled her with him behind a heap of stones by the road. Then they crept along very quietly and climbed over the wall into a field.
From behind the wall they could peep between the stones at the Tinkers’ Camp without being seen.
The Twins were afraid of Tinkers. Everybody is in Ireland, because the Tinkers wander around over the country without having any homes anywhere. ”

“ When Eileen got back with the jug, she found Larry still sitting beside the road. He was talking with a freckled-faced boy, and Colleen’s head was still in the thistles.
“The top of the morning to you, Dennis Maguire,” Eileen called to the freckled boy when she saw him. “And does it take the two of you to watch one donkey at his breakfast? Come along and let’s play in the bog!”
“But however shall we leave Colleen? She might run away on us,” said Larry.
“She’s tethered by hunger fast enough,” said Eileen. “Ropes would not drag her away. But you could throw her halter over a stone, to be sure.” ”

“ Mr McQueen makes up his Mind.
Michael sang with the others. And when the song was ended, he said, “’Tis a true word, Mr Maguire, that there’s no place like old Ireland; and you’ll not find an Irishman anywhere in America that wouldn’t put the man down that said a word against her. But what with the landlords taking every shilling you can scrape together and charging you higher rent whenever you make a bit of an improvement on your farm, there’s no chance at all to get on in the world. ”

“ The Twins almost held their breath while the Judges looked Diddy over. Then the head man said, “That’s a very fine pig, and young. She is a thoroughbred. Wherever did you get her, Mr McQueen?”
Mr McQueen just said, “Ask them!” pointing to the Twins.
The Twins were very much scared to be talking to the Judges, but they told about the Tinkers and how they found Diddy in the bog, and the Judges nodded their heads and looked very wise, and finally the chief one said, “Faith, there’s not her equal in the whole Fair! She gets the blue ribbon, or I’m no Judge.” ”

“ So for myself, I stayed in the big city.”
“You seem to have prospered, Michael,” said Mr McQueen.
“I have so,” Michael answered. “There are jobs in plenty for the willing hands. Sure, no Irishman would give up at all when there’s always something new to try. And there’s always somebody from the old sod there to help you if the luck turns on you. Do you remember Patrick Doran, now? He lived forninst the blacksmith shop years ago. Well, Patrick is a great man. He’s a man of fortune, and a good friend to myself. ”

“ Grannie Malone said. “Sure, I’ll have to be putting manners on her! She’s no notion of behaviour at all, at all. Reach the sugar bowl, Larry, avic, and sit down by the table and rest your bones. I’ll have the tea ready for you in a minute. Sit you down, too, Eileen, while I get the potatoes.” She took the tongs and drew out the potatoes, blew off the ashes, and put them on the table. Then she poured the boiling water over the tea-leaves, and set the tea to draw, while she took the cakeen from the kettle.
“’Tis not burned so much, after all,” she said, as she looked it over. ”

“ There’s yarn for stockings for the Twins, and some thread for myself, to make crochet, that might turn me a penny in my odd moments, and a bit of flour, and some yellow meal. Now remember that you forget nothing of it all!” Mr McQueen shook his head sadly. “Faith, there’s little pleasure in going to the Fair with so many things on my mind,” he said.
The sun was just peeping over the distant hills, when Colleen started up the road, pulling the cart with Diddy in it, squealing “like a dozen of herself” Mrs McQueen said. Mr McQueen led the donkey, and Larry and Eileen followed on foot. ”

“ Sure, America must be the rich place entirely.”
And when Michael got out of the cart and helped out his old Mother, there were many hands held out for him to shake, and many old neighbours for him to greet.
“This is a proud day for you, Grannie Malone,” said Mrs McQueen.
“It is,” said Grannie, “and a sad day, too, for he’s after taking me back to America, and ’tis likely I’ll never set my two eyes on old Ireland again, when once the width of the sea comes between us.” ”

“ Then all the wheels that have been standing as still as if they had gone to sleep suddenly wake up, and go rolling down the street, while those that have just been turning stop and wait while the big man helps more people over the crossing the other way. ”

“ Soon along comes Conchubar to see Deirdre, for to marry her. And he had many men with him. When he finds Deirdre gone, ‘It’s that Naisi,’ says he, ‘that stole her away.’ And he cursed him. And all his men and himself went out for to chase Naisi and his two brothers. But they never caught up with them at all for ten years, and Naisi and Deirdre living all the time as happy as two birds in the springtime.”
“No fighting at all yet,” said Dennis, “and ten years gone by. Musha, indeed, ’tis not much of a tale at all.”
“There was fighting enough when the years were up,” Eileen said. ”

“ The McQueens got up very early that morning, ate their potatoes and drank their tea from a few cracked and broken dishes which were to be left behind. Then, when they had tidied up the hearth and put on their wraps ready to go, Mrs McQueen brought some water to quench the fire on the hearth. She might almost have quenched it with her tears. And as she poured the water upon the ashes she crooned this little song (see Note 1) sadly to herself:—
“Vein of my heart, from the lone mountain
The smoke of the turf will die. ”

“ Then she dropped it, burned side up, into the kettle once more, clapped on the cover, and set it where it would cook more slowly.
When that was done, she looked at Eileen’s fingers. “It’s not so bad at all, mavourneen, praise be to God,” she said. “Sure, I thought I had you killed entirely, the way you screamed!”
“Eileen is always burning herself,” said Larry. “Mother says ’tis only when she’s burned up altogether that she’ll learn to keep out of the fire at all!” ”

“ So she flew across to another rafter, and lit on Grannie Malone’s black coat that she wore to Mass on Sundays. She thought it a pleasant warm place and sat down again.
“Bad luck to you for an ill-favoured old thief!” screamed Grannie. “Get off my Sunday cloak with your muddy feet! It’s ruined you’ll have me entirely!”
She shook the cloak. Then old Speckle, squawking all the way, flew over to Grannie’s bed! She ran the whole length of it. She left a little path clear across the patchwork quilt. Larry stood in one corner of the room waving his arms. ”

“ Then she would put it down again with a little sigh.
“If I but had the learning,” said Grannie Malone to herself, “I could be reading Michael’s letters without calling in the Priest, and ’tis long since he passed this door. ’Tis hard work waiting until some one can tell me what at all is in it.”
She stooped over and put a bit of peat on the fire, and because she had no one else to talk to, she talked to the tea-kettle. “There now,” she said to it, “’tis a lazy bit of steam that’s coming out of the nose of you! I’ll be wanting my tea soon, and no water boiling.” ”

“ Not even his badness is his own! He does as he’s bid.”
“He gets fat on it,” said Mr McQueen.
“Faith, we’ll get along somehow,” said Mrs McQueen. “We always have, though ’tis true it’s been scant fare we’ve had now and again.”
Mr McQueen didn’t answer. He went back to his work in the fields. Mrs McQueen got the Twins started off to school, with their lunch in a little tin bucket, and began her washing, but she did not sing at her work that day as she sometimes did.
Larry and Eileen knew that something was wrong, though their Father and Mother had not said anything to them about it. ”