Dinny

“ She caught the top of his boot—it was well for Dinny that her fangs missed his leg—and bit it. Just then he [196] found his matches, and struck one. It was hot—bright—pungent, such as she had never winded before. She backed hastily, but as what a badger has seized that will he hold as long as there is breath in him, she ripped the boot from top to sole. Dinny yelled, and dropping the match, which fell sputtering into a puddle, he swung himself on to an adjacent rock and tucked up his legs. 'It's the divil, an' he runnin' like a pig,' he groaned. ”

“ He whispered to Humphrey to follow cautiously, and crept on all-fours among the dense growth, and in and out among the loose stones at the very edge of the forest, till the tunnel-like pathway was reached in safety, when, after crawling a few yards out of the blinding sunshine into the shadowy gloom, Dinny rose to his feet.
“There, sor,” he said, “we can walk like Christians, now, and not like animal bastes. There isn’t a sound.” ”

“ Give up.”
“Faith, and it’s a cat he is,” whispered Dinny. “What a foine senthry he’d make for night duty!”
“Surrender!” shouted the same voice, “or we’ll blow you out of the water.”
“The ugly, yellow-faced divil!” muttered Dinny.
“Now, then, come ashore, and I will not be so severe with you.”
“Hark at that, now,” whispered Dinny to Bart. “It’s a baby he thinks ye, afther all.”
“Curse them! Fire then, sergeant,” cried the overseer. “No mercy now.”
“Down, dogs!” roared the man again. “Quick, there—fire!” ”

“ He had, however, a couple of rows of common glass beads round his neck, walked with his left-hand in his pocket, and stared about him as if the visitors were not of the slightest consequence, so that his appearance was sufficiently imposing.
“Jist look at ’em now,” said Dinny; “call themselves men, and to go about like that, widout a bit o’ rag to their backs, and only a scrap of a skin apron hanging before and behind. Oh, go along now wid ye, ye ought to be ashamed of yourselves.”
“Hold your tongue, Dinny,” cried Mr Rogers.
“Certainly, sor,” said Dinny. “An’ murther, hark at the music. ”

“ Young Denis's display of controversial talents was so remarkably precocious, that he controverted his father's statements upon all possible subjects, with a freedom from embarrassment which promised well for that most distinguished trait in a controversialist—hardihood of countenance. This delighted old Denis to the finger ends.
“Dinny, if he's spared,” he would say, “will be a credit to us all yet. The sorra one of him but's as manly as anything, and as longheaded as a four-footed baste, so he is! ”

“ Dinny did not speak for a few moments. Then with an effort—
“Let’s get it done, me lad. I niver belaved in annything worse than the good people, and the phooka, and the banshee, of coorse; but it makes a man’s flesh seem to crape over his bones to come body-snatching, as ye may call it, on a dark night like this.”
They both stood hesitating and shrinking from their task for a few minutes longer, and then Bart stooped down and began to sweep back the sand.
“It’s laid light over him, Dinny, my lad,” he said. “Just sweep it away, and we can lift him into his coffin.” ”

“ And it isn’t a did man kicking again’ being disthurbed in his grave!” cried Dinny, changing his tone and springing up. “Howly Pater! why didn’t ye say so before? Here, have him out at wanst!—the poor boy will be smothered wid the sand! Quick, me boy! quick!”
He dashed at the trench again, and Bart seized the head, both lifting together; and then, as the sand streamed away from the canvas cover in which the remains of poor Abel had been wrapped, they both uttered a hoarse cry of horror and stood holding up their ghastly burden as if in a nightmare, terror paralysing them. ”

“ Dinny M’Daniel was the widow’s one son, born even in her widowhood, for his father had been killed by the fall of a tree before he had been six months married, and poor Sibby had nothing to lavish her fondness upon but her curly-headed gossoon, who very naturally grew up to be the greatest scapegrace in the parish. ”

“ Faix, captain, dear, I fale as if I ought to be hung.”
“Hung, Dinny?”
“Yis, sor, for threachery to as good a friend as I iver had.”
“What do you mean, Dinny?” cried Humphrey, eagerly.
“Mane, sor! Why, that all the grate min in the world, from Caesar down to Pater Donovan, have had their wake side. I’ve got mine, and I’m a fallen man.”
“Speak out plainly,” cried Humphrey, flushing.
“That’s just what I’m doing, sor,” said Dinny, with a soft smile. “It’s Nature, sor. She was bad enough, and thin you helped her. Oh, there’s no foighting agen it! It used to be so in Oireland. ”

“ It was wonderful what that boy could eat when he was thoroughly hungry. Dinny would stare at him, rub his ears, and screw up his face with a look of disgust, while the very dogs seemed envious of his powers. Rough’un would wait patiently for some time bearing it all apparently as he abided his own time; but when he saw Chicory keep steadily on he began to bark furiously, as if such behaviour were not to be borne.
“Shure, Masther Dick, it’s my honest belafe,” said Dinny, “that if you put down enough mate before them two Sooloo boys they’d kape on aiting till they got to be hungry again.” ”

“ A shot rang out from the distance, followed immediately by another.
“That proves it,” said Jack. “It is a shooting party.”
“Av course it is,” cried Dinny, laughing. “I could have told ye that, only I didn’t think of it. It’s the pigs they’re after, and they’re making free wid our flocks and herds.”
“What a relief!” said Abel, wiping the sweat from his brow. “What shall we do next?”
“Keep in hiding; but I’ll climb up till I can see their cutter. It may be near our boat.”
“A born gin’ral,” said Dinny, giving his head a roll and gazing approvingly at Jack. ”

“ Do you select Black Mazzard?”
“No,” roared Dinny, “the divil a bit! Three cheers, me boys, for the bowld little Commodore Junk!”
The crew burst into a roar, even those who had favoured Mazzard being carried away.
“A lad who was niver afraid of anny man’s pishtle,” cried Dinny, leaping on a cask and waving his cap.
“Hurrah!” shouted the men, enthusiastically.
“A lad who has only wan failing in him.”
“Hurrah!” came in chorus, and a voice cried: “What’s that, Dinny?”
“Faix, his mother made a mistake and let him be born out of Oireland.” ”

“ Sure the bottom of the say—I mane the river—there’s paved wid crockydiles; an’ every step I took I could feel them heaving up under me.”
“What, as you were going across, Dinny?”
“Yis, sor. Not as I minded as long as they kep’ quiet; but whin one hungry baste laid howlt toight o’ me trousers, and scratched me leg wid his ugly teeth, I felt that it was time to be off back, and I jist escaped.”
“Hoi, there, Dick! Look sharp!”
“Coming!” roared Dick. “Now then, Dinny. There are no crocodivils here.”
“Hark at him now!” cried Dinny. “Why the river swarms wid ’em. Did they ate the black boys?” ”

“ There’s so many shot in a charge; it gives ’em such a chance,” grumbled Dinny. “But niver mind, Masther Jack. It’ll be a bit of a shmart; but losing a dhrop o’ blood won’t hurt ye.”
Jack nodded, and tugged away rapidly, reducing the distance between them and the cutter; but they could not get farther from the firing party, who kept up a furious fusillade as they followed along round the side of the little bay, the pellets whistling by the fugitives, and more than one finding a home.
“Faix, and ye’ve got the best place there, Bart, me lad,” cried Dinny, merrily. ”

“ Had Mary seen him and “Matchbox” a moment later, emerging separately from a hole in mid stream, her respect might not have prevented her from laughing, but the fact remains that the pair got across somehow. At the top of the hill beyond the river Dinny Johnny saw the hounds for the first time. They had checked on the road by the bridge, but now he heard them throwing their tongues as they hit the line again, the fatal line that was leading them to the covert. Even at this moment, Mr. Denny could not restrain an admiration that would appear to most people ill-timed. ”

“ So wishing the best of good luck to all the neighbours, and to yourself and to Nelly, I remain, &c. &c. &c.”
“Glory to you, Dinny!” was ejaculated on every side, while they all rushed tumultuously forward to congratulate the unwedded bride. In their uproarious hands we leave her, drawing this moral from the whole thing, that it’s very hard to spoil an Irishman entirely, if there be any good at all in him originally. ”

“ I calls ’em little stumpy men, and as ugly as anything I iver see.”
“Well, we shall have to go and pepper them,” said Jack. “Let’s go and tell father, Dick.”
“Shure, ye may pepper and salt ’em too, Masther Jack,” said Dinny, grinning, “but ye’ll niver make anything of ’em but the toughest mate ye iver saw in yer loives.”
“Ah, well, Dinny, we’ll see,” said Jack; and the two boys went and told Mr Rogers of Dinny and Peter having been attacked by a troop of baboons, that were close up to the camp amongst the rocks. ”

“ Thin the masther called out Dinny Moran, an' dhragged him up to one o' the Dublin young ladies, an' bid Dinny be stout an' ax her out to dance wid him. So Dinny, you see, though he was ashamed to make so free wid the lady, still he was afeard not to do as the masther bid him; so, by my conscience, he bowled up to her manfully, an' hild out the fist an' axed her out to dance wid him, an' she gev' him her hand in a crack, an' Dinny whipt her out into the middle o' the hall, forenint us all, an' pulled up his breeches an' called out to Tim to blow up 'The Rocks of Cashel' for thim. ”

“ Dinny in “Throuble” again.
“An’ if there was one there was over a thousand of thim, sor,” cried Dinny, a day or two later, when he had been out with Peter to bring back a strayed ox. “Ye niver see such savage little men in yer loife, sor. They came at us shouting bad language, and calling us all the blayguards they could lay their tongues to; and then one avil-looking owld reprobate ups wid a shtone and throws it at me. That was jist what the others wanted—a bad patthern, sor—and they began shying shtones as hard as they could, till Pater and me was obliged to re-threat.” ”

“ Nothing had been gained.
“It’d take a carload of powder to root her out,” said Tobin in disgust. “We’ll just have to dig into her with the peavies, Dinny, and trust to luck.”
So they dug with the peavies for three days, and nothing happened. Occasionally there would be a quiver and a long, shuddering groan as if a monster were awaking from sleep; and once a series of startling, premonitory cracks and a sharp movement set the jam crew zig-zagging for shore. ”

“ Louis declared encouragingly.
"Bet with yourself and win," Dinny told him. "I seen a man pack eight hundred once. Me, I hate packin'. It's a Siwash's job. I wisht we was at the foot of that portage."
Louis grinned widely.
"You mak' lot of fuss 'bout not'ing," said he. "You ain't want to holler before somet'ing hurt you. Mebbe you ain't have to pack so moch lak you——"
"Shut up, Louis!" rasped Ballou sharply.
"Well, I'll jus' tol' him not for worry," said the big Frenchman. "If I'm young man lak heem——"
"That'll be all," Ballou ordered. "You're too blame fond of pickin' at people. ”

“ But Louis seemed to rather enjoy the prospect.
"You t'ink mebbe de ol' pea soup he ain't so good lak he used to be," he said, with a grin. "Ba gosh, I show you! I bet any man five dollaire I pack five hundred on dat portage if I get heem on my back."
"I'll bet any man I don't," said Dinny. "’Bout two hundred' is my limit, and I'd rather pack one." ”

“ The little, sad-eyed woman and George talked over Dinney's future, and planned out his life for him, and nudged each other and nodded their heads significantly at each little sign from the child as he gazed out wide-eyed on a new world. ”

“ Some men make a beeline for the son of the house and ask him what's for dinner, but I have been better brought up. Generally I find myself standing first on one leg and then on the other, fingering my tie, and wondering if there is anyone present who would like me to point out that the day has been a beautiful one.
I was carrying on in this way when my host came up to me.
"You're taking in Miss Daintry," he said. "I don't think you know her." He brought me up to a lonely girl and explained: "This is Mr. William Denny." I bowed and said to myself: "Her nose is too short." ”

“ The two older boys were to look after little Dino and to give him such care as he needed. True to their coarse nature and instincts, they began, as soon as their father had left, to send Dino out with his violin to earn not only his own bread but theirs; for they knew that his attractive little face and winsome manners would win for them more pennies than they could for themselves. This was true, but sometimes the pennies failed, and the days were dull, and people did not care for Dino's music; and then the brothers beat him and ill-treated him until he could endure it no longer. ”

“ Dinney was quick to see the intended insult. A cake of wet soap hit the man with the brass buttons, hit him squarely on the back of the neck. The soap was followed by a volley of blasphemy that was, as the butler afterwards told the chambermaid, "fairly heart-renderin' and too awful for respectable people to talk on!" ”

“ Dinney did not forget that carriage, and it must be confessed that he made it a point to assume a most ridiculous and priggish expression of dejected meekness whenever it passed. He knew it would not make the sad-eyed woman any happier to feel that he had shot craps with every cent of her quarter! ”