AN IRISH POOR SCHOLAR

From Irish Ideas by William O'Brien, 1893

Page 136

AN IRISH POOR SCHOLAR

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previously exchanged all the savings of his life. ' I wouldn't grudge the boys the bank-note if it was in a good cause,' observed Master Duffy; ' but where will I go again for my Latin Euclid and the Delphins, I'd like to know? I was a gone man from that night—caput domina venale sub hasta—the sport of every ignorant stroneshuch on the mountain.' The stroneshuchs were not many, however. The mountain-men, old and young, who stood around while the old fellow spouted verse and science, and shook his stick at Black Care, could not have been more respectful if they had been invited to a Primrose League Demonstration with refreshments to follow. A few charred books were saved along with some blackened silver coins out of the ruins, and with these he still continued to hold midnight consultations, until his sight failed him three months ago. The charming thing about the welcome that is accorded to him at every chimney-corner in the Glens is that he is no longer able to make any return in kind—for the only gravestone he is likely to be concerned with in the future is his own, and the boys and girls in troops have learned to read and write their own American letters as well as Master Duffy. Nor has he ever condescended to teach. I am acquainted with another roving Master in the same district, who comes to a remote mountain village when farm-work is slack, collects the children of twelve or fourteen surrounding families into a barn to learn the three R's, lives for a week apiece with the household of his different pupils; after which the children disperse to the potato-patches, and the schoolmaster departs for pastures new. But Master Duffy rather looks down upon this humble trade in sacred knowledge, and has his doubts of the erudition of the rival master. Whereat the schoolmaster's soul once flared up—' I am a professional gentle- … continue reading »

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