Garret MacEniry (10), A Tale of the Munster Peasantry

The road by which Garret arrived at the place was a lonely mountain one, where for the last two hours he had not met with an individual; and he now turned his steps towards the farmer's house, as being the first place that presented itself, for the purpose of making inquiry. Behind the house there were several large dogs lying, who now pricked up their ears and eyed the travellers for some time attentively. I suppose they could discover nothing in their appearance that looked in any degree pugnacious, for after having gazed at them till they appeared to be satisfied, they proceeded to dispose themselves leisurely in their former lazy attitudes; and the travellers would probably be allowed to pass quietly, were it not for the malice of a sour-looking cur, one side of whose nose had, from constant practice, permanently curled upwards, into a perpetual grin, exposing his teeth. This wretch chafed and snarled, and succeeded at last in angering his quieter companions to such a pitch that they all suddenly started up and scampered helter-skelter towards them, howling and yelping like a legion of devils. The women who were milking instantly stood up to avoid the danger of being trampled on by the startled cows, while the boys ran toward the dogs, threatening them with their sticks and shouting at them to come back.

"Tundher an' ages! Dick, run, man, run," cried the farmer; "fly Tom!—skelp away you omadhawn, an' bring back them divels (bad luck to 'em), afore the poor man will be ate, body an' sowl. Oh; murder alive, the life is frightened out o' the poor crathurs. That's id, Dick, leather the thieves! Faith an' sowl Boxer wait till I ketch you an' if I don't sink the top of my shoe two inches into your ribs, the divel a cotner in Cork"; and the good old fellow raised his stick and shook it at them as he spoke. Dick and Tom arrived just in time to come between them and their victims, and by shouting and leathering succeeded in driving them off. "Lie down Boxer! Captain! Captain—ha! you divel's limb, you'll yowl loud enough now when you're not wantin' but I'll make you yowl a little loudher I'm thinkin.' Hishth do vayal a vehoonig" (whack, whack, accompanied by a doleful yelping, and Captain scampered home howling and limping). "Down with you Boxer! Pincher, I say, you thief o' the world come here!" At length the dogs were all driven home and peace restored. The cur, it must be remarked, like many another cur under similar circumstances, after having provoked the fight, was the first to scamper ingloriously off the field, looking furtively behind him when the appearance of the boys with their sticks threatened danger.

By this time Garret had arrived at the group. God save ye all, an' God bless the work," said he with as much assumed cheerfulness as he could command. "God save you kindly honest man," said the farmer in good-natured accents; "the deer knows but I'm ashamed that a stranger can't as much as show his nose inside that stile but thim rogues o' dogs is ready to frighten the life amost out of him."

"Oh!" replied Garret, vexed with himself for having been the cause of so much confusion, "'tis nothin' at all—I never mind the bark of a dog, for I'm well used to id."

"Well! honest man you look tired at any rate; sit down here on this bundle o' clover an' take a dhrink. Biddy alanna, bring hether two piggins o' the sthrippins for I'm dead wid the dhruth, an' so is this good man too, I'm thinkin'. Begor, I know what it is to travel myself; an' many a time when I'd be on a long streel of a road, an' hardly able to wag, I'd give anything for a couple o' good slugs o' new milk."

"Why thin," said Garret, seating himself as desired near the farmer, who was sitting on another bundle, "as the thruth is best to be towld, I do feel a little fitagued, an' I'll take a dhrink, may God increase you for your kindness. Indeed Sir I'm ould now, and haven't the sthrinth nor the sperrit in me that I had; sure only for I am, twenty or thirty little miles wouldn't be after knocking me up."

"Oh! Holy Virgin," exclaimed the farmer, looking at him in surprise, "an' you're after walkin' thirty miles to-day—an ould man like you! Stop! don't dhrink id in that way—'twould kill you to put such stuff into your stomach after such a walk. Here, Biddy, take this kay an' run in, ma colleen dhas, to the three-cornered cupboard, an' bring me out the black bottle that's stannin' in the right hand corner. Mind, Biddy, the black bottle."

"A little dhrop put into id," said he turning again to Garret, "will knock the cowld out of it anyway."

"The blessin' o' God be on you," said Garret deeply grateful, "sure I didn't think I'd meet wid this kindness among strangers, once I left the ould neighbours, God be wid 'em. Indeed, Sir, I'm a sthranger in this part o' the counthry, an' don't know id at all; an' I just stepped down to ax."

"Oh! the divel a question you'll ax till you dhrink that first; an' thin you can come in an' rest yourself for a thommul (a short time), an' we'll get somethin' to ate; you must be in want of id now after a hard day's walk. An' indeed for the matther o' that, you're too tired to go any farther to-night, an' there's a good feather bed within there to spare, that you'll be welkim to. Sure God is good to me, an' gev me the manes, glory be to His Holy Name (taking off his hat reverently) an' it'll never be said that the sthranger or the thraveller ever turned away from Roger Mac Eniry's doore widout"------