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diff --git a/28431.txt b/28431.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d38a351 --- /dev/null +++ b/28431.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3086 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Irish Twins, by Lucy Fitch Perkins + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Irish Twins + +Author: Lucy Fitch Perkins + +Illustrator: Lucy Fitch Perkins + +Release Date: March 29, 2009 [EBook #28431] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE IRISH TWINS *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + + + + +The Irish Twins, by Lucy Fitch Perkins. + +________________________________________________________________________ +In this short book the author conveys a very good image of the lives of +Irish country children at the end of the nineteenth century. The images +drawn by the very talented author are also very good. There is just +enough of the Irish manner of speech to convey the flavour of the way +the twins and their relatives would have spoken, had they done so in +English. Of course in reality it is likely that such children would +have spoken in the Irish language, instead of just occasionally using +an Irish word. But the book not only has a good story-line, but also +conveys to its target audience, American children, something of the +background of their Irish compatriots. It is supposed to be a Grade V +reader, and, published in 1913, is the third of the Twins series. + +There is one blunder, as Kathleen, the daughter of the Earl of Elsmore, +is referred to as Lady Kathleen. Her father would have had to be a Duke +or a Marquess for that address to be correct. Her actual title does not +sound so good, so perhaps Perkins can be forgiven for this solecism. +________________________________________________________________________ +THE IRISH TWINS, BY LUCY FITCH PERKINS. + + + +CHAPTER ONE. + +GRANNIE MALONE AND THE TWINS. + +One day of the world, when it was young summer in Ireland, old Grannie +Malone sat by her fireplace knitting. She was all alone, and in her lap +lay a letter. + +Sometimes she took the letter in her hands, and turned it over and over, +and looked at it. 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." + +She lifted the lid and peeped into the kettle. "'Tis empty entirely!" +she cried, "and a thirsty kettle it is surely, and no one but myself to +fetch and carry for it!" + +She got up slowly, laid her knitting and the letter on the chair, took +the kettle off the hook, and went to the door. + +There was but one door and one window in the one little room of her +cabin, so if the sun had not been shining brightly it would have been +quite dark within. + +But the upper half of the door stood open, and the afternoon sun slanted +across the earthen floor and brightened the dishes that stood on the old +dresser. It even showed Grannie Malone's bed in the far end of the +room, and some of her clothes hanging from the rafters overhead. + +There was little else in the room to see, except her chair, a wooden +table, and a little bench by the fire, a pile of peat on the hearth, and +a bag of potatoes in the corner. Grannie Malone opened the lower half +of the door and stepped out into the sunshine. 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. Grannie let the bucket +down into the well until she heard it strike the fresh spring water with +a splash. Then she pulled and pulled on the rope. The bucket came up +slowly and water spilled over the sides as Grannie lifted it to the +curb. + +She poured some of the water into the dish for the hens, filled her +kettle, and then straightened her bent back, and stood looking at the +little cabin and the brown bog beyond. + +"Sure, it's old we all are together," she said to herself, nodding her +head. "The old cabin with the rain leaking through the thatch of a wet +day, and the old well with moss on the stones of it. And the hens +themselves, too old to cook, and too old to be laying,--except on the +doorstep in the sunshine, the creatures!--But 'tis home, thanks be to +God." + +She lifted her kettle and went slowly back into the house. The hens +followed her to the door, but she shut the lower half of it behind her +and left them outside. + +She went to the fireplace and hung the kettle on the hook, blew the +coals to a blaze with a pair of leaky bellows, and sat down before the +fire once more to wait for the water to boil. + +She knit round and round her stocking, and there was no sound in the +room but the click-click of her needles, and the tick-tick of the clock, +and the little purring noise of the fire on the hearth. + +Just as the kettle began to sing, there was a squawking among the hens +on the doorstep, and two dark heads appeared above the closed half of +the door. + +A little girl's voice called out, "How are you at all, Grannie Malone?" + +And a little boy's voice said, "We've come to bring you a sup of milk +that Mother sent you." + +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. + +"Sure, Mother is well. And how is yourself, Grannie Malone?" Eileen +answered, politely. + +"Barring the rheumatism and the asthma, and the old age in my bones, I'm +doing well, thanks be to God," said Grannie Malone. "Sit down by the +fire, now, till I wet a cup of tea and make a cakeen for you! And +indeed it's yourselves can read me a letter from my son Michael, that's +in America! It has been in the house these three days waiting for some +one with the learning to come along by." + +She ran to the chair and picked up the letter. The Twins sat down on a +little bench by the fireplace, and Grannie Malone put the letter in +their hands. + +"We've not got _all_ the learning yet," Larry said. "We might not be +able to read it." + +"You can try," said Grannie Malone. + +Then she opened the letter, and a bit of folded green paper with +printing on it fell out. "God bless the boy," she cried, "there's one +of those in every letter he sends me! 'Tis money that is! Can you make +out the figures on it, now?" + +Larry and Eileen looked it over carefully. "There it is, hiding in the +corner," said Larry. He pointed to a "5" on the green paper. + +"Five pounds it is!" said Grannie Malone. "Sure it's a fortune! Oh, +it's himself is the good son to me! What does the letter say?" + +The Twins spread the sheet open and studied it, while Grannie hovered +over them, trembling with excitement. + +"Sure, that's _Dear_, isn't it?" said Eileen, pointing to the first +word. + +"Sure," said Larry; "letters always begin like that." + +"Dear G-r-a-n-n-i-e," spelt Eileen. "What could that be but Grannie?" + +"'Tis from my grandson, young Patrick, then," cried Grannie. "Indeed, +he's but the age of yourselves! How old are you at all?" + +"We're seven," said the Twins. + +"Patrick might be eight," said his Grandmother, "but surely the clever +children like yourselves and the two of you together should be able to +make it out. There's but one of Patrick, and there should be more +learning between the two of you than in one alone, even though he is a +bit older! Try now." + +Larry and Eileen tried. This was the letter. It was written in a large +staggery hand. + +"Will you listen to that now!" cried Grannie Malone. "Is it taking me +back to America, he'd be! 'Tis a terrible journey altogether, and a +strange country at the end of it, for me to be laying my old bones in! +But I'd be a proud woman to see my own son, in any country of the world, +and he an alderman!" + +There was a letter from Michael himself in the envelope also, but the +Twins could not read that, however much they tried. + +So Grannie was obliged to put the two letters and the green paper under +the clock over the fireplace, to wait until the Priest should pass that +way. + + + +CHAPTER TWO. + +THE TEA-PARTY. + +"Sure, this is a fine day for me, altogether," said Grannie Malone as +she got out her bit of flour to make the cake. "I can wait for the +letter from himself, the way I know they're in health, and have not +forgotten their old Mother. Troth, we'll have a bit of a feast over it +now," she said to the Twins. "While I'm throwing the cakeen together do +you get some potatoes from the bag, Eileen, and put them down in the +ashes, and you, Larry, stir up the fire a bit, and keep the kettle full. +Sure, 'tis singing away like a bird this instant minute! Put some +water in it, avic, and then shut up the hens for me." + +Eileen ran to the potato bag in the corner and took out four good-sized +potatoes. "There's but three of us," she said to herself, "but Larry +will surely be wanting two, himself." + +She got down on her knees and buried the potatoes in the burning peat. +Then she took a little broom that stood near by, and tidied up the +hearth. + +Larry took the kettle to the well for more water. He slopped a good +deal of it as he came back. It made great spots of mud, for there was +no wooden floor--only hard earth with flat stones set in it. + +"Arrah now, Larry, you do be slopping things up the equal of a +thunderstorm," Eileen said to him. + +"Never you mind that, now, Larry," said Grannie Malone. "It might have +been that the kettle leaked itself, and no fault of your own at all! +Sure, a bit of water here or there does nobody any harm." + +She hung the tea-kettle on the hook over the fire again. Then she +brought the cakeen and put it into a small iron baking-kettle, and put a +cover over it. She put turf on top of the cover. "'Twill not be long +until it's baked," said Grannie, "and you can be watching it, Eileen, +while I set out the table." + +She pulled a little wooden table out before the fire, put three plates +and three cups on it, some salt, and the jug of milk. Meanwhile Larry +was out trying to shut the hens into the little shelter beside the +house. But he couldn't get them all in. One old speckled hen ran round +the house to the door. Larry ran after her. The hen flew up on top of +the half-door. She was very much excited. "Cut-cut-cut," she squawked. + +"Cut-cut yourself now!" cried Grannie Malone. + +She ran toward the door, waving her spoon. "Shoo along out of this with +your bad manners!" she cried. + +Just that minute Larry came up behind the hen and tried to catch her by +the legs. + +"Cut-cut-cut-a-cut," squawked old Speckle; and up she flew, right over +Grannie's head, into the rafters! Then she tucked herself cozily down +to go to sleep. + +"Did you ever see the likes of that old Speckle, now?" cried Grannie +Malone. She ran for the broom. "Sure she must be after thinking I was +lonesome for a bit of company! Do you think I'd be wanting you at all, +you silly, when I have the Twins by me?" she said to the hen. She shook +the broom at her, but old Speckle wasn't a bit afraid of Grannie; she +didn't move. + +Then Grannie Malone put the broom under her and tried to lift her from +her perch, but old Speckle had made up her mind to stay. 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. Eileen was flapping her apron in another, while +Grannie Malone chased old Speckle with the broom. At last, with a final +squawk, she flew out of the door, and ran round to the shelter where the +other hens were, and went in as if she thought home was the best place +for a hen after all. Larry shut her in. + +As soon as the hen was out of the house, Eileen screamed, "I smell +something burning!" + +"'Tis the cakeen," cried Grannie. + +She and Eileen flew to the fireplace. Eileen got there first. She +knocked the cover off the little kettle with the tongs, and out flew a +cloud of smoke. + +"Och, murder! 'Tis destroyed entirely!" poor Grannie groaned. + +"I'll turn it quick," said Eileen. + +She was in such a hurry she didn't wait for a fork or stick or anything! +She took right hold of the little cakeen, and lifted it out of the +kettle with her hand! + +The little cake was hot! "Ow! Ow!" shrieked Eileen, and she dropped it +right into the ashes! Then she danced up and down and sucked her +fingers. + +"The Saints help us! The cakeen is bewitched," wailed poor Grannie. +She picked it up, and tossed it from one hand to the other, while she +blew off the ashes. + +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!" + +"'Twas all the fault of that disgraceful old hen," 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. +"Sure, we can shut our eyes when we eat it." + +She drew her own chair up to the table; the Twins sat on the bench on +the other side. Grannie Malone crossed herself, and then they each took +a potato, and broke it open. They put salt on it, poured a little milk +into the skin which they held like a cup, and it was ready to eat. + +Grannie poured the tea, and they had milk and sugar in it. 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." + +"Sure, I'll never at all be a good son to my Mother," laughed Eileen. + +"Well, then," said Grannie, "you can be a good daughter to her, and +that's not far behind. Whist now, till I tell you the story of the +Little Cakeen, and you'll see that 'tis a good thing entirely to behave +yourselves and grow up fine and respectable, like the lad in the tale. +It goes like this now:--" + +"It was once long ago in old Ireland, there was living a fine, clean, +honest, poor widow woman, and she having two sons [Note 1], and she +fetched the both of them up fine and careful, but one of them turned out +bad entirely. And one day she says to him, says she:-- + +"`I've given you your living as long as ever I can, and it's you must go +out into the wide world and seek your fortune.' + +"`Mother, I will,' says he. + +"`And will you take a big cake with my curse, or a little cake with my +blessing?' says she. + +"`A big cake, sure,' says he. + +"So she baked a big cake and cursed him, and he went away laughing! By +and by, he came forninst a spring in the woods, and sat down to eat his +dinner off the cake, and a small, little bird sat on the edge of the +spring. + +"`Give me a bit of your cake for my little ones in the nest,' said she; +and he caught up a stone and threw at her. + +"`I've scarce enough for myself,' says he, and she being a fairy, put +her beak in the spring and turned it black as ink, and went away up in +the trees. And whiles he looked for a stone for to kill her, a fox went +away with his cake! + +"So he went away from that place very mad, and next day he stopped, very +hungry, at a farmer's house, and hired out for to tend the cows. + +"`Be wise,' says the farmer's wife, `for the next field is belonging to +a giant, and if the cows get into the clover, he will kill you dead as a +stone.' + +"But the bad son laughed and went out to watch the cows; and before +noontime he went to sleep up in the tree, and the cows all went in the +clover. And out comes the giant and shook him down out of the tree and +killed him dead, and that was the end of the bad son. + +"And the next year the poor widow woman says to the good son:-- + +"`You must go out into the wide world and seek your fortune, for I can +keep you no longer,' says the Mother. + +"`Mother, I will,' says he. + +"`And will you take a big cake with my curse or a little cake with my +blessing?' + +"`A little cake,' says he. + +"So she baked it for him and gave him her blessing, and he went away, +and she a-weeping after him fine and loud. And by and by he came to the +same spring in the woods where the bad son was before him, and the +small, little bird sat again on the side of it. + +"`Give me a bit of your cakeen for my little ones in the nest,' says +she. + +"`I will,' says the good son, and he broke her off a fine piece, and she +dipped her beak in the spring and turned it into sweet wine; and when he +bit into his cake, sure, it was turned into fine plum-cake entirely; and +he ate and drank and went on light-hearted. And next day he comes to +the farmer's house. + +"`Will ye tend the cows for me?' says the farmer. + +"`I will,' says the good son. + +"`Be wise,' says the farmer's wife, `for the clover-field beyond is +belonging to a giant, and if you leave in the cows, he will kill you +dead.' + +"`Never fear,' says the good son, `I don't sleep at my work.' + +"And he goes out in the field and lugs a big stone up in the tree, and +then sends every cow far out in the clover-fields and goes back again to +the tree! And out comes the giant a-roaring, so you could hear the +roars of him a mile away, and when he finds the cow-boy, he goes under +the tree to shake him down, but the good little son slips out the big +stone, and it fell down and broke the giant's head entirely. So the +good son went running away to the giant's house, and it being full to +the eaves of gold and diamonds and splendid things. + +"So you see what fine luck comes to folks that is good and honest! And +he went home and fetched his old Mother, and they lived rich and +contented, and died very old and respected." + +"Do you suppose your son Michael killed any giants in America, the way +he got to be an Alderman?" asked Eileen, when Grannie had finished her +story. + +"I don't rightly know that," Grannie answered. "Maybe it wasn't just +exactly giants, but you can see for yourself that he is rich and +respected, and he with a silk hat, and riding in a procession the same +as the Lord-Mayor himself!" + +"Did you ever see a giant or a fairy or any of the good little people +themselves, Grannie Malone?" Larry asked. + +"I've never exactly seen any of them with my own two eyes," she +answered, "but many is the time I've talked with people and they having +seen them. There was Mary O'Connor now,--dead long since, God rest her. +She told me this tale herself, and she sitting by this very hearth. +Wait now till I wet my mouth with a sup of tea in it, and I'll be +telling you the tale the very same way she told it herself." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Note 1. Adapted from "Marygold House," in _Play-Days_, by Sarah Orne +Jewett. + + + +CHAPTER THREE. + +THE TALE OF THE LEPRECHAUN. + +Grannie reached for the teapot and poured herself a cup of tea. As she +sipped it, she said to the twins, "Did you ever hear of the Leprechauns? +Little men they are, not half the bigness of the smallest baby you ever +laid your two eyes on. Long beards they have, and little pointed caps +on the heads of them. + +"And it's forever making the little brogues (shoes) they are, and you +can hear the tap-tap of their hammers before you ever get sight of them +at all. And the gold and silver and precious things they have hidden +away would fill the world with treasures. + +"But they have the sharpness of the new moon, that's sharp at both ends, +and no one can get their riches away from them at all. They do be +saying that if you catch one in your two hands and never take your eyes +off him, you can make him give up his money. + +"But they've the tricks of the world to make you look the other way, the +Leprechauns have. And then when you look back again, faith, they're +nowhere at all!" + +"Did Mary O'Connor catch one?" asked Eileen. + +"Did she now!" cried Grannie. "Listen to this. One day Mary O'Connor +was sitting in her bit of garden, with her knitting in her hand, and she +was watching some bees that were going to swarm. + +"It was a fine day in June, and the bees were humming, and the birds +were chirping and hopping, and the butterflies were flying about, and +everything smelt as sweet and fresh as if it was the first day of the +world. + +"Well, all of a sudden, what did she hear among the bean-rows in the +garden but a noise that went tick-tack, tick-tack, just for all the +world as if a brogue-maker was putting on the heel of a pump! + +"`The Lord preserve us,' says Mary O'Connor; `what in the world can that +be?' + +"So she laid down her knitting, and she went over to the beans. Now, +never believe me, if she didn't see sitting right before her a bit of an +old man, with a cocked hat on his head and a dudeen (pipe) in his mouth, +smoking away! He had on a drab-coloured coat with big brass buttons on +it, and a pair of silver buckles on his shoes, and he working away as +hard as ever he could, heeling a little pair of pumps! + +"You may believe me or not, Larry and Eileen McQueen, but the minute she +clapped her eyes on him, she knew him for a Leprechaun. + +"And she says to him very bold, `God save you, honest man! That's hard +work you're at this hot day!' And she made a run at him and caught him +in her two hands! + +"`And where is your purse of money?' says she. + +"`Money!' says he; `money is it! And where on top of earth would an old +creature like myself get money?' says he. + +"`Maybe not on top of earth at all, but _in_ it,' says she; and with +that she gave him a bit of a squeeze. `Come, come,' says she. `Don't +be turning your tricks upon an honest woman!' + +"And then she, being at the time as good-looking a young woman as you'd +find, put a wicked face on her, and pulled a knife from her pocket, and +says she, `If you don't give me your purse this instant minute, or show +me a pot of gold, I'll cut the nose off the face of you as soon as +wink.' + +"The little man's eyes were popping out of his head with fright, and +says he, `Come with me a couple of fields off, and I'll show you where I +keep my money!' + +"So she went, still holding him fast in her hand, and keeping her two +eyes fixed on him without so much as a wink, when, all of a sudden, what +do you think? + +"She heard a whiz and a buzz behind her, as if all the bees in the world +were humming, and the little old man cries out, `There go your bees +a-swarming and a-going off with themselves like blazes!' + +"She turned her head for no more than a second of time, but when she +looked back there was nothing at all in her hand. + +"He slipped out of her fingers as if he were made of fog or smoke, and +sorrow a bit of him did she ever see after." [Note 1.] + +"And she never got the gold at all," sighed Eileen. + +"Never so much as a ha'penny worth," said Grannie Malone. + +"I believe I'd rather get rich in America than try to catch Leprechauns +for a living," said Larry. + +"And you never said a truer word," said Grannie. "'Tis a poor living +you'd get from the Leprechauns, I'm thinking, rich as they are." + +By this time the teapot was empty, and every crumb of the cakeen was +gone, and as Larry had eaten two potatoes, just as Eileen thought he +would, there was little left to clear away. + +It was late in the afternoon. The room had grown darker, and Grannie +Malone went to the little window and looked out. + +"Now run along with yourselves home," she said, "for the sun is nearly +setting across the bog, and your Mother will be looking for you. Here, +put this in your pocket for luck." She gave Larry a little piece of +coal. "The Good Little People will take care of good children if they +have a bit o' this with them," she said; "and you, Eileen, be careful +that you don't step in a fairy ring on your way home, for you've a light +foot on you like a leaf in the wind, and `The People' will keep you +dancing for dear knows how long, if once they get you." + +"We'll keep right in the boreen (road), won't we, Larry? Good-bye, +Grannie," said Eileen. + +The Twins started home. Grannie Malone stood in her doorway, shading +her eyes with her hand, and looking after them until a turn in the road +hid them from sight. Then she went into her little cabin and shut the +door. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Note 1. Adapted from Thomas Keightley's _Fairy Mythology_. + + + +CHAPTER FOUR. + +THE TINKERS. + +After Larry and Eileen had gone around the turn in the road there were +no houses in sight for quite a long distance. + +On one side of the road stretched the brown bog, with here and there a +pool of water in it which shone bright in the colours of the setting +sun. It was gay, too, with patches of yellow buttercups, of primroses, +and golden whins. The whins had been in bloom since Easter, for Larry +and Eileen had gathered the yellow flowers to dye their Easter eggs. On +the other side of the road the land rose a little, and was so covered +with stones that it seemed as if there were no earth left for things to +grow in. Yet the mountain fern took root there and made the rocks gay +with its green fronds. + +The sun was so low that their shadows stretched far across the bogland +beside them as the Twins trudged along. + +Three black ravens were flying overhead, and a lark was singing its +evening song. + +Eileen looked up in the sky. "There's the ghost of a moon up there! +Look, Larry," she said. + +Larry looked up. There floating high above them, was a pale, pale moon, +almost the colour of the sky itself. "It looks queer and lonesome up +there," he said, "and there's no luck at all in three ravens flying. +They'll be putting a grudge on somebody's cow, maybe. I wonder where +the little lark does be hiding herself." + +Larry was still looking up in the sky for the little lark, when Eileen +suddenly seized his arm. "Whist, Larry," she whispered. "Look before +you on the road!" + +Larry stopped stock-still and looked. A man was coming toward them. +The man was still a long way off, but they could see that he carried +something on his back. 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. + +They go from house to house in all the villages mending the pots and +pans, and often they steal whatever they can lay their hands on. + +At night they sleep on the ground with only straw for a bed, and they +cook in a kettle over a camp-fire. + +The Twins were so badly scared that their teeth chattered. + +Eileen was the first to say anything. + +"However will we g-g-g-get home at all?" she whispered. "They've a dog +with them, and he'll b-b-b-bark at us surely. Maybe he'll bite us!" + +They could see a woman moving about through the Camp. She had a fire +with a kettle hanging over it. There were two or three other people +about, and some starved-looking horses. The dog was lying beside the +fire, and there was a baby rolling about on the ground. A little pig +was tied by one hind leg to a thorn-bush. + +"If the dog comes after us," said Larry, "I'd drop a stone on him, out +of a tree, just the way the good son did in the story, and kill him +dead." + +"But there's never a tree anywhere about," said Eileen. "Sure, that is +no plan at all." + +"That's a true word," said Larry, when he had looked all about for a +tree, and found none. "We'll have to think of something else." + +Then he thought and thought. "We might go back to Grannie's," he said +after a while. + +"That would be no better," Eileen whispered, "for, surely, our Mother +would go crazy with worrying if we didn't come home, at all, and we +already so late." + +"Well, then," Larry answered, "we must just bide here until it's dark, +and creep by, the best way we can. Anyway, I've the piece of coal in my +pocket, and Grannie said no harm would come to us at all, and we having +it." + +Just then the man, who had been coming up the road, reached the Camp. +The dog ran out to meet him, barking joyfully. The man came near the +fire and threw the bundle off his shoulder. It was two fat geese, with +their legs tied together! + +"The Saints preserve us," whispered Eileen, "if those aren't our own two +geese! Do you see those black feathers in their wings?" + +"He's the thief of the world," said Larry. + +He forgot to be frightened because he was so angry, and he spoke right +out loud! He stood up and shook his fist at the Tinker. His head +showed over the top of the wall. Eileen jerked him down. + +"Whist now, Larry darling," she begged. "If the dog sees you once he'll +tear you to pieces." + +Larry dropped behind the wall again, and they watched the Tinker's wife +loosen the string about the legs of the geese, and tie them by a long +cord to the bush, beside the little pig. Then all the Tinker people +gathered around the pot and began to eat their supper. + +The baby and the dog were on the ground playing together. The Twins +could hear the shouts of the baby, and the barks of the dog. + +It was quite dusk by this time, but the moon grew brighter and brighter +in the sky, and the flames of the Tinkers' fire glowed more and more +red, as the night came on. + +"Sure, it isn't going to get real dark at all," whispered Larry. + +"Then we'd better be going now," said Eileen, "for the Tinkers are +eating their supper, and their backs are towards the road, and we'll +make hardly a taste of noise with our bare feet." + +They crept along behind the rocks, and over the wall. "Now," whispered +Larry, "slip along until we're right beside them, and then run like the +wind!" + +The Twins took hold of hands. They could hear their hearts beat. They +walked softly up the road. + +The Tinkers were still laughing and talking; the baby and the dog kept +on playing. + +The Twins were almost by, when all of a sudden, the geese stood up. +"Squawk, squawk," they cried. "Squawk, squawk." + +"Whatever is the matter with you, now?" said the Tinker's wife to the +geese. "Can't you be quiet?" The dog stopped romping with the baby, +sniffed the air, and growled. "Lie down," said the woman; "there's a +bone for your supper." She threw the dog a bone. He sprang at it and +began to gnaw it. + +Larry and Eileen had crouched behind a rock the minute the geese began +to squawk. "I believe they know us," whispered Eileen. + +They waited until everything was quiet again. Then Larry whispered, +"Run now, and if you fall, never wait to rise but run till we get to Tom +Daly's house!" + +Then they ran! The soft pat-pat of their bare feet on the dirt road was +not heard by the Tinkers, and soon another turn in the road hid them +from view, but, for all that, they ran and ran, ever so far, until some +houses were in sight. + +They could see the flicker of firelight in the windows of the nearest +house. It was Tom Daly's house. They could see Tom's shadow as he sat +at his loom, weaving flax into beautiful white linen cloth. They could +hear the clack! clack! of his loom. It made the Twins feel much safer +to hear this sound and see Tom's shadow, for Tom was a friend of theirs, +and they often went into his house and watched him weave his beautiful +linen, which was so fine that the Queen herself used it. Up the road, +in the window of the last house of all, a candle shone. + +"Sure, Mother is watching for us," said Larry. "She's put a candle in +the window." + +They went on more slowly now, past Tom Daly's, past the Maguires' and +the O'Briens' and several other houses on the way, and when they were +quite near their own home Larry said, "Sure, I'll never travel again +without a bit of coal in my pocket. Look at all the danger we've been +in this night, and never the smallest thing happening to us." + +And Eileen said, "Indeed, musha, 'tis well we're the good children! +Sure, the Good Little People would never at all let harm come to the +likes of us, just as Grannie said." + + + +CHAPTER FIVE. + +THE TWINS GET HOME. + +When they were nearly home, the Twins saw a dark figure hurrying down +the road, and as it drew near, their Mother's voice called to them, "Is +it yourselves, Larry and Eileen, and whatever kept you till this hour? +Sure, you've had me distracted entirely with wondering what had become +of you at all! And your Dada sits in the room with a lip on him as long +as to-day and to-morrow!" + +The Twins both began to talk at once. Their mother clapped her hands +over her ears. + +"Can't you hold your tongues and speak quietly now--one at a time like +gentlemen and ladies?" she said. "Come in to your father and tell him +all about it." + +The Twins each took one of her hands, and they all three hurried into +the house. They went into the kitchen. Their Father was sitting by the +chimney, with his feet up, smoking his pipe when they came in. He +brought his feet to the floor with a thump, and sat up straight in his +chair. + +"Where have you been, you Spalpeens?" he said. "It's nine o'clock this +instant minute." + +The Twins both began again to talk. Their Mother flew about the kitchen +to get them a bite of supper. + +"Come now," said the Father, "I can't hear myself at all with the noise +of you. Do you tell the tale, Larry." + +Then Larry told them about the cakeen, and the silk hat, and Michael +Malone, and the Tinkers, while his Mother said, "The Saints preserve +us!" every few words, and Eileen interrupted to tell how brave Larry had +been--"just like the good son in Grannie Malone's tale, for all the +world." + +But when they came to the geese part of the story, the Father said, +"Blathers," and got up and hurried out to the place where the fowls were +kept, in the yard behind the house. + +In a few minutes he came in again. "The geese are gone," he said, "and +that's the truth or I can't speak it!" + +"Bad luck to the thieves, then," cried the Mother. "The back of my hand +to them! Sure, I saw a rough, scraggly man with a beard on him like a +rick of hay, come along this very afternoon, and I up the road talking +with Mrs Maguire! I never thought he'd make that bold, to carry off +geese in the broad light of day! And me saving them against +Christmastime, too!" + +"Wait till I get that fellow where beating is cheap, and I'll take the +change out of him!" said the Father. + +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. "I wonder wherever they +got the badness in them the way they have." + +"I've heard said it was a Tinker that led Saint Patrick astray when he +was in Ireland," said Mr McQueen. "I don't know if it's true or not, +but the tale is that he was brought here a slave, and that it would take +a hundred pounds to buy his freedom. 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." + +"There'll maybe be one if I catch the Tinker that stole the geese!" Mr +McQueen said grimly. + +Mrs McQueen laughed. "It's the fierce one you are to talk," she said, +"and you that good-natured when you're angry that you'd scare not even a +fly! Come along now to bed with you," she added to the Twins. "There +you sit with your eyes dropping out of your heads with sleep." + +She helped them undress and popped them into their beds in the next +room; then she barred the door, put out the candle, covered the coals in +the fireplace, and went to bed in the room on the other side of the +kitchen. Last of all, Mr McQueen knocked the ashes from his pipe +against the chimney-piece, and soon everything was quiet in their +cottage, and in the whole village of Ballymora where they lived. + + + +CHAPTER SIX. + +HOW THEY WENT TO THE BOG. + +The next morning when the Twins woke up, the sun was shining in through +the one little square window in the bedroom, and lay in a bright patch +of yellow on the floor. Eileen sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes. Then +she stuck her head out between the curtains of her bed. "Is it to-day +or to-morrow? I don't know," she said. + +Larry sat up in his bed and rubbed his eyes. He peeped out from his +curtains. "It isn't yesterday, anyway," he said, "and glad I am for +that. Do you mind about the Tinkers, Eileen?" + +"I do so," said Eileen, "and the geese." + +Their Mother heard them and came to the door. "Sure, I thought I'd let +you sleep as late as ever you liked," she said, "for there's no school +to-day, but you're awake and clacking, so how would you like to go with +your Dada to the bog to cut turf? Himself will put a bit of bread in +his pocket for you, and you can take a sup of milk along." + +"Oh, wirra!" cried Eileen. "What have we done but left the milk-jug at +Grannie Malone's!" + +"You can take the milk in the old brown jug, then," said the Mother, +"and come along home by way of Grannie's, and get the jug itself. I'd +like your Father to get a sight of the Tinkers' Camp, and maybe of that +thief of the world that stole the geese on us." + +It didn't take the Twins long to dress. They wore few clothes, and no +shoes and stockings, and their breakfast of bread and potatoes was soon +eaten. The Mother had already milked the cow, and when they had had a +drink of fresh milk they were ready to start. + +Mr McQueen was at the door with "Colleen," the donkey, and when Larry +and Eileen came out, he put them both on Colleen's back, and they +started down the road toward the bog. + +When they came to the place where the Tinkers' Camp should be, there was +no camp there at all! They looked east and west, but no sign of the +Tinkers did they see. + +"If it were not for the two geese gone, I'd think you had been +dreaming!" said Mr McQueen to the Twins. + +"Look there, then," said Larry. "Sure, there's the black mark on the +ground where their fire was!" + +The Twins slid off Colleen's back, and ran to the spot where the camp +had been. There, indeed, was the mark of a fire, and near by were some +wisps of straw. There were the marks of horses' feet, too, and Eileen +found a white goose feather by the thorn-bush, and a piece of broken +rope. + +"They were here surely," Mr McQueen said, "and far enough away they are +by this time, no doubt. It's likely the police were after them." + +They went back to the road, and the Twins got up again on Colleen's +back, and soon they had reached the near end of the bog. + +Mr McQueen stopped. "I'll be cutting the turf here," he said, "and the +two of you can go on to Grannie Malone's with the donkey, and bring back +the jug with yourselves. Get along with you," and he gave the donkey a +slap. + +The Twins and the donkey started along the road. Everything went well +until Colleen spied a tuft of green thistles, on a high bank beside the +road. Colleen loved thistles, and she made straight for them. The +first thing the Twins knew they were sliding swiftly down the donkey's +back, while Colleen stood with her fore feet high on the bank and her +hind feet in the road. + +Larry, being behind, landed first, with Eileen on top of him. She +wasn't hurt a bit, but she was a little scared. "Sure, Larry, but +you're the soft one to fall on," she said as she rolled over and picked +herself up. + +"I may be soft to fall on," said Larry, "but I'm the easier squashed for +that! Look at me now! It's out of shape I am entirely, with the print +of yourself on me!" + +Then--"Whatever will we do with Colleen?" Eileen said. "She's got her +nose in the thistles and we'll never be able to drag her away from +them." + +They pulled on the halter, but Colleen refused to budge. Larry got up +on the bank and pushed her. He even pulled her backward by the tail! +Colleen didn't seem to mind it at all. She kept right on eating the +thistles. + +At last Larry said, "You go on with yourself to Grannie Malone's for the +jug, Eileen, and I'll stay here until she finishes the thistles." + +So he sat down by the road on a stone and Eileen trotted off to +Grannie's. + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN. + +THE BOG. + +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." + +Larry slipped the halter over a stone, they set the milk-jug in a safe +place, and the three children ran off into the bog. + +The bogland was brown and dark. Tufts of coarse grass grew here and +there, and patches of yellow gorse. There were many puddles, and +sometimes there were deep holes, where the turf had been cut out. + +Mr McQueen was a thrifty man, and got his supply of turf early in the +season. He would cut it out in long black blocks, like thick mud, and +leave it in the sun to dry. When it was quite dry he would carry it +home on Colleen's back, pile it in a high turf-stack near the kitchen +door, and it would burn in the fireplace all winter. + +The children were barefooted, so they played in the puddles as much as +ever they liked. + +By and by Eileen said, "Let's play we are Deirdre and the sons of +Usnach." + +"And who were they, indeed?" said Dennis. + +"It was Grannie told us about them," said Eileen, "and sure it's the +sorrowfullest story in Ireland." + +"Then let's not be playing it," said Dennis. + +"But there's Kings in it, and lots of fighting!" + +"Well, then, it might not be so bad, at all. Tell the rest of it," +Dennis answered. + +"Well, then," Eileen began, "there once was a high King of Emain, and +his name was Conchubar [pronounced _Connor_]. And one time when he was +hunting out in the fields, he heard a small little cry, crying. And he +followed the sound of it, and what should he find, but a little baby +girl, lying alone in the field!" + +"Well, listen to that now," said Dennis. + +"He did so," Eileen went on; "and he loved the child and took her to his +castle, and had her brought up fine and careful, intending for to marry +her when she should be grown up. And he hid her away, with only an old +woman to take care of her, in a beautiful house far in the mountain, for +he was afraid she'd be stolen away from him. + +"And she had silver dishes and golden cups, and everything fine and +elegant, and she the most beautiful creature you ever laid your two eyes +on." + +"Sure, I don't see much fighting in the tale, at all," said Dennis. + +"Whist now, and I'll come to it," Eileen answered. + +"One day when Deirdre had grown to be a fine big girl, she looks out of +the window, and she sees Naisi [pronounced _Naysha_] going along by with +his two brothers, the three of them together, they having been hunting +in the mountain. And the minute she slaps her eyes on Naisi, `There,' +says she, `is the grandest man in the width of the world, and I'll be +wife to no man but him,' says she. + +"So she calls in the sons of Usnach, though the old woman is scared to +have her, and she tells Naisi she's going to marry him. + +"And Naisi says, says he, `I'll never be one to refuse a lady, but +there'll be murder the day Conchubar finds it out!' says he. + +"So they went away that same night, and the old woman fair distraught +with fear. 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 +men of Conchubar pursued them up hill and down dale, and when they +finally caught them, there was fighting that made the ground red with +the blood spilled. + +"And when Naisi and his brothers were all caught together, and Conchubar +was after killing them, sure, didn't Deirdre put an end to herself +entirely, and the four of them were buried together in one grave." + +"But however will we play it at all?" said Larry. + +"Listen, now," said Eileen. "I'll be Deirdre, of course. You can just +be Naisi, Larry, and Dennis can be Conchubar, and he after us, and we +running as fast as ever we can, to get away from him. You must give us +a start, Dennis." + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT. + +"DIDDY." + +Larry and Eileen took hold of hands, and began running as fast as they +could. They jumped from one tuft of grass to another. Dennis came +splashing through the puddles after them. He had almost caught them, +when all of a sudden, Larry stopped and listened. + +"What's that now?" he said. Eileen and Dennis listened too. They heard +a faint squealing sound. + +They looked all around. There was nothing in sight but the brown bog, +and the stones, and the blue hills far beyond. 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." + +They crept up to the bog-hole, and peeped over the edge. The hole was +quite deep and down in the bottom of it was a little pig! Dennis rolled +over on the ground beside the bog-hole and screamed with laughter. + +"Sure, 'tis the beautiful child entirely!" he said. + +"'Tis the little pig the Tinkers had!" cried Eileen. + +"It broke the rope and ran away with itself," shouted Larry. + +"However will we get it out?" said Eileen. "The hole is too deep +entirely!" + +"The poor little thing is nearly destroyed with hunger," Larry said. +"I'll go down in the hole and lift her out." + +"However will you get out yourself, then, Larry darling?" cried Eileen. + +"The two of you can give me your hands," said Larry, "and I'll be up in +no time." + +Then Larry jumped down into the hole. He caught the little pig in his +arms. The little pig squealed harder than ever and tried to get away, +but Larry held it up as high as he could. + +Eileen and Dennis reached down and each got hold of one of the pig's +front feet. "Now then for you!" cried Larry. + +He gave the pig a great shove. He shoved so hard that Eileen and Dennis +both fell over backwards into a puddle! But they held tight to the pig, +and there the three of them were together, rolling in the bog with the +pig on top of them! + +"Hold her, hold her!" shrieked Larry. By standing on tiptoe his nose +was just above the edge of the bog-hole, so he could see them. + +"I've got her," Eileen cried. "Run back for the bit of rope the Tinkers +left, Dennis, and tie her, hard and fast!" + +Dennis ran for the rope while Eileen sat on the ground and held the +little pig in her arms. The little pig squealed and kicked and tried +every minute to get away. She kicked even after her hind legs were tied +together. But Eileen held on! + +"You'll have to get Larry out alone, Dennis, while I never let go of +this pig," cried Eileen, breathlessly. "She's that wild, she'll be +running away with herself on her two front legs, alone." + +Dennis reached down, and took both of Larry's hands and pulled and +pulled until he got him out. + +Larry was covered with mud from the bog-hole, and Eileen and Dennis were +wet and muddy from falling into the puddle. + +But they had the pig! + +"Sure, she is a beautiful little pig, and we'll call her Deirdre, +because we found her in the bog just in the same way as Conchubar +himself," said Larry. + +"Indeed, Deirdre was too beautiful altogether to be naming a pig after +her," Eileen said. + +"Isn't she a beautiful little pig, then?" Larry answered. + +"Well, maybe we might be calling her `Diddy,' for short, and no offence +to herself at all," Eileen agreed. + +The poor little pig was so tired out with struggling, and so hungry, +that she was fairly quiet while Dennis carried her on his shoulder to +the road. Eileen walked behind Dennis and fed her with green leaves. + +She was so quiet that Larry said: "We'll tie the rope to one of Diddy's +hind legs, and she'll run home herself in front of us." + +So when they reached the road he and Dennis tied the rope securely to +Diddy's left hind leg and set her down. + +They found Colleen asleep, standing up. + +Larry woke her. Then he said, "Eileen, come now, you take the jug, and +get on Colleen's back. Dennis can lead her, and I'll drive the pig +myself." + +But Diddy was feeling better after her rest. She made up her mind she +didn't like the plan. She squealed and tried to get away. Once she +turned quickly and ran between Larry's legs and tripped him up. But she +was a tired little pig, and so it was not long before, somehow, they got +her back to where Mr McQueen was working. + +He hadn't heard them coming, though what with the pig squealing, and the +children all speaking at once, they made noise enough. But Mr McQueen +had his head down digging, and he was in a bog-hole besides, so when +they came up right beside him, with the pig, he almost fell over with +astonishment. + +He stopped his work and leaned on his clete, while they told him all +about the pig, and how they found it, and got it out of the hole, and +how the Tinkers must have lost it. And when they were all done, he only +said, "The Saints preserve us! We'll take it home to Herself and let +her cosset it up a bit!" + +So the children hurried off to take the pig to their Mother without even +stopping to eat their bit of lunch. Mr McQueen came, too. + +When they got home, they found Mrs McQueen leaning on the farmyard +fence. When she saw them coming with the pig, she ran out to meet them. + +"Wherever did you find the fine little pig?" she cried. Then she threw +up her hands. "Look at the mud on you!" she said. + +Then the Twins and Dennis told the story all over again, and Mrs +McQueen took the little pig in her apron. "The poor little thing!" she +said. "Its heart is beating that hard, you'd think its ribs would burst +themselves. I'll get it some milk right away this minute when once +you've looked in the yard." + +Mr McQueen and Dennis and the Twins went to the fence. There in the +yard were the two geese with the black feathers in their wings! "Faith, +and the luck is all with us this day," said Mr McQueen. "However did +you get them back at all?" + +"'Twas this way, if you'll believe me," said Mrs McQueen. She +scratched the little pig's back with one hand as she talked. "I was +just after churning my butter when what should I see looking in the door +but that thief of a Tinker with the beard like a rick of hay! Thinks I +to myself, sure, my butter will be bewitched and never come at all with +the bad luck of a stranger, and he a Tinker, coming in the house! + +"But he comes in and gives one plunge to the dasher for luck and to +break the spell, and says he, very civil, `Would you be wanting to buy +any fine geese to-day?' + +"My heart was going thumpity-thump, but I says to him, `I might look at +them, maybe,' and with that I go to the door, for the sake of getting +him out of it, and if there weren't our own two geese, with the legs of +them tied together!" + +"The impudence of that!" cried Mr McQueen. "Get along with your tale, +woman! Surely you never paid the old thief for your own two geese!" + +"Trust me!" replied Mrs McQueen. "I'm coming around to the point of my +tale gradual, like an old goat grazing around its tethering stump! I +says to him, `They look well enough, but I'm wishful to see them +standing up on their own two legs. That one looks as if it might be a +bit lame, and the cord so tight on it! And meanwhile, will you be +having a bit of a drink on this hot day?' + +"Then I gave him a sup of milk, in a mug, and with that he thanks me +kindly, loosens the cord, and sets the geese up on their legs for me to +see. In a minute of time I stood between him and the geese, and `Shoo!' +says I to them, and to him I says, `Get along with you before I call the +man working behind the house to put an end to your thieving entirely!' + +"And upon that he went in great haste, taking the mug along with him, +but it was cracked anyway!" + +"Woman, woman, but you've the clever tongue in your head," said Mr +McQueen with admiration. + +"'Tis mighty lucky we have," said Mrs McQueen, "for it's little else +women have in this world to help themselves with!" + +Then she put the little pig down in the empty pig-pen in the farmyard +and went to fetch it some milk. + + + +CHAPTER NINE. + +THE SECRET. + +Mr McQueen was a good farmer, but at the time he lived in Ireland, +farmers could not own their farms. + +The land was all owned by rich landlords, who did not do any work +themselves. These landlords very often lived away in England or France, +and did not know much about how the poor people lived at home, or how +hard they had to work to get the money for the rent of their farms. + +Sometimes, when they did know, they didn't care. What they wanted was +all the money they could get, so they could live in fine houses and wear +beautiful clothes, and go where they pleased, without doing any work. + +When the landlords were away, they had agents to collect the rents for +them. + +The business of these agents was to get all the rent money they could, +and they made life very hard for the farmers. + +Sometimes when the farmers couldn't pay all the rent, the agent would +turn them out of their houses. This was called "evicting" them. The +farm that Mr McQueen lived on, as well as the village and all the +country roundabout, was owned by the Earl of Elsmore, who lived most of +the year in great style in England. The agent who collected rents was +Mr Conroy. Nobody liked Mr Conroy very much, but everybody was afraid +of him, because he could do so much to injure them. + +So one morning when Mr McQueen came back very early from his +potato-field, he was not glad to see Mr Conroy's horse standing near +his door, and Mr Conroy himself, leaning on the farmyard fence, looking +at the fowls. + +"How are you, McQueen?" said Mr Conroy, when Mr McQueen came up. + +"Well enough, Mr Conroy," said Mr McQueen. + +"And you're doing well with the farm, too, it seems," said Mr Conroy. +"Those are good-looking fowls you have, and the pig is fine and fat. +How many cows have you, now?" + +"Two, and a heifer," said Mr McQueen. + +"You drained that field over by the bog this year, didn't you, and have +it planted to turnips?" went on Mr Conroy. "I'm glad to see you so +prosperous, McQueen. Of course, now, the farm is worth more than it was +when you first took it, and so you'll not be surprised that I'm raising +the rent on you." + +"If the farm is worth more, 'tis my work that has made it so," said Mr +McQueen, "and I shouldn't be punished for that. The house is none too +good at all, and the place is not worth more. Last year was the drought +and all manner of bad luck, and next year may be no better. Truly, Mr +Conroy, if you press me, I don't know how I can scrape more together +than I'm paying now." + +"Well, then," said Mr Conroy. "You must just find a way, for this is +one of the best farms about here, and you should pay as much as any +one." + +"You can't get money by shaking a man with empty pockets," said Mr +McQueen. + +But Mr Conroy only laughed and said: + +"You'll have five pounds in yours when next rent-day comes around, or +'twill be the worse for you. You wouldn't like to be evicted, I'm +sure." + +Then he mounted his horse and rode away. + +Mr McQueen went into the house with a heavy heart, and told his wife +the bad news. + +"Faith," said Mrs McQueen, "I'd not be in that man's shoes for all you +could offer. It's grinding down the faces of the poor he is, and that +at the telling of some one else! 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. + +They had seen Mr Conroy talking with their Father in the yard. "And +it's never a sign of anything good to see Mr Conroy," Eileen said. + +Larry was thinking the same thing, for he said:-- + +"When I'm a man, I'm going to be rich, and then I'll give you and Mother +and Dada a fine house, and fine clothes, and things in plenty." + +"However will you get the money?" asked Eileen. + +"Oh! Giants or something," Larry answered, "or maybe being an +Alderman." + +"Blathers!" said Eileen. "I've a better plan in my head. You know Dada +and Mother said we could have Diddy for our very own, because we found +her ourselves." + +"I do," said Larry. + +"Well, then," said Eileen, "I know it's about the rent they are +bothered, for it always is the rent that bothers them. Now, when the +Fair-time comes we'll coax Dada to let us take Diddy to the Fair. +She'll be nice and fat by that time, and we'll sell her, and give the +money to Dada for the rent!" + +"Sure, it will be hard parting with Diddy, that's been like one of our +own family since the day we found her crying in the bog," said Larry. + +"Indeed, and it will," said Eileen, "but we think more of our parents +than of a pig, surely." + +"But however will we get her to the Fair to sell her?" said Larry. + +"We'll get Dada to take her for us, but we'll never tell him we mean the +money to go for the rent until we put it in his hands," Eileen answered, +"and we won't tell any one else at all. It's a Secret." + +"I'd like to be telling Dennis, maybe," said Larry. + +"We can tell Dennis and Grannie Malone, but no one else at all," Eileen +agreed. + + + +CHAPTER TEN. + +SCHOOL. + +By this time they had reached the schoolhouse. The Schoolmaster was +standing in the door calling the children to come in. + +He was a tall man dressed in a worn suit of black. He wore glasses on +his nose, and carried a stick in his hand. + +The schoolhouse had only one room, with four small windows, and Larry +hung his cap and Eileen her shawl, on nails driven into the wall. + +The schoolroom had benches for the children to sit on, with long desks +in front of them. On the wall hung a printed copy of the Ten +Commandments. At one side there was a fireplace, but, as it was summer, +there was no fire in it. + +The Master rapped on his desk, which was in the front of the room, and +the children all hurried to their seats. Larry sat on one side of the +room, with the boys. Eileen sat on the other, with the girls. + +The Master called the roll. There were fifteen boys and thirteen girls. +When the roll was called and the number marked down on a slate in front +of the school, the Master said, "First class in reading." + +All the little boys and girls of the size of Larry and Eileen came +forward and stood in a row. There were just three of them: Larry and +Eileen and Dennis. + +"Larry, you may begin," said the Master. + +Larry read the first lines of the lesson. They were, "To do ill is a +sin. + +"Can you run far?" + +Larry wondered who it was that had done ill, and if he were running away +because of it, and who stopped him to ask, "Can you run far?" He was +thinking about it when Eileen read the next two sentences. + +They were, "Is he friend or foe? + +"Did you hurt your toe?" + +This did not seem to Larry to clear the mystery. + +"Next!" called the Master. + +Dennis stood next. He read, "He was born in a house on the hill. + +"Is rice a kind of corn? + +"Get me a cork for the ink jar." + +Just at this point the Master went to the open door to drive away some +chickens that wanted to come in, and as Dennis had not been told to stop +he went right on. Dennis was eight, and he could read quite fast if he +kept his finger on the place. This is what he read:-- + +"The morn is the first part of the day. + +"This is my son, I hope you will like him. + +"Sin not, for God hates sin. + +"Can a worm walk? + +"No, it has no feet, but it can creep. + +"Did you meet Fred in the street? + +"Weep no more." + +By this time the chickens were frightened away and Dennis was nearly out +of breath. + +The Master came back. Then Eileen had a turn. They could almost say +the lessons by heart, they knew them so well. + +After the reading-lesson they went back to their benches, and studied in +loud whispers, but Larry was thinking of something else. He drew a pig +with a curly tail on his slate--like this-- + +He held it up for Dennis to see. He wanted to tell him about Diddy and +the Fair, but the Master saw what he had done. "Come here, Larry +McQueen, and bring your slate," he said. "Sure, I'll teach you better +manners. Get up on this stool now, and show yourself." He put a large +paper dunce-cap on Larry's head, and made him sit up on a stool before +the whole school! + +The other children laughed, all but Eileen. She hid her face on her +desk, and two little tears squeezed out between her fingers. But Larry +didn't cry. He pretended he didn't care at all. He sat there for what +seemed a very long time, while other children recited other lessons in +reading, and grammar, and arithmetic. The Master gave him this poem to +learn by heart:-- + + "I thank the Goodness and the Grace + That on my birth have smiled, + And made me in these Christian days, + A happy English child." + +Larry wondered why he was called an English child, when he knew he was +Irish. And he wasn't so sure either about the "Christian days"; but he +learned it and said it to the teacher before he got down off the stool. +It seemed to him that it was about three days before noontime came. At +last they were dismissed, and the Twins went out with the other children +into the schoolyard to eat their luncheon. Dennis ate his with them, +and Larry told him the Secret. + +After lunch they went back into the dark, smoky little schoolroom for +more lessons, and when three o'clock came, how glad they were to go +dancing out into the sunshine again, and walk home along the familiar +road, with the air sweet about them, and the little birds singing in the +fields. + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN. + +THE FAIR. + +For many weeks Eileen and Larry kept the Secret. They told no one but +Dennis and Grannie Malone, and they both promised they would never, +never tell. + +Mr McQueen worked hard--early and late--over his turnips and cabbages +and potatoes, and Larry and Eileen helped by feeding the pig and +chickens, and driving the cows along the roadsides, where they could get +fresh sweet grass to eat. + +One evening Mr McQueen said to his wife. "Rent-day comes soon, and +next week will be the Fair." + +Larry and Eileen heard him say it. They looked at each other and then +Eileen went to her Father and said, "Dada, will you take Larry and me to +the Fair with you? We want to sell our pig." + +"_You_ sell your pig!" cried Mr McQueen. "You mean you want to sell it +_yourselves_?" + +"You can help us," Eileen answered; "but it's our pig and we want to +sell it, don't we, Larry?" + +Larry nodded his head up and down very hard with his mouth tight shut. +He was so afraid the Secret would jump out of it! + +"Well, I never heard the likes of that!" said McQueen. He slapped his +knee and laughed. + +"We've got it all planned," said Eileen. She was almost ready to cry +because her Father laughed at her. "We've fed the pig and fed her, +until she's so fat she can hardly walk, and we are going to wash her +clean, and I have a ribbon to tie on her ear. Diddy will look so fine +and stylish, I'm sure some one will want to buy her!" + +Mrs McQueen was just setting away a pan of milk. She stopped with the +pan in her hand. + +"Leave them go," she said. + +Mr McQueen smoked awhile in silence. At last he said:-- + +"It's your own pig, and I suppose you can go, but you'll have a long day +of it." + +"The longer the better," said the Twins. + +All that week they carried acorns, and turnip-tops, and everything they +could find that was good for pigs to eat, and fed them to Diddy, and she +got fatter than ever. + +The day before the Fair, they took the scrubbing-pail and the broom, and +some water, and scrubbed her until she was all pink and clean. Then +they put her in a clean place for the night, and went to bed early so +they would be ready to get up in the morning. + +When the first cock crowed, before daylight the next morning, Eileen's +eyes popped wide open in the dark. The cock crowed again. +_Cock-a-doodle-doo_! + +"Wake up, Larry darling," cried Eileen from her bed. "The morn is upon +us, and we are not ready for the Fair." + +Larry bounded out of bed, and such a scurrying around as there was to +get ready! Mrs McQueen was already blowing the fire on the hearth in +the kitchen into a blaze, and the kettle was on to boil. The Twins wet +their hair and their Mother parted it and then they combed it down tight +on the sides of their heads. But no matter how much they wet their +hair, the wind always blew it about their ears again in a very little +while. They put on their best clothes, and then they were ready for +breakfast. + +Mr McQueen was up long before the Twins. He had harnessed Colleen and +had loaded the pig into the cart somehow, and tied her securely. This +must have been hard work, for Diddy had made up her mind she wasn't +going to the Fair. + +Mr McQueen had found room, too, for some crocks of butter, and several +dozen eggs carefully packed in straw. + +When breakfast was over, Mrs McQueen brought a stick with notches cut +in it and gave it to Mr McQueen. + +She explained what each notch meant. "There's one notch, and a big one, +for selling the pig," she said, "and mind you see that the Twins get a +good price for the creature. And here's another for selling the butter +and eggs. And this is a pound of tea for Grannie Malone. She's been +out of tea this week past, and she with no one to send. And this notch +is for Mrs Maguire's side of bacon that you're to be after bringing her +with her egg money, which is wrapped in a piece of paper in your inside +pocket, and by the same token don't you be losing it. + +"And for myself, there's so many things I'm needing, that I've put all +these small notches close together. 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. They had on shoes and stockings, and Eileen +had on a clean apron and a bright little shawl, so they looked quite +gay. + +They walked miles and miles, beside bogs, and over hills, along country +roads bordered by hedgerows or by stone walls. At last they saw the +towers of the Castle which belonged to the Earl of Elsmore. It was on +top of a high hill. + +The towers stood up strong and proud against the sky. Smoke was coming +out of the chimneys. + +"Do you suppose the Earl himself is at home?" Eileen asked her Father. + +"'Tis not unlikely," Mr McQueen answered. "He comes home sometimes +with parties of gentlemen and ladies for a bit of shooting or fishing." + +"Maybe he'll come to the Fair," Eileen said to Larry. + +"Sure, he'd never miss anything so grand as the Fair and he being in +this part of the world," said Larry. + +Some distance from the Castle they could see a church spire, and the +roofs of the town, and nearer they saw a little village of stalls +standing in the green field, like mushrooms that had sprung up +overnight. + +"The Fair! The Fair!" cried the Twins. + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE. + +HOW THEY SOLD THE PIG. + +Although they had come so far, they were among the earliest at the Fair. +People were hurrying to and fro, carrying all sorts of goods and +arranging them for sale on counters in little stalls, around an open +square in the centre of the grounds. + +Cattle were being driven to their pens, horses were being brushed and +curried, sheep were bleating, cows were lowing, and even the hens and +ducks added their noise to the concert. Diddy herself squealed with all +her might. + +Larry and Eileen had never seen so many people together before in all +their lives. + +They had to think very hard about the Secret in order not to forget +everything but the beautiful things they saw in the different stalls. + +There were vegetables and meats, and butter and eggs. There were hats +and caps. There were crochet-work, and bed-quilts, and shawls with +bright borders, spread out for people to see. + +There were hawkers going about with trays of things to eat, pies and +sweets, toffee and sugar-sticks. This made the Twins remember that they +were dreadfully hungry after their long walk, but they didn't have +anything to eat until quite a while after that, because they had so much +else to do. They followed their Father to the corner where the pigs +were. A man came to tell them where to put Diddy. + +"You can talk with these two farmers," said Mr McQueen. He brought the +Twins forward. "It's their pig." + +Then Larry and Eileen told the man about finding Diddy in the bog, and +that their Father had said they could have her for their own, and so +they had come to the Fair to sell her. + +"And whatever will you do with all the money?" asked the man. + +The Twins _almost_ told! The Secret was right on the tip end of their +tongues, but they clapped their hands over their mouths, quickly, so it +didn't get out. + +The man laughed. "Anyway, it's a fine pig, and you've a right to get a +good price for her," he said. And he gave them the very best pen of all +for Diddy. + +When she was safely in the pen, Eileen and Larry tied the red ribbon, +which Eileen had brought in her pocket, to Diddy's ear, and another to +her tail. Diddy looked very gay. + +When the Twins had had a bite to eat, they stood up before Diddy's pen, +where the man told them to, and Diddy stood up on her hind legs with her +front feet on the rail, and squealed. Larry and Eileen fed her with +turnip-tops. + +There were a great many people in the Fairgrounds by that time. They +were laughing and talking, and looking at the things in the different +booths. Every single one of them stopped to look at Diddy and the +Twins, because the Twins were the very youngest farmers in the whole +Fair. + +Everybody was interested, but nobody offered to buy, and the Twins were +getting discouraged when along came some farmers with ribbons in their +hands. They were the Judges! + +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." + +All the other men said the same. Then they gave the blue ribbon to the +Twins, and Eileen tied it on Diddy's other ear! Diddy did not seem to +like being dressed up. She wiggled her ears and squealed. + +Just then there was the gay sound of a horn. _Tara, tara, tara_! it +sang, and right into the middle of the Fairground drove a great tally-ho +coach, with pretty young ladies and fine young gentlemen riding on top +of it. + +Everybody turned away from Diddy and the Twins to see this grand sight! + +The footman jumped down and helped down the ladies, while the driver, in +livery, stood beside the horses' heads with his hand on their bridles. + +Then all the young gentlemen and ladies went about the Fair to see the +sights. + +"'Tis a grand party from the Castle," said Mr McQueen to the Twins. +"And sure, that's the Earl's daughter, the Lady Kathleen herself, with +the pink roses on her hat! I haven't seen a sight of her since she was +a slip of a girl, the size of yourselves." + +Lady Kathleen and her party came by just at that moment, and when she +saw Diddy with her ribbons and the Twins beside her, the Lady Kathleen +stopped. + +The Twins could hardly take their eyes off her sweet face and her pretty +dress, and the flowered hat, but she asked them all sorts of questions, +and finally they found themselves telling her the story of how they +found the pig. + +"And what is your pig's name?" said Lady Kathleen. + +"Sure, ma'am, it's Deirdre, but we call her Diddy for short," Eileen +answered. + +All the young gentlemen and ladies laughed. The Twins didn't like to be +laughed at--they were almost ready to cry. + +"And why did you call her Deirdre?" asked Lady Kathleen. + +"It was because of finding her in the bog all alone with herself, the +same as Deirdre when she was a baby and found by the high King of +Emain," Eileen explained. + +"A very good reason, and it's the finest story in Ireland," said Lady +Kathleen. "I'm glad you know it so well, and she is such a fine pig +that I'm going to buy her from you myself." + +All the young ladies seemed to think this very funny, indeed. But Lady +Kathleen didn't laugh. She called one of the footmen. He came running. +"Do you see that this pig is sent to the Castle when the Fair is over," +she said. + +"I will, your Ladyship," said the footman. Then Lady Kathleen took out +her purse. "What is the price of your pig?" she said to the Twins. + +They didn't know what to say, but the Judge, who was standing near, +said, "She is a high-bred pig, your Ladyship, and worth all of three +pounds." + +"Three pounds it is, then," said the Lady Kathleen. She opened her +purse and took out three golden sovereigns. + +She gave them to the Twins and then almost before they found breath to +say, "Thank you, ma'am," she and her gay company had gone on to another +part of the Fair. The Judge made a mark on Diddy's back to show that +she had been sold. + +The Twins gave the three golden sovereigns to their Father to carry for +them, and he put them in the most inside pocket he had, for safe +keeping! Then while he stayed to sell his butter and eggs, and to do +his buying, the Twins started out to see the Fair by themselves. + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN. + +WHAT THEY SAW. + +The first person they stopped to watch was a Juggler doing tricks. It +was quite wonderful to see him keep three balls in the air all at the +same time, or balance a pole on the end of his nose. But when he took +out a frying-pan from behind his stall, and said to the Twins, who were +standing right in front of him, "Now, I'll be after making you a bit of +an omelet without any cooking," their eyes were fairly popping out of +their heads with surprise. + +The Juggler broke an egg into the frying-pan. Then he clapped on the +cover, waved the pan in the air, and lifted the cover again. Instead of +an omelet there in the frying-pan was a little black chicken crying +"Peep, peep," as if it wanted its mother! + +The Juggler looked very much surprised himself, and the Twins were +simply astonished. + +"Will you see that now!" Larry whispered to Eileen. "Sure, if only Old +Speckle could be learning that trick, 'twould save her a deal of +sitting." + +"Indeed, then, 'tis magic," 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. + +This crowd had gathered around a rough-looking man with a bundle of +papers under his arm. He was waving a leaflet in the air and shouting, +"Ladies and Gentlemen--Whist now till I sing you a song of Old Ireland. +'Tis the Ballad of the Census Taker!" Then he began to sing in a voice +as loud as a clap of thunder. This was the first verse of the song:-- + + "_Oh_, they're taking of the Census + In the country and the town. + _Have_ your children got the measles? + _Are_ your chimneys tumbling down?" + +Every one seemed to think this a very funny song and at the end of the +second verse they all joined in the chorus. The Ballad Singer sang +louder than all the rest of the people put together. + +"Musha, the roars of him are like the roars of a giant," Eileen said to +Larry. "Indeed, I'm fearing he'll burst himself with the noise that's +in him." + +The moment the song ended, the Ballad Singer passed the hat, and the +crowd began to melt away. "There you go, now," cried the Singer, +"lepping away on your two hind legs like scared rabbits! Come along +back now, and buy the Ballad of `The Peeler and the Goat.' Sure, 'tis a +fine song entirely and one you'll all be wanting to sing yourselves when +once you've heard it." He seized a young man by the arm. "Walk up and +buy a ballad now," he said to him. "Troth, you've the look of a fine +singer yourself, and dear knows what minute you may be needing one, and +none handy. Come now, buy before 'tis too late." + +The young man turned very red. "I don't think I'll be wanting any +ballads," he said, and tried to pull away. + +"You don't think!" shouted the Ballad Singer. "Of course, you don't +think, you've nothing whatever to do it with!" + +The crowd laughed. The poor young man bought a ballad. + +"There now," cried the Singer, "you're the broth of a boy after all! +Who'll be after buying the next one off of me?" + +His eyes lighted on the Twins. They shook in their shoes. "He'll be +clapping one of them on us next," Larry said to Eileen. "We'd best be +going along;" and they crept out of the crowd just as he began to roar +out a new song. + +An old woman, with a white cap and a shawl over her head and a basket on +her arm, smiled at them as they slipped by. She jerked her thumb over +her shoulder at the Ballad Singer. "Melodious is the closed mouth," she +said. + +"Indeed, ma'am, I've often heard my Mother say so," Eileen answered +politely. She curtsied to the old woman. + +The old woman looked pleased. "Will you come along with me out of the +sound of this--the both of you?" she said. "And I'll take you to hear +things that will keep the memory of Ireland green while there's an +Irishman left in the world." + +She led them to a raised platform some distance away. Over the platform +there floated a white flag with a green harp on it. The old woman +pointed to it. "Do you remember the old harp of Tara?" she said to the +Twins. "'Tis nowhere else at all now but on the flag, but time was, +long, long years ago, when the harp itself was played on Tara's hill. +And in those days there were poets to praise Ireland, and singers to +sing her songs. And here they will be telling of those days, and +singing those songs. Come and listen. 'Tis a Feis [pronounced _faysh_] +they're having, and prizes given for the best tale told, or the best +song sung." + +The old woman and the Twins made their way to the platform and sat down +on a bench near the edge of it. Many other people were sitting or +standing about. An old man stood up on the platform. He told the story +of Cuchulain [pronounced _Koohoolin_]--the "Hound of Culain"--and how he +fought all the greatest warriors of the world on the day he first took +arms. + +When he had finished, another man took his place and told the story of +Deirdre and Naisi, and another told the fate of the four children of Lir +that were turned into four beautiful swans by their cruel stepmother. + +And when the stories were finished a prize was given for the best one, +and the Twins were glad that it was for the story of Deirdre, for that +tale was like an old friend to them. + +After that there was music, and the dances of old Ireland--the reel and +the lilt. And when last of all came the Irish jig, the old woman put +her basket down on the ground. + +"Sure, the music is like the springtime in my bones," she said to the +Twins. "Be-dad, I'd the foot of the world on me when I was a girl and I +can still shake one with the best of them, if I do say it myself." + +She put her hands on her hips and began to dance! The music got into +everybody else's bones, too, and soon everybody around the platform, and +on it, too,--old and young, large and small,--was dancing gayly to the +sound of it. + +The Twins danced with the rest, and they were having such a good time +that they might have forgotten to go home at all if all of a sudden, +Larry hadn't shaken Eileen's arm and said, "Look there!" + +"Where?" Eileen said. "There!" said Larry. "The rough man with the +brown horse." + +The moment Eileen saw the man with the brown horse she took Larry's hand +and they both ran as fast as they could back to their Father. + +"We saw the Tinker!" they cried the moment they saw Mr McQueen. + +"Then we'd as well be starting home," said Mr McQueen. "I'd rather not +be meeting the gentleman on the road after dark." He got Colleen and +put her into the cart once more. Then he and the Twins had something to +eat. They bought a ginger cake shaped like a rabbit, and another like a +man from one of the hawkers, and they bought some sugar-sticks, too, and +these, with what they had brought from home, made their supper. + +Then Mr McQueen brought out his notched stick. "We've sold the pig," +he said, with his finger on the first notch, "and the butter and eggs +was the second notch." Then he went over all the other notches. "And +besides all else I've bought Herself a shawl," he said to the Twins. + +The Twins wanted to get home because the Secret was getting so big +inside of them, they knew they couldn't possibly hold it in much longer, +and they didn't want to let it out until they were at home and could +tell their Father and Mother both at the same time. So they said +good-bye to Diddy, and Eileen took off the ribbons and kept them to +remember her by. Then they hurried away. + +It was after dark when at last they drove into the yard. 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? Wasn't I after telling you that we'd make it out somehow? And +to think of her being a thoroughbred like that, and we never knowing it +at all." She meant the pig! + +But Mr McQueen never said a word. He just gave Larry and Eileen a +great hug. Then Mr McQueen went over all the errands with his wife, +and last of all he brought out the shawl. "There, old woman," he said, +"is a fairing for you!" + +"The Saints be praised for this day!" cried Mrs McQueen. "The rent +paid, and me with a fine new shawl the equal of any in the parish." + +It was a happy family that went to bed in the little farmhouse that +night. Only Mrs McQueen didn't sleep well. She got up a number of +times in the night to be sure there were no Tinkers prowling about. +"For one can't be too careful with so much money in the house," she said +to herself. + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN. + +SUNDAY. + +The next Sunday all the McQueen family went to Mass and Mrs McQueen +wore her new shawl. The chapel was quite a distance away, and as they +walked and all the neighbours walked, too, they had a pleasant time +talking together along the way. + +Dennis and the Twins walked together, and Larry and Eileen told Dennis +all about the Fair, and about selling the pig to the Lady Kathleen, and +"Begorra," said Dennis, "but that little pig was after bringing you all +the luck in the world, wasn't she?" All the other boys and girls wanted +to hear about it. Most of them had never been to a Fair. So Eileen and +Larry talked all the way to church, and that was two miles and a half of +talk, the shortest way you could go. + +Just as they neared the church, what should they see but Grannie Malone, +coming in grandeur, riding on a jaunting-car! Beside her was a big man +with a tall hat on his head. + +"'Tis her son Michael, back from the States!" cried the Twins. "He said +in a letter he was coming." + +They ran as fast as they could to reach the church door in time to see +them go in. Everybody else stopped, too, they were so surprised, and +everybody said to everybody else, "Well, for dear's sake, if that's not +Michael Malone come back to see his old Mother!" + +And then they whispered among themselves, "Look at the grand clothes on +him, and the scarf pin the bigness of a ha'penny piece, and the hat! +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." + +She wiped her eyes as she spoke. Then the bell rang to call the people +into the chapel. It was little the congregation heard of the service +that day, for however much they tried they couldn't help looking at the +back of Michael's head and at Grannie's bonnet. + +And afterward, when all the people were outside the church door, Grannie +Malone said to different old friends of Michael, "Come along to my house +this afternoon, and listen to Himself telling about the States!" + +That afternoon when the McQueens had finished their noon meal, the whole +family walked up the road to Grannie's house. There were a good many +people there before them. Grannie's little house was full to the door. +Michael stood by the fireplace, and as the McQueens came in he was +saying, "It's the truth I'm telling you! There are over forty States in +the Union, and many of them bigger than the whole of Ireland itself! +There are places in it where you could travel as far as from Dublin to +Belfast without ever seeing a town at all; just fields without stones or +trees lying there begging for the plough, and sorrow a person to give it +them!" + +"Will you listen to that now?" said Grannie. + +"And more than that, if you'll believe me," Michael went on, "there do +be places in America where they _give away_ land, let alone buying it! +Just by going and living on it for a time and doing a little work on it, +you can get one hundred and sixty acres of land, for your own, mind +you!" + +"The Saints preserve us, but that might be like Heaven itself, if I may +make bold to say so," said Mrs Maguire. + +"You may well say that, Mrs Maguire," Michael answered, "for there, +when a man has bent his back, and put in sweat and labour to enrich the +land, it is not for some one else he does it, but for himself and his +children. Of course, the land that is given away is far from big +cities, and it's queer and lonely sometimes on the distant farms, for +they do not live in villages, as we do, but each farmhouse is by itself +on its own land, and no neighbours handy. 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. One year when times were hard, and work not so plenty, I lost +my job, and didn't Patrick help me to another the very next week? Not +long after that Patrick ran for Alderman, and myself and many another +like me, worked hard for to get him elected, and since then I've been in +politics myself. First Patrick got me a job on the police force, and +then I was Captain, and since then, by one change and another, if I do +say it, I'm an Alderman myself!" + +"It's wonderful, sure," Mr Maguire said, when Michael had finished, +"but I'm not wishful for to change. Sure, old Ireland is good enough +for me, and I'd not be missing the larks singing in the spring in the +green fields of Erin, and the smell of the peat on the hearth in winter. +It's queer and lonesome I'd be without these things, and that's the +truth." + +He threw his head back and began to sing. Everybody joined in and sang, +too. This is the song they sang:-- + + "Old Ireland you're my jewel sure, + My heart's delight and glory, + Till Time shall pass his empty glass + Your name shall live in story. + + "And this shall be the song for me, + The first my heart was learning, + When first my tongue its accents flung, + Old Ireland, you're my darling! + + "From Dublin Bay to Cork's Sweet Cove, + Old Ireland, you're my darling + My darling, my darling, + From Dublin Bay to Cork's Sweet Cove; + Old Ireland, you're my darling." + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN. + +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. And with the children, God bless +them, coming along by sixes and dozens, and little for them to do at +home, and no place to put them when they grow up, sure, it's well to go +where they've a better chance. + +"Look at the schools now! If you could see the school that my Patrick +goes to, you'd never rest at all until your children had the same! +Sure, the schoolhouses are like palaces over there, and as for learning, +the children pick it up as a hen does corn!" + +"And are there no faults with America, whatever?" 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! All I say is there's a better chance over there for +yourself and the children." + +The Twins and Dennis and the other young people were getting tired of +sitting still by this time, and when Michael stopped talking about +America they jumped up. The children ran outdoors and played tag around +Grannie's house, and the older people stayed inside. + +By and by Grannie came to the door and called them. "Come in, every one +of you," she cried, "and have a fine bit of cake with currants in it! +Sure, Michael brought the currants and all the things for to make it +yesterday, thinking maybe there'd be neighbours in. And maybe 'tis the +last bit of cake I'll be making for you at all, for 'tis but two weeks +now until we start across the water." She wiped her eyes on her apron. + +Mr McQueen was very quiet as he walked home with Mrs McQueen and the +Twins. And that evening, after the children were in bed, he sat for a +long time silent, with his pipe in his mouth. His pipe went out and he +did not notice it. By and by he said to Mrs McQueen, "I've made up my +mind--" + +"The Lord save us! To what?" said Mrs McQueen. + +"To go to America," said Mr McQueen. + +Mrs McQueen hid her face in her hands and rocked back and forth and +cried. "To be leaving the place I was born, and where my father and +mother were born before me, and all the neighbours, and this old house +that's been home since ever I married you--'twill break the heart in my +body," she said. + +"I like that part of it no better than yourself," said Mr McQueen, "but +when I think of the years to come, and Larry and Eileen growing up to +work as hard as we have worked without getting much at all, and think of +the better chance altogether they'll have over there, sure, I can't be +thinking of the pain, but only of the hope there is in it for them." + +"I've seen this coming ever since the children told us about Grannie +Malone's letter," said Mrs McQueen. "'Tis Michael has put this in your +head." + +"'Tis not Michael alone," said Mr McQueen; "'tis also other things. +To-morrow I pay Conroy the rent money. And it will take all that the +pig brought and all I've been able to rake and scrape myself, and +nothing left over at all. And there's but ourselves and the Twins, and +the year has not been a bad one. We have had the pig, which we wouldn't +be having another year. And what would it be like if there were more of +us to feed, and no more pigs to be found in the bog like manna from +Heaven, to be helping us out?" + +"Sure, if it's for the children," sobbed Mrs McQueen, "I'd go anywhere +in the world, and that you know well." + +"I do know it," said Mr McQueen. "And since we're going at all, let it +be soon. We'll go with Grannie and Michael." + +"In two weeks' time?" cried Mrs McQueen. + +"We will so," said Mr McQueen. "I've no debts behind me, and we can +sell the cows and hens, and take with us whatever we need from the +house. Michael Malone will lend me the money and find me a job when we +get there. The likes of this chance will never befall us again, and +faith, we'll take it." + +"Did he tell you so?" asked Mrs McQueen. + +"He did, indeed." + +"Well, then, I've no other word to say, and if it must be done, the +sooner the better," said Mrs McQueen. + +That night she lay awake a long time. She was planning just what they +should take with them to their new home, and trying to think what the +new home would be like. + + + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN. + +MR MCQUEEN PAYS THE RENT. + +The next morning Mr McQueen went to Mr Conroy and paid the rent. Then +he said, "This is the last rent I'll be paying you, Mr Conroy!" + +Mr Conroy was surprised. "What do you mean by that?" he said. + +"I mean that I'm going to leave old Ireland," said Mr McQueen. + +"Well, now!" cried Mr Conroy. "To think of a sensible man like +yourself leaving a good farm to go off, dear knows where! And you not +knowing what you'll do when you get there as like as any way! I thought +you had better sense, McQueen." + +"It's because of my better sense that I'm going," said Mr McQueen. +"Faith, do you think I'd be showing the judgment of an old goat to stay +where every penny I can get out of the land I have to pay back in rent? +I'm going to America where there'll be a chance for myself." + +"I thought Michael Malone would be sowing the seeds of discontent in +this parish, with his silk hats and his grand talk," said Mr Conroy +angrily, "but I didn't think you were the fish to be caught with fine +words!" + +"If the seeds of discontent have been sown in this parish, Terence +Conroy," said Mr McQueen, "'tis you and the likes of you that have +ploughed and harrowed the ground ready for them! Do you think we're +wishful to be leaving our old homes and all our friends? But 'tis you +that makes it too hard entirely for people to stay. And I can tell you +that if you keep on with others as you have with me, raising the rent +when any work is done to improve the farm, you'll be left in time with +no tenants at all. And then where will you be yourself, Terence +Conroy?" + +Mr Conroy's face was red with anger, but he said, "While I'm not +needing you to teach me my duty, I will say this, McQueen. You're a +good farmer, and I hate to see you do a foolish thing for yourself. If +you'll stay on the farm, I'll not raise the rent on you." + +"You're too late, altogether," said Mr McQueen; "and as you said +yourself I'm not the fish to be caught with fine words. I know better +than to believe you. I'll be sailing from Queenstown in two weeks' +time." + +And with that he stalked out of the room and slammed the door, leaving +Mr Conroy in a very bad state of mind. + +All that Larry and Eileen could remember of the next two weeks was a +queer jumble of tears and good-byes, of good wishes and blessings, and +strange, strange feelings they had never had before. Their Mother went +about with a white face and red eyes, and their Father was very silent +as he packed the few household belongings they were to take with them to +their new home. + +At last the great day came. 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. + And the stream that sang to the young children + Run down alone from the sky-- + On the doorstone, grass--and the + Cloud lying + Where they lie + In the old country." + +Mr McQueen and the Twins stood still with their bundles in their hands +until she had finished and risen from her knees, then they went quietly +out the door, all four together, and closed it after them. + +Mrs McQueen stooped to gather a little bunch of shamrock leaves which +grew by the doorstone, and then the McQueen family was quite, quite +ready for the long journey. + +Mr Maguire had bought Colleen and the cows, and he was to have the few +hens that were left for taking the McQueen family to the train. + +Larry and Eileen saw him coming up the road, "Here comes Mr Maguire +with the cart!" they cried, "and Dennis is driving the jaunting-car with +Michael and Grannie on it." + +They soon reached the little group by the roadside, and then the luggage +was loaded into the cart. Mrs McQueen got up with Grannie on one side +of the jaunting-car and Eileen sat between them. Michael and Mr +McQueen were on the other side with Larry. The small bags and bundles +were put in the well of the jaunting-car. + +"Get up!" cried Dennis, and off they started. Mrs McQueen looked back +at the old house, and cried into her new shawl. Grannie was crying, +too. But Michael said, "Wait until you see your new home, and sure, +you'll be crying to think you weren't in it before!" And that cheered +them up again, and soon a turn in the road hid the old house from their +sight forever. + +The luggage was heavy, and Colleen was slow. So it took several hours +to reach the railroad. It took longer, too, because all the people in +the village ran out of their houses to say good-bye. When they passed +the schoolhouse, the Master gave the children leave to say good-bye to +the Twins. He even came out to the road himself and shook hands with +everybody. + +But for all that, when the train came rattling into the station, there +they all were on the platform in a row ready to get on board. When it +stopped, the guard jumped down and opened the door of a compartment. He +put Grannie in first, then Mrs McQueen and the Twins. They were +dreadfully afraid the train would start before Mr McQueen and Michael +and all the luggage were on board. + +It was the first time Grannie had ever seen a train, or the Twins +either. But at last they were all in, and the guard locked the door. +Larry and Eileen looked out of the window and waved their hands to Mr +Maguire and Dennis. The engine whistled, the wheels began to turn, and +above the noise the Twins heard Dennis call out to them, "Sure, I'll be +coming along to America myself some day." + +"We'll be watching for you," Eileen called back. + +Then they passed the station, and were soon racing along over the open +fields at what seemed to poor Grannie a fearful rate of speed. + +"Murder! murder!" she screamed. "Is it for this I left my cabin? To be +broken in bits on the track like a piece of old crockery! Wirra, wirra, +why did I ever let myself be persuaded at all? Ochanee, but it is +Himself has the soothering tongue in his mouth to coax his old Mother +away for to destroy her entirely!" + +Michael laughed and patted her arm, and "Whist now," he said, "sure, I'd +never bring you where harm would come to you, and that you know well. +Look out of the window, for 'tis the last you'll be seeing of old +Ireland." + +Grannie dried her eyes, but still she clung to Michael's arm, and when +the train went around a curve she crossed herself and told her beads as +fast as she could. + +The Twins were not frightened. They were busy seeing things. And +besides, Larry had Grannie's piece of coal in his pocket. From the +window they caught glimpses of distant blue hills, and of lakes still +more blue. They passed by many a brown bog, and many a green field with +farmers and farmers' wives working in them. The hillsides were blue +with blossoming flax, and once they passed a field all spread with white +linen bleaching in the sun. + +They flew by little towns with queer names, like Ballygrady and +Ballylough, and once when they were quite near Cork they saw the towers +of Blarney Castle. + +At last the train rattled into a great station. There was so much noise +from puffing engines and rumbling trucks and shouting men, that the +Twins could only take hold of their Mother's hands and keep close behind +their Father as he followed Michael, with Grannie clinging to him, to +another train. Then there were more flying fields, and a city and more +fields still, until they reached Queenstown. + +The next thing they knew they were walking across a gangplank and on to +a boat. The Twins had never seen anything larger than a rowboat before, +and this one looked very big to them, though it was only a lighter. +This lighter was to carry luggage and passengers from the dock to the +great steamer lying outside the harbour in the deep water of the main +channel. + +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. + +There were many good-byes being said and many tears falling, and in the +midst of all the noise and confusion the sailors were loading tons of +barrels and bags and boxes and trunks on board the ship. + +There was no friend to see them off, but when they saw people crying all +about them, the Twins cried a little, too, for sympathy, and even Mr +McQueen's eyes were red along the rims. + +At last the gangplanks were drawn in, and the cables thrown off. The +screws began to churn the green water into white foam, and the boat +moved slowly out of the harbour. + +The Twins and their Father and Mother, with Grannie and Michael, stood +by the rail for a long time, and watched the crowd on the pier until it +grew smaller and smaller, and at last disappeared entirely from sight +around a bend in the Channel. + +They stood there until the lighter reached the great ship that was +waiting to take them across the water to a new world. + +And when at last they were safely on board, and the lighters had gone +back empty into the harbour, they stood on the wide deck of the ship, +with their faces turned toward Ireland, until all they could see of it +in the gathering dusk was a strip of dark blue against the eastern sky, +with little lights in cottage windows twinkling from it like tiny stars. + +Then they turned their faces toward the bright western sky. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Note 1. Copyright of this poem by Herbert Trench, held by John Lane. + + + +CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. + +TWENTY YEARS AFTER. + +In the middle of one of the busiest crossings in Chicago, there stands a +big man in a blue uniform. His eyes are blue, and there are wrinkles in +the corners of them, the marks of many smiles. + +On his head is a blue cap, and under the edge of the cap you catch a +glimpse of dark hair. There are bands of gold braid on his sleeve, and +on his breast is a large silver star. + +He is King of the Crossing. When he blows his whistle, all the +street-cars and automobiles and carriages--even if it were the carriage +of the Mayor himself--stop stock-still. Then he waves his white-gloved +hands and the stream of people pours across the street. + +If there is a very small boy among them, the King of the Crossing +sometimes lays a big hand on his shoulder and goes with him to the curb. +And he has been known to carry a small girl across on his shoulder and +set her safely down on the other side. + +When the people are all across, he goes back to the middle of the street +once more, and blows twice on his little whistle. + +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. + +All day long the King of the Crossing stands there, blowing his whistle, +waving his white-gloved hands, and turning the stream of people up first +one street, then the other. + +Everybody minds him. If everybody didn't, they might get run over and +wake up in a hospital. Oh, he must be minded, the King of the Crossing, +or nobody would be safe! + +When the long day is over, he looks up the street and sees another big +man coming. This man wears a blue uniform, too, and a silver star, and +when the hands on the big clock at the corner point to five, he steps +into the place of the King of the Crossing and reigns in his stead. + +Then the King jumps on to the platform of a passing street-car, and by +and by, when it has gone several miles, he jumps off again, and walks up +the street to a little house that's as neat as neat can be. + +It stands back from the street in a little green yard. The house is +painted white, and the front door is green. But he doesn't go to the +front door. He goes round by the sidewalk to the kitchen door, and +there he doesn't even knock. + +He opens the door and walks right in. 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. She +is just tasting the something that smells so good, with a spoon. + +When she sees the big man in the door she tastes so quickly that she +burns her tongue! But she can use it just the same even if it is +burned. + +She runs to the big man and says, "And is that yourself, now, Larry +darling? Sure, I'm that glad to see you, I've scalded myself with the +soup!" + +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. + +They take off his cap and rumple his hair. They get into his pockets +and find some peppermints there. And the Baby even tries to get the +silver star off his breast to put into her mouth. + +"Look at that now," cries Uncle Larry. "Get along with you! Is it +trying to take me off the Force, you are? Sure, that star was never +intended by the City for you to cut your teeth on." + +"She'll poison herself with the things she's always after putting in her +mouth," cries the Mother. She seizes the Baby and sets her in a safe +corner by herself, gives her a spoon and says, "There now--you can be +cutting your teeth on that." + +And when the children have quite worn Uncle Larry out, he sits upon the +floor, where they have him by this time, and runs his fingers through +his hair, which is standing straight up, and says to the Mother, "Sure, +Eileen, when you and I were children on the old sod, we were never such +spalpeens as the likes of these! They have me destroyed entirely, and +me the biggest policeman on the Force! Is it American they are, or +Irish, I want to know?" + +"It's Irish-American we are," shouts little Larry. + +"And with the heft of both countries in your fists," groans big Larry. + +And then the Mother, who has been laying the table, meanwhile, +interferes. "Come off of your poor Uncle," she says, "and be eating +your soup, like gentlemen and ladies. It's getting cold on you waiting +for you to finish your antics. Your poor Uncle Larry won't come near +you at all, and you all the time punishing him like that." + +And then the Baby, still sucking her spoon, is lifted into her high +chair. A chair is placed for Uncle Larry, and they all eat their soup +around the kitchen table, just as the very last rays of the summer sun +make long streaks of light across the kitchen floor. + +"Where's Dennis?" says Uncle Larry, while the children are quiet for a +moment. + +"Oh, it's Himself is so late that I feed the children and put them to +bed before he gets home at all," says the Mother. "It's little he sees +of them except of a Sunday." + +"It's likely he'll live the longer for that," says Uncle Larry. He +looks reproachfully at the children and rubs his head. + +And then--"Mother, tell us, what kind of a boy was Uncle Larry when you +and he were Twins and lived in Ireland," says little Eileen. + +"The best in the width of the world," says her Mother promptly. +"Weren't you, Larry? Speak up and tell them now." + +And Uncle Larry laughs and says, "Sure, I was too good entirely! It +wouldn't be modest to tell you the truth about myself." + +"Tell us about Mother, then," says little Eileen. "Was she the best in +the width of the world, too?" + +"Sure, I'll never be telling tales on my only twin sister," says Uncle +Larry, "beyond telling you that there was many another in green old +Ireland just like her, whatever kind she was. But I can't stay here +wearing out my tongue! Look out the window! The chickens have gone to +roost, and the sun is down. So get along with you to your beds." + +When he had gone, and the children were in bed, and the house quiet, the +Mother sat down by the light in the kitchen with a basket of mending +beside her. + +And while she darned and mended and waited for Himself to come home, she +remembered and remembered about when she was little Eileen, herself, and +the King of the Crossing was just her twin brother Larry. + +And this book is what she remembered. + +THE END. + + + +APPENDIX. + +SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS. + +Like the author's earlier books--"The Dutch Twins" and "The Japanese +Twins"--this reader aims to foster a kindly feeling and a deserved +respect for a country whose children have come to form a numerous +portion of our own population. + +To arouse the children's interest and thus to make the reading of this +story most valuable as a school exercise, it is suggested that at the +outset the children be allowed to look at the pictures in the book in +order to get acquainted with "Larry" and "Eileen" and with the scenes +illustrating their home life and surroundings. + +During the reading, point out Ireland on a map of the world or on a +globe, and tell the children something about the unique character of the +country, thus connecting this supplementary reading material with the +work in geography. + +The text is so simply written that any fourth or fifth grade child can +read it without much preparation. In the fourth grade it may be well to +have the children read it first in a study period in order to work out +the pronunciation of the more difficult words. In the fifth grade the +children can usually read it at sight, without the preparatory study. +Give little attention to the expressions in dialect. Let the children +read them naturally and they will enhance the dramatic effect of the +story. The possibilities in the story for dramatisation and for +language and constructive work will be immediately apparent. + +In connection with the reading of the book, teachers should read or tell +to the children stories of Irish life and from Irish folk-lore; for +example, "The Story of the Little Rid Hin," "The Dagda's Harp," and "The +Tailor and the Three Beasts," in Sara Cone Bryant's _Stories to Tell to +Children_; and "Billy Beg and his Bull," in the same author's _How to +Tell Stories to Children_. Material which may readily be adapted to +this use will be found in Johnston and Spencer's _Ireland's Story_. Let +the children bring to class postcards and other pictures of scenes in +Ireland. + +The unique illustrations in "The Irish Twins" should be much used, both +in the reading of the story and in other ways. Children will enjoy +sketching some of them; their simple treatment makes them especially +useful for this purpose. + +The book is printed on paper which will take water colour well, and +where books are individually owned some of the sketches could be used +for colouring in flat washes. They also afford suggestions for action +sketching by the children. + +An excellent oral language exercise would be for the children, after +they have read the story, to take turns telling the story from the +illustrations; and a good composition exercise would be for each child +to select the illustration that he would like to write upon, make a +sketch of it, and write the story in his own words. + +These are only a few of the many ways that will occur to resourceful +teachers for making the book a valuable as well as an enjoyable exercise +in reading. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Irish Twins, by Lucy Fitch Perkins + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE IRISH TWINS *** + +***** This file should be named 28431.txt or 28431.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/4/3/28431/ + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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