Part 7 (2/2)
”I don't doubt your honesty, Jemmy; but Jemmy, if I sell my meal to a man that can pay and won't, or if I sell my meal to a man that would pay and can't, by which do I lose most? There it is, Jemmy--think o' that now. Six in family, you say?”
”Six in family, wid the woman an' myself.”
”The sorra man livin' feels more for you than I do, an' I would let you have the meal if I could; but the truth is, I'm makin' up my rent--an'
Jemmy, I lost so much last year by my foolish good nature, an' I gave away so much on trust, that now I'm brought to a hard pa.s.s myself. Troth I'll fret enough this night for havin' to refuse you. I know it was rash of me to make the promise I did; but still, G.o.d forbid that ever any man should be able to throw it in my face, an' say that Darby Skinadre ever broke his promise.”
”What promise?”
”Why, never to sell a pound of meal on trust.”
”G.o.d help us, then!--for what to do or where to go I don't know.”
”It goes to my heart, Jemmy, to refuse you--six in family, an' the two of yourselves. Troth it does, to my very heart itself; but stay, maybe we may manage it. You have no money, you say?”
”No money now, but won't be so long, plaise G.o.d.”
”Well, but haven't you value of any kind?--: sure, G.o.d help them, they can't starve, poor cratures--the Lord pity them!” Here he wiped away a drop of villainous rheum which ran down his cheek, and he did it with such an appearance of sympathy, that almost any one would have imagined it was a tear of compa.s.sion for the distresses of the poor man's family.
”Oh! no, they can't starve. Have you no valuables of any kind, Jemmy!--ne'er a baste now, or anything that way?”
”Why, there's a young heifer; but I'm strugglin' to keep it to help me in the rent. I was obliged to sell my pig long ago, for I had no way of feedin' it.”
”Well, bring me the heifer, Jemmy, an' I won't let the crathurs starve.
We'll see what can be done when it comes here. An' now, Jemmy, let me ax if you wint to hear ma.s.s on last Sunday?”
”Troth I didn't like to go in this trim. Peggy has a web of frieze half made this good while; it'll be finished some time, I hope.”
”Ah! Jemmy, Jemmy, it's no wondher the world's the way it is, for indeed there's little thought of G.o.d or religion in it. You pa.s.sed last Sunday like a haythen, an' now you see how you stand to-day for the same.”
”You'll let me bring some o' the meal home wid me now,” said the man; ”the poor cratures tasted hardly anything to-day yet, an' they wor cryin' whin I left home. I'll come back wid the heifer fullfut. Troth they're in utther misery, Darby.”
”Poor things!--an' no wondher, wid such a haythen of a father; but, Jemmy, bring the heifer here first till I look at it, an' the sooner you bring it here the sooner they'll have relief, the crathurs.”
It is not our intention to follow up this iniquitous bargain any further; it is enough to say that the heifer pa.s.sed from Jemmy's possession into his, at about the fourth part of its value.
To those who had money he was a perfect honey-comb, overflowing with kindness and affection, expressed in such a profusion of warm and sugary words, that it was next to an impossibility to doubt his sincerity.
”Darby,” said a very young female, on whose face was blended equal beauty and sorrow, joined to an expression that was absolutely death-like, ”I suppose I needn't ax you for credit?” He shook his head.
”It's for the couple,” she added, ”an' not for myself. I wouldn't ax it for myself. I know my fault, an' my sin, an' may G.o.d forgive myself in the first place, an' him that brought me to it, an' to the shame that followed it! But what would the ould couple do now widout me?”
”An' have you no money? Ah, Margaret Murtagh! sinful creature--shame, shame, Margaret. Unfortunate girl that you are, have you no money?”
”I have not, indeed; the death of my brother Alick left us as we are; he's gone from them now; but there was no fear of me goin' that wished to go. Oh, if G.o.d in His goodness to them had took me an' spared him, they wouldn't be sendin' to you this day for meal to keep life in them till things comes round.”
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