Part 15 (1/2)
”What's the things you said made the boots for the people, Paddy?”
asked dick, after a pause
”Which things?”
”You said in the wood I wasn't to talk, else--”
”Oh, the Cluricaunes--the little ues Is it the quite whether it was them or not that he meant, but anxious for inforood people?”
”Sure, where were you born and bred that you don't know the Good People is the other name for the fairies--savin' their presence?”
”There aren't any,” replied dick ”Mrs Sims said there weren't”
”Mrs James,” put in Emmeline, ”said there were She said she liked to see children b'lieve in fairies She was talking to another lady, who'd got a red feather in her bonnet, and a furon the hearthrug She said the world was getting too--so or another, an' then the other lady said it was, and asked Mrs Jaiving Day They didn't say anything more about fairies, but Mrs James--”
”Whether you b'lave in them or not,” said Paddy, ”there they are An'
maybe they're poppin' out of the wood behint us now, an' listenin' to us talkin'; though I'h down in Connaught they were as thick as blackberries in the ould days
O musha! musha! The ould days, the ould days! ill I be seein'
thiain? Now, you may b'lave me or b'lave me not, but h Patrick one night before Christoose, plucked an' claned an' all, in the other, which same he'd won in a lottery, when, hearin' a tchune no louder than the buzzin' of a bee, over a furze-bush he peeps, and there, round a big white stone, the Good People were dancing in a ring hand in hand, an' kickin' their heels, an' the eyes of thelowin' like the eyes of er than the joint of your thupipes Wid that he let wan yell an' drops the goose an' e an' ditch, boundin' like a buck kangaroo, an' the face on hih the door, where as all sittin' round the fire burnin' chestnuts to see who'd be married the first
”'An' what in the name of the saints is the mather wid yiz?' says me mother
”'I've sane the Good People,' says he, 'up on the field beyant,' says he; 'and they've got the goose,' says he, 'but, begorra, I've saved the bottle,' he says 'Dhraw the cork and give ue's like a brick-kil'
”An' e come to prize the cork out of the bottle, there was nothin' in it; an' ent next one But there was the stone, sure enough, and the ues of the chap that'd played the bagpipes and who'd be doubtin' there were fairies after that?”
The children said nothing for a while, and then dick said:
”Tell us about Cluricaunes, and how they make the boots”
”Whin I'm tellin' you about Cluricaunes,” said Mr button, ”it's the truth I'e, for I've spoke to a man that's held wan in his hand; he was an--rest his sowl! Con was six fut tid a long, white face; he'd had his head bashed in, years before I was barn, in some ruction or other, an' the docthers had japanned him with a five-shi+llin' piece beat flat”
dick interposed with a question as to the process, ai, but Mr button passed the question by