Part 10 (1/2)
”They're not mine,” she declared stoutly. ”I bought them for you.”
”Very good of you, miss; but what would I be wanting with 'em, when I be selling 'em?”
Paddy looked perplexed. ”Whose in the world are they?” she asked doubtfully. ”They're not mine--and they're not yours--I give it up.”
”Begorra! I'm shure I dunno, miss,” and Patrick fell to scratching his head in great perplexity; ”but it seems as if, seeing I sold 'em and you bought 'em--”
”But I bought them for you.”
”But if I was selling 'em, how could I want for to buy 'em?”
”If Patrick doesn't want them,” put in Jack, ”of course you must take them home, Paddy. I'll help you drive them.”
”Oh! don't be an idiot!” stamping her foot. ”They don't belong to me.”
”But you've just said you bought them.”
”I didn't.”
”You did; you said you had bought them for Patrick.”
Paddy stamped her foot more impatiently still and grew more perplexed.
”Share, and it's beyond me,” and Patrick fell again to his head-scratching. ”If you bought 'em it seems as if they ought to be yours, don't it?”
Paddy looked round with a worried air, and at that dreadful moment descried Lawrence, in the very act of dodging two small pigs that had escaped their owner and were making tracks back to the wagon as fast as they could go. She signalled to him, and he came up at once.
”I don't know what's happened to Newry,” he said, ”but every third person seems to have acquired a small pig. I've been dodging them for the last half-hour. They're all over everywhere.”
Jack began to chuckle in a most annoying manner.
”Paddy's bought fifteen,” he said.
”I haven't. Be quiet, you--you--great, silly clown.”
”Now, don't get cross, Paddy,” soothingly; ”and you've said so many times that you did buy them that it sounds dreadfully like a fib.”
Paddy looked as if she were not quite sure whether to laugh or cry, and Lawrence asked:
”What's the matter, Paddy? Why does he say you've bought fifteen pigs?”
”It's just this way--” began poor Paddy.
”The real trouble,” put in Jack, ”is that Patrick O'Grady doesn't know whether he's been _selling_ pigs or, buying them, and Paddy doesn't know whether she's been _buying_ pigs or selling them. For the last two hours they've been doing both in a sort of cycle, and now they're left with fifteen on their hands, and we want a Solomon to say who they belong to,” and he exploded again.
”If you don't shut up, Jack--I'll--I'll throw a pig at your head,” said Paddy furiously.
”And I offered to help you drive them home,” in an aggrieved voice.
”I'll help instead,” volunteered Lawrence. ”I'm a positive genius at pig-driving.”