IX
Thin I'd think: ‘There's the House; ay, an
thin they'd be fewer to starve an' to stint’;
Yet I hated the thought, an' kep' hopin' I'd maybe
be dead ere I wint.
But I'm just afther hearin' this day what has settled
me plans in me mind,
Like as if I had turned round me face; and I won't
go a-lookin' behind.
I'd been sthreelin' about in the slip at the back,
whin I thought I'd creep down
An' see what was up at M'Gurk's, for it's weeks
since I've been in the town;
So round to the front I was come, an' the first
thing that ever I seen
Was two gintlemen close to our door, an' a car
standin' down the boreen.
And the wan o' the two was a sthranger, a stout
little man, wid each square
O' the checks on his coateen the size of our own
bit o' field over there;
Divil much to be lookin' at aither, tho' here the
lads tould me as how
Twas no less than our Landlord himself, that we'd
never set eyes on till now.
For away off in England he lives, where they say
he's an iligant place
Wid big walls round it sevin mile long, and owns
dozens of horses to race,
That costs him a fortin to keep; so whin all of
his money is spint,
He sends word over here to the Agint; an' bids
him make haste wid the rint.
An' the other's the Agint, I know him; worse
luck, I've known many a wan,
An' it's sorra much good o' thim all. I remember
the carryin's on
We'd have in the ould times at home, whin we
heard he was comin' his round:
For, suppose we'd a calf or a heifer, we'd dhrive
her off into the pound,
Or if we'd a firkin of butther, we'd hide it away in
the thatch.
Ay, bedad, if we'd even so much as an old hin
a-sittin' to hatch,
We'd clap her in under the bed, out o' sight, for,
mind you, we knew right well
He'd be raisin' the rint on us sthraight, if he spied
that we'd aught to sell.
I've heard tell there's a change in the law, an'
the rint takes three Judges to fix,
So it isn't as aisy these times for an Agint to play
thim bad thricks;
I dunno the rights of it clear, but all's wan, for he
would if he could;
And as soon as I seen him this day, I was sure
he'd come afther no good.
But I slipped the wrong side o' the bank ere they
heard me, an' there I sat still,
An' they came an' stood nigh it to wait, while their
car crep' along up the hill.
