Bog-land Studies By J. Barlow: 3rd ed |
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 | Bog-land Studies |  |
129
XIII
But 'tis all in a mist afther thin. First the neighbours come plutherin' round,Callin' wan to the other that Nelly was dead, an' that Felix was dhrowned.
An' the pólis thramped black thro' the glames of a moon that was takin' to rise,
An' thin somebody said: ‘Sure he's murthered her sweetheart before the girl's eyes.’
Was it that set the win' howlin' ‘Murther!’ all over the land in the dark?
An' they axed me a power o' questions, an' fitted me fut in a mark
On the bank. But it's little I heeded whatever they'd do or they'd say,
For thin Nelly was come to her sinses, an' ravin' an' moanin' away,
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So sez I to meself whin I heard her: ‘I'll let thim believe what they will.
I'll say naught, an' the kinder they'll thrate her belike.’ So I just held me tongue.
An' some chaps began booin' an' shoutin' the villin'd a right to be hung.
An' his mother wint callin' him soft, lettin' on he was hid for a joke;
But th' ould father I'd seen shake his fist at me over the heads o' the folk:
Troth, as long as the life's in me body he'll ne'er git a minute o' paice.
And I seen Granny mopin' about wid the fright puckered up in her face.
Och, she'll starve, now, the crathur, she'll starve; that's the throuble I'm lavin' behind. Did I see? I'm scarce certin, but since, I'll be seein' it oft in me mind,
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In black rings, hauled up slow like a log, stiff an' stark, an' laid down where the sun
Was just rachin' to twinkle the dew on the grass. Whin ye looked where that lay,
All the world seemed no more than a drift o' deep night round a hand's-breadth o' day.
But it's clearer I see him come stepped thro' the sunset in glimmers o' gould,
Than that wanst, sthretched his lenth there, stonestill, wid thim black snaky weeds, wet an' could,
Thrailin' round him. Her darlint, her darlint—I hear that asleep and awake;
I'd a right to quit hearin' it now, whin he'll listen no more than she'll spake.
| Bog-land Studies | |