SAVED BY THE FAIRIES.

Evening Post, Volume XLI, Issue 103, 2 May 1891, Page 1 (Supplement)

SAVED BY THE FAIRIES.

While enjoying a walking tour through Ireland, I turned into a certain gate-house to inquire my way. It was tenanted by one of the stewards of the estate, who happened to be there at the time. A fine specimen of an Irishman he was» free and hearty, and the cares of the world seemed to have dealt lightly with him. His comely, good-natured •wife, with a rosy Bmile, set a chair by the fireside, and cordially invited mo to rest. A still more practical welcome was afforded in refreshment, and just as I had made myself generally at home a phaeton arrived at the gate. The wife ran out to open it, and while the vehicle passed in the steward directed my attention to its occupant. She seemed a remarkably beautiful woman, judging by the swift glance I got of her. With a humorous chuckle he informed me that she was his stepdaughter, for the night he found her he took the smartest and longest steps he had ever taken in hiß life. "it yer honour had only time to hear, I could tell ye a quare history all about the darlin'." ***** "It was twenty years ago, whin I was a rattlin' fine gossoon of nineteen, a clave well-built fella. I could wrastle the best man in the county, an' hear the ground shakin' whin I tumbled him. I was a fine fist wid the shillelagh, an* as purty a foot at the jig as the best of thim, It tuck me for being a dacent hand at digging', ploughin', or sowin' corn. But for all that I hadn't scattered me wild oats yet, so I was game for the hurlins, pottems, races, lairs, bonfires, weddins, an' wakes. "But one night I was at Andy Flanagan's weddin' ; the whole counthry liked Andy, an' it was a slashin' big spree ! I was just beginnin' too coort Biddy Murphy that year, an' of coorse she was at the party. I futted the boord in a jig wid her in dashin' style, for she was the raal whate at keepin' heel an' toe wid the fiddle. An she whipped such music out of the boords that I •was desperate proud of her. 0, she was as grand as the grisset, as we whelted the flure for the wondher of everyone But sure enough we couldn't dance all night, so I bowled her over to her sate at last. She had noarly knocked the puff out of me. " While I was restin' wid a glass of aperrets, an' discoorsin' with Kate Figgins, be the powers of war, I seen her get up to dance wid redheaded Barney Duff! If she had put a knife in me heart, she couldn't have done me a crookeder turn. I was wishin' the ground would open an' gobble the fiddler, or the candlegrease drop on his catgut, or sometliin' that would put a stopper on their figaries. But of cooree not. They danced till I thought they wor possessed, while I was like a kangaroo waitin' to jump on Duff. "At last they tuk the finishin' twist, an' sittin' down round a corner of the chimbly he began to coort her in the sight of me two eyes. Blood couldn't stand it, so siz I to Kate Figgins, ' Howld on there a minute ; I want to talk soft to Misther Duff.' An' vamoosing around to where they were whisperin', I gey Biddy a look that put the heart across in her, an' ketchia' Duff be the collar, I howled in his ear like a tiger of the wilds <Come outside, Duff; yer time is come.' ' An' don't dar' to follow us,' siz I to Biddy, ■' till one of us is a corpse.' " ' All right,' siz she. ' The man that bates brass out of the other will be the best man!' Bhe gey a roguish laugh, for I don't think she thought I was sarious. But Duff an' meself got out be ourselves fair au aisy, and waltzed round to the back of the barn. But the night •was so dark that whin we began to box we couldn't see anything, and wor sarchin' round to get a skelp at aitch other, whin all of a sudden I got a clip on the side of the nose. That gey me the^lie of the ground. I measured where' it came from wid a welt that felt a hint of where he was. I follyed it wid another, an 1 a touch of the foot that shot him, holus boliw, into a potato trenoh. If I'd only had a sack handy, I'd have covered him up an' said no more about him. It waa then time to be goin' home, and shapin' away fair an' dacent round the back yard, I had climbed up on the top of the afcvle, whin I got a wbippia' start, for I seen something white coming towaufcme. I thought it might be the goblin of Duff, for I was sure I kilt him— but who was it but Biddy Murphy herself ! " ' 0 murdher, Maloney, acushla I Is it yow ?' siz she. ' I came out to see which of yez was kilt." " 'Go round to the haggard, siz I, ' an' just at the back of the barn, down in the potato trench, ye'U find the beraved corpse of redheaded Duff !' "'0 ye didn't go kill him all out ! •Sure y* didn't, Murphy, avourneen ? I though* ye'd only give him a warnin 5 . B»t, 0 honey, if ye kilt ■him, yell have to run * or c " are life, or yell be tuk up for murdher !' ♦ That's just what I was thinkin', eiz I. ' An' what in the sporld will Ido ?' sez she. « I'll be left a lonely widow before I'm married at all at all!" And she began to cry her «yes out on the stile. "I thought she wa* makin' game of me. ' Renumber, Biddy,' siz I, ■* you wor the cause of it all ; and when I'm cotch be the polis an' put on me thrial, I'll plade guilty for, ye.' " ' Ah ! go on 'ow a that, and escape before yer pulled,' siz she, givin' me a shove that lifted me off the stile. 'Go an', save yerself, an' don't be brakin' me heart.' "'Well, good-bye, Biddy,' I viispered ; ' yell never see me agin,' and I gey leg bail a« hard as I eouid like across country. Afther runnia' meself out of breath, I sat .down in .a sheltered nook, worn out an' heart broke, whin all at once I ielt a battjle in me pocket. What brought it -t&ere? Was it Biddy 3Turphy ? If it wa3, maybe it was physic or something worse. I pulled out the cork an' put jae nose to it.

The first sniff was enough ; it was whiskey. Nothin' could be better for a man in my shoes, an' I took a swig that fixed me narves. I was about to light up for a smoke, when I heard a cry on the meadow at me rare, an' the jinglin' of curious music floatin' around. I peeped thro' the brambles, and a bluish mist flickered before me with a flock of glistenin' fairies flyin' thro' it. I held me breath, an' just as the fairies took a finishin' fly round, I saw a large black sperrit wid a bundle in its arms, skippin' about on the grass. The cry of a child was comin' from the bundle, and 1 couldn't resist me nature. So, jumpin' out of me ambush in the brambles, I landed the black goblin a welt in the side of the jaw that made it talk foreign. I folly'd up me work be plantin' a couple more tasty boxes on the lug so smart that I puzzled it. An' while it was tryin' to think where the clouts came from, I whipped the bundle out of its arms, an' took to me heels across the meadow into the darkness. I swep' over the hedges an' ditches like a merricle, till the day began to break, an', lookin' round, I seen the fairies was gone ! An' I was alone wid me cryin' bundle. " Well, I began to think I was in a proper fix; what call had I to the child ? Whose was it ; an' what was I goin' to do wid it ? If I brought it home they'd put it over the parish that it was me own, an' that would give the laugh to Duff, if he ever recovered ; so I thought I'd lay it on the side of the road for somebody goin' to market. I found a sheltered nest be the millstone, but before I left the babby I thought I'd have a squint at it. It never stopped cryin' up to this, an' I was almost afeerd to look at it; for I heerd that fairy children are cross an' scannin' ugly thieves ! But for all that I couldn't lave it without one peep at it, an' wid me heart in a flutther T cautiously Jpicked the frillings aside. An' oh, be the powers ; the light nearly left me two eyes ! The loveliest little darlin' I ever seen in all me born days was wrapped up in the white lace flounces an' feathers, like a primrose in a bank of daisies ! When she saw me she stared wid her big blue eyes, stopped cryin', and didn't know whether she ought to be frightened or not. But all at once she began to laugh. Sure enough she laughed right up into me face ! It was as if she knew me all her life, or took me, maybe, for her father. " Whin I seen the sort she was, I couldn't find it in me heart to lave her by the roadside. So I fowlded her up, snug from the sharp moruin' air, an' belted home be the shortest cut I could measure. " Whin I throtted in—' Oh,' siz me mother ; ' what kep' ye out all night, Murthy? *Yer gettin' worse an' worse every day.' Well, mother, I was at the weddin' of Andy Flanagan, an' comin' home I found a present for ye. I took her from the black sperrit of the fairies, an' yell say she's a posey !' ' Oh, saints presarve us from all I harm, Murthy, jewel : ye didn't go an' intherfare wid the good people, to take their chilhern from them ?' '• ' To be Bure I did. What do I care about thim ?" " ' Ah ! Murthy, alanna, ye don't know what ye are talking about. Why they'd folly ye over the world for the child, an' make a cripple of ye. Kitty, bring me out the big shovel an' give it a hate in the fire.' 1 What do you want the shovel for, mother ?' siz I. ' Want to put the fairy child on it when it's hot, an' we'll see how it'll fly off; it's the only way to get rid of it now.' 'If ye dar to put it on the shovel, mother, I'll go for the polis ! An' maybe they'll be here every minute, for I'm expectin' they'll be wantin' to see me. Eed-headed Duff was found dead in the trench at Andy Flanagan's last night, an' they'll want to know whin I parted from him. Look at that — what do you say to that, mother, for a fairy ?' I opened the frillings, an' it laughed so pretty and orowed that it worked on me poor old mother's heart. She ordhered Kitty to put back the shovel, took the crather in her arms, an' cuddled it as if it was her own ! * * * * # " Fivfl dftys afther I was takin' a turn up the road, whin who did I meet but Biddy Murphy dhrivin' to market. 'So yer not took up yit !' Biz she. 'I wouldn't be here if I was,' siz I. • Did ye bury Duff yit r* She burst into a fit of laughter : ' Sure, he's not dead at all. It was he that flung your corpse into the thrench ; he swares he was sure he kilt ye. an' he's gone on his keepin' from the polis.' " ' Where is he ?' I shouted, ' an' I'll bring the polis round his red head In shape of my two fists, that'll make him think the stors are fallin'.' " Just as I eatd this up came Peggy Myles, of the Cross, an' she stopped to discoorse. She was anglin' for a lift in Biddy's car. The owld witch couldn't keep the bridle on her tongue, and, sez she, ' Good mornin', Misther Malowney, that's grate news entirely that I heerd about you. An' how is yer fine daughther that ye brought home the othar mornin' ? I hpepd- yer mother is nursin' it. I tried to sjtop the busy owld thief, but she would b}ur:t it out ! "At first I thought Biddy was goin' to fall out of the car— she got such a start! But recoverin' herself cUe turned to me and axed me, ' Is that thrua, Murphy V 'It is thru©,' I siz, for I was proud it gey her a cut. But, bedao! if it did she paid me back wid a cut I didu't bargain for. She lifted the whip an' broke it in bits across me shouldhers. I niver got such a nnte sot of skelps in all we life ! But it was a proof that the crattior was fond of mo !' "Just whiie jye wor havin' the wrangle, a earriago «.a' two horses came dashin' down the roiid. Pullin' up ehort, siz tho coachniau ; " Poes any of you know where Murthy Muloney's houso is about hore ?' 'To be sure I do,' siz 1$ ' I'm the same boy, at yer service.' Well ye'd thiuk the lady in .the coa,«li would lep' thro' tho windy whin slip he,erd who I was. '0, Slistb^r Malonsy, what about me poor child— have ye got it safe an' sound ?' Well, whin Biddy heerd that her passion got the bother of her. 'Is it possible that

you're the mother of Murthy Maloney's daughter?' An' only for Mrs. Myles an' meself she'd have flitthered the ribbons of the lady in the carriage. "Well, very soon the whole discovery was found out. A general's family, just come home from India, had taken possession of the castle, an' they had brought home to Ireland a faymale black nurse. One night she took a fit of madness, an', with the child in her arms, she danced out of the castle ; where, nobody could make out. It was while she was caporin' ronnd whore I was hid in the brambles, that I thought be tho dull light of the moon the jinglin' bells and sparklin' gloss on her flyin' skarf was the fairies, an' in the mornin' she was found helpless lyin' on the meadows, where I gey her the couple of boxes on the ear. i " For four days they couldn't make out what had become of the child, an' whin they sarched me out, en' me mother gey it back safe an' sound, ye'd think the poor lady would lose her sinses with joy ! " But it was the makin' of me ; it put me on me feet entirely. I've got me home in the gatehouse of the castle ever since, an' Biddy Murphy — that was — is there before ye. She opens the gate for her misthress, my stepdaughter, an' she opens her arms for meself whin I come in afther me day's work. As for Duff, he was sent be the Government on a visit somewhere out foreign, where he married a black, an' the Indian nurse died in a lunntic asylum.