THE WHISTLING MAID

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1665, 27 January 1904, Page 9

THE WHISTLING MAID

(By Angus-Idal, in “M.A.P.”)

It was from the fair of Kncckany that Connor Maguire was coming the first time he laid eyes, on Mairgread Kelly. "Upon His mother’s doorstep they met, in the hour that is neither daylight nor twilight, buttho soft light between, and the silver glance of her grey eye and tine gleam of her moon-gold hair fastened a chain from that minute upon h.s soul. He gave her a salutation and passed into the kitchen, where his s’-ster Cauth was preparing his suppciv He sat down without, a word, and his gaze wandered and fixed itself on the open door, where his mother and; the stranger girl stood talking. Above the low* voice of the old woman the syren’s sjweet tones broke melodiously upon liis ear. _ • it “Who is she?” ho asked of Cauth at

lost: ‘ 3 v - *•/ ; -She is Shajun IveiT.y’s daughter—the man from the West who is newly come to dwell yonder/’ she answered him, pointing through the window to the little white house among tiiio trees in the hollow*. “I &aw the man and'his wife yesterday,” Connor said, “but the girl never until now.” • Cauth made no answer, but in, her heart she thought, “It is too soon you have seen hef.”After a ydiile the girl went away and the old woman came in; saying: / “Shaun Kelly’s daughter oame over to - know if it is to-morrow w*e’d be hay- - -making. Her father sent her. She is a pleasant-spoken girl.” ; “Not mere pleasant spoken than. Ally Moarh,'another,” sa'/l Cauth. Connor flushed red at her words, and, leaving the kitchen, went to his bed and slept; All night long he dreamed! of. Shanh Kelly’s daughter. the Maguires began the hay-making and Mairgread Kelly and her father came to help, and also.oame Aily Meara and her brother Seamus, ar/l a few boys and girls of the place. - Once Connor went to -where Ailv Meara stood among tho yellow hay in the angle'of the meadow*. None saw them but one woman when he kissed her bps. Her dark eyes shone happily. “I thought it was forgetting me you wore,” she said to him. “I could not forget you,” he answered! and again he kissed her. Far away across the meadow came a rippling stream of melody , faint and low at first, then a torrent of silver sound. ' They turned and looked. It was Mairgread Kelly, leaning on her hay-fork and - r looking, at them. From her red iips came the silvery music, and. as she look-_ ed and whistled, Connor turned slowly from Aily .Meara and walked to where the strange girl stood. When there lay but a yard’s distance between them, she - .'looked deep in his eyes and her lafughter rang out. “Is it mocking mo you are P ho said to her, in sliame and anger. But’she laughed an, and turned her / back upon him. ; , Tt was in that part of the field most of the young men ivould w*ish to be work- ' 2 ing that day. x In the far end of' the meadow Ally ; Meara sat all alone and- wept. Tired r from weping. and weary from the heat, •• ; sho feel asleep at last and her long •brown locks fell about her like a clou/. She slept on until twilight, and no cxiie -missetl^lier. ; r At,awoke, cold and shivering, and beside..her upon the ground lay her • browji jocks in . a heap. “Ah,.; Holy Mother, help sno!” she wailed. “It w*as an eerie thing far me ' to sleep under the air like that. Now I ■am punished.” 22 / She gatliered the shining brown mass into her apron, and slipped home in. the grey light.. 2- The mother looked at the shorn head of her daughter; in her apron sho saw the brown, beautiful hair. She raised her hands "aloft and wailed. * / : :“Ever and always you used to be too venturesome,”, she said.. “It - is* the Women of the Shoe who have put that ' mockery upon you. Well you know -they dislike those who go against their ' wishes;?' ' ’■ . '■ ' ' ' / ‘ . , But Seamus, lier brother, spoke in -.frentthe open door; saying:.. . *. . ! ; Ifc is not gentle hands, mother,; that ~ - were at the cutting of her half* - I saw living woman-bend over-Ailywhere she

eat sleeping in. the meadow/but I had no knowledge of what she was at until hpw.” ;////

“Who was she?” cried! the women together. •/“That I couldn’t say. She was too far off for me to tell that,” he answered them. :/?

In' his mind he said. “It’s no good thing a whistling woman would! ever b 9 at, the world knows.” It was many a day after tliat before Aily crossed her mother’s threshold. Often the garrulous woman would bring them news of Conner Maguire from the village. It would be, one day: «*.. “Connor is a mean fellow and unmanly. It is but this minute I saw him come up the Lang Road with Shaun Kelly’s daughter, and it’s two hours, if it is a minute, since I saw her slip across Neilan’s field to meet him.” On another:

“They say lie can’t eat nor sleep sinoo he saw her face, and Ma-ire Shaun made a mock of you to-day for being cast aside for the Whistler.”

“Ah, mother, don’t speak of him or her; my heart is too sore/' tho girl would say. And no more would be said until- next day. Then there would be a new story. Morning, noon, or night that Mairgread Kelly would he going or coming through the village, it is either laughing or whistling she’d be; oftenesit whistling. At that sound the women would cross themselves and 'murmur one to another—

“A whistling woman or a crowing hen., There’s never luck in the place they’re ipn.” But the young men one and all, would me from the meal or the work, an/ by the way of no harm stroll out on the high-road to get a smile or a nod from Shaun Kelly’s daughter. On© Sunday evening, when the sun was red in the west. Ally Meara said to her mother—

“There’s something strange over me to-night, and its weak and low I am.”

Aud the mother said to her — “It’s from being inside always now, you’re taken that way. Put the shawl over your head and walk down the Long Road a bin. There’s not a soiii to bo seen.”

Aily put the shawl on her head anjrl went out.

She wandered on aimlessly a little distance from the house, and' her step was slow, for the strength was leaving hex clay by day. ■Suddenly 'footsteps sounded near, and voices. She drew the shawl ©loser about her face, and stood under the bushes by the roadside.

It was Connor Maguire and MaAgread Kelly. “Cauth is to be married soon,” said _ the man, “rand why not yen and me soon alter?” 'I

A murmur of laughter was the answer. There was scorn in that laughter. “Aon don’t love me,” said Connor, “and yet it’s you I think more of than my own soul.” “I never asked yofu to think of me,” laughed the woman. “Besides, it’s not you nor your like that would suit me for a husband, and there’s one waiting for me back in the West this many a day.” “You drew the heart of me.” said Connor, and one of us will die -before he’ll get you. even if the waiting one was the Great Dhioul himself.”

The silver light grew in the woman's eyes, and, opening her scarlet lips, she began to whistle softly. The'heart in the man melted —tears flowed from his eyes. - “Ah, God forgive me; God forgive me!” he muttered.

- A moan broke on his ear close by. He turned to see whence it came, and as he did so Mairgread Kellly sped away . ' A yard or two away from him something dark lay on the groun/, very still. It was a woman’s figure. He lifted the shawl from the face. It was Aily Meara, and she seemed! as one dead. Terror seized on Connor Maguire. He shrieked aloud, and, clasping her to his heart, cried: “Aily 1 Aily 1 it is I that killed you 1” Seamus Meara and some others came running to him then, and they took Aily from him and carried her home to her mother. Noit a man of them sipoke to him. He fallowed them to the house, and stood outside when they carried her in. The old mother had pi'ty for him standing there after a while, and she said to him: , , ... “It’s only a weakness that was on Ally. You can come to see her tomorrow.' Speech was gone from. him. He shook the old woman's hand. . _ As soon as ever it was twilight the next evening, away with him to Aily Meara's house.

It was not long he was there when a terrible storm of thun/er and lightning arose. * / , <c You’ll marry me at Shrove, Ally? he said at last to her. The red came and went on her cheek. “Maybe I will,” she said. Above the sound of the storm, from somewhere down the road oame the sound of whistling—sad, and sweet, and! clear. It oame to them for a moment, and then died away. Ally’s face paled. She looked at Coonor, bub he smiled in her eyes, saying—- - “It’s only that whistling girl.” ' - Soon after Seamus came in.

‘‘lt’s a terrible night for a woman to be out,” he said. “Just now I saw Shaun Kelly's daughter talking to a strange man down, the road below.” * - • Tp the morning ia ; woman was founsl sa

| in the river, her forehead all black and J burnt. - - The men said it was the lightning killed her. But the'women—- “ ‘‘A whistling wonian or a crewing hen Was never good for God or men.” •