THE CHALK MARK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2823, 22 April 1908, Page 90

THE CHALK MARK.

Br Elizabeth M. Moon.

It was the first Sunday m Lent, and there was a bit of a scuffle just outside the porch of the Tullyhogan Chapel, and more than one boy went down the road with the chalk mark on his coat that proclaimed that he was as yet fancy free — or that his troth was yet unplighted — and it wa6 said that the colleens of Tullyhogan often took this way of promoting a laggard lover. Some of the men were conscious enough of iheir ornamentation, and had also a pretty good idea whose hand it was that had wielded the chalk so liberally on their behalf, but there were others who never gave the day or the custom a ghost

of a thought, and Con Rafferty was one of these. But when he reached his .whin — the most dilapidated, as he was the most indolent, tenant m the whole of Tullyhogan — a cabin that was perched m solitary pictuvesqueness near the edge of the great bog land, and was putting his coat m the chest for another six days' rest. — there on the back of it was a dab of chalk the size of a hen's egg. Con stared at it for a full minute of mystification before he took his best handkerchief and rubbed it off, and loath he was to take it off at all, for such a thing had never happened to him before m all. his born days. And when he had roused the peat- fire and put on the pot for his dinner potatoes the mystification m his face had given place to a smirk of satisfaction and gratification. He called to mind that there had been a rush and push beside the chapel, and someone had given him, as he had called it to himself, " An ill-mannered 6h0v0." and as he had looked back he had caught sight of Norah Grady close behind him, and she had been looking right at him, with her white teeth gleaming nnd her black eyes full of merriment. Norah it must have been, sure enough — Norah Grady, the pick of Tullyhogan — and ehe with a father that owned the land he ploughed, and with a matter of five cows — two of w_iicji were to be his daughter's marriage portion when she had given up " fooliiv " and settled down to his liking. Con Rafferty took his dinner with a respect for himself that he had never experienced before. He looked about the dirty, smoky little compartment that formed his home with the idea, m his head that it wanted a " reding out." And now, when he came to think of it, it was hard on a man to be living alone with never on© to do a " hand's turn " for him when he was working — though this working was a bit of a fallacy on the part Con, for it was little that he had done of any kind since he had come into his " fortdn," which wae a tiny cottage somewhere " Back of the Mountin " which brought him m eight pounds a year. The roof of his cabin had had a rift m its thatching this many a day — his pigsty was a ruin, his potato patch choked with weeds, and lEie field lay fallow, for Con argued that it was a "dale chaper " to buy his handful of "malo" than be at tbe digging and sowing and "only wan to eat it all when it came to that." This had been his thriftless way since he wae a boy, and now he was turned six-and-twenty, and the Tullyhogan. girls had no good word for the "lazy gossoon," and they had' no mind to take up with a husband that had no backbone to him. So they put him out of their reckoning as though he did not exist, and flouted him if he as much as spoke to them. And this was the first time that the chalk mark had found its. way to his coat. With his head full of matrimonial thoughts he leaned on his broken gate that afternoon, to pass the time of day with Larry Byrne, who had buried three wives and was on the look-out for a fourth, it was said. "Ah, it's a quare thing I'm thinkin'," said Con, drawing at his pipe thought- ' What may that be?" said Larry, chilly. Con looked at him slyly. He wondered if Larry had heard that he had received the chalk mark that morning, "It's marriage that I was thinkin' of." "A mighty quare thing it is," said the experienced Larry with a wise wag of his head. "An' tis the wimmin is the quare cattle to drive — wan thing wan day and niver the same twice, that's sartin. An' it's maybe marryuY that you've got m your hid yourself, Con?" "Maybe I have an' maybe I haven't," said Con guardedly. "But it's lonesome fur a bhoy at times, an' there be some mortal fine girls m Tullyhogan." "Thrue for you," said Larry curiously. "An' you've got thim two eyes of yours on wan this blessed minute. An' she might do worse, an' she might do better," added Larry, with a twist of his eye up at the rift m the thatch. i "What 'ud you say to the like of Norah j Grady, now?" [ "She's that spakin' with Mike Higgin i this long while since? Begorra, it'll take more than one of yous to git the betther of himself." " 'Deed now, yous spakin' what yous don't know," said Con with a sudden assumption of knowledge. And with that he turned on his heel and went indoors, leaving Larry m a maze. And so Con with matrimonial prospects m front of him began to tidy up his abode. He gave the Widdy Doolan as . much as half a row of his potatoes to come and help him, and they made a fine sweep of the rubbish, and when the window was cleaned and let m a little more light, and there was a curtain of muslin that Con had found m an old chest hanging m front of it, and the old dresser with its burden of delf was polished from top to bottom, the Widdy Doolan was ] so proud of her work that she had m every woman within a mile to have a look at it, and Con began to put on the airs of a proprietor. Then he set-to himself and thatched the roof all over, and he ] mended the latch of the door that had j been hanging open as long as anybody could remember. He weeded his garden, and talked of borrowing old O'Brien's plough for hig field. And he painted his water-butt red, and the bit of paint that was left freshened up half of the little gate m a wonderful manner. Old Nick, the travelling tailor, put a patch on his clothes here and there, and he took to wearing his Sunday coat now and again, and the girls began to look askance at him and told one another that after all he had got "A rale nice pair of blue eyes iri his hid." And it was then, m th© leisure that came to him after all the bustle of preparation, that he had time to think of his courting. He walked over to see Norah Grady every other evening, and the broad smile — bordering on a laugh — with which she received him, and the blackness pf her j

r dancing eyes, and the tempting redness of her lips threw Con into a state of speechlessness. Not that he ever got the chance of much conversation with her, | for when he was engaged listening to ! her father, who was the most garrulous man m the whole of Tullyhogan, and would "talk the leg off an iron poet," as the saying was, she would give Con a ! little smiling nod that brought the heart leaping up into his throat and then disappear. -It was not, perhaps, a very satisfactory manner of wooing frfiom a lover's standpoint, but Con, being a man that had little to say for himself, did not complain, and when he was done with old Grady there was always the cows to go and look at — especially the two little black ones that were to be the marriage portion J of the daughter of the house, and these I Con had already begun to eye with the complacency of ownership. And he was cogitating m his mind as to the most suitable corner m his field for the erecting of a shed for them. But this state of things could not go on for ever. For more than one gave him a hint of Mike Higgin having thoughts m the same quarter, but, though he scouted them, he wanted to speak and have it out with Norah. And his opportunity came one evening when he was making 'Es way to the Grady Farm and Norah came running towards hSm. She had a red shawl twisted round her head and shoulders, and she did not see him until she was close to him ; and he evidently was not the one she expected to see, for a shade fell over her eager face. And then she gave her careless merry laugh. "Is it yourself, Con? 'Tis a horrible hurry I'm m, for I've to be back inside an hour, an' Mrs Higgin is expectin' me this long while." It may have been the red shawl that set off Norah's beauty, or the rich colour that her haste had called into her cheeks, but it is the truth that Con lost his head and became as bold as a lion, and would have grabbed her m his arms, but she stepped back, and it wa6 only the end of her shawl that remained m his clasp. " Norah, musha, 'tis yourself that is the only w r oman for me. I've loved yous thrue since yous put the mark on me " But Norali pulled away from him with such unmistakable coldness that the words died on his lips. " Och, now what are you talkin' so fine about? Put the mark on the like of you, you great gaby? I niver put no mark on you — but there's somebody wili if you don't lave hould of my shawl;" "Sure, yous put the chalk mark on me, Norah, jewel. Didn't Oi fale the dab m my back an' yous peepin' an' smilin'? Don't look at me so cross like." "You silly gossoon," said the girl contemptuously, twitching her shawl from his clasp. " Haven't Mike Higgin an' m.c been spakin' together this long, while since, if you'd ase the eyes m your hid? Did you think that I'd take up with the like of you instid of Mike? And it's to see him that I'm goin' this blissid minute." "Yous put the mark on me," repeated Con, seeing his dream of bliss and love receding from him and desperately trying to prevent her flight. " I didn't, either, an' if you want to know who did — it was ould Black's granddaughter—her that's comin' down the borreen behind you with her load of peat. An' it's more like she is, with her j-ags an' all. I'm for your betters ; so there!" And with that she sped from him like a bird on the wing, and then paused to call over her shoulder with a saucy laugh : " But, sure, its mighty behouldin' to you I am for the entertainment of my I father when I was afther seem' Mike !" Con stood staring after her with a nettled look on his face and a rage of unreasoning wrath m his heart, for the besttempered man m the world hates to think that he has been the tool of a woman. But it is very certain, as he watched the red-shawled figure running from him, he saw the vanishing also of the two black cows. He stood there fuming until the cause of the mischief came up to him ; then he lifted his irate eyes to the sweet, downcast face and slender figure of Honor Black. | "So," said Con, "'twas yous put the mark on me that first Chalk Sunday that iver was, an' me puttin' it to another." ! " Sure, I took the back of your coat for another bhoy," said the girl m her soft, sad voice. " Glory be to goodness !" Con scratched his head and stared at her m perplexity and not a little chagrin. " An' if I might make bould to ask, who was you takin' me for?" "Och, I took yous for Mike Higgin — him that's spakhV with Norah Grady, wores luck." She turned her face away, and put her hand up to her eyes, and as her pretty mouth quivered piteously Con could have sworn thafc there were tears, on her long black lashes when she looked up at him fagain. Hiß heart was touched — his im- ! pressionable heart — and she was only a bit of a colleen, though a fine game 6ne had made of him unawares, and Norah, the rogue, knowing it all the time. " We've made a rale mess of it, yous and me," he said softly, putting his hand on her arm. " An' I'm thinkin' that it's comfortin' one another we ought to be, an' when all's said an' done Mike Higgin is no great " _ _ I "You'll plaze not to be runnin' of him down to me," said Honor, with an unex- j pected flash of her grey eyes. And with j that she moved on with her load of peat < sods, and, entering her grandparents' i cabin, shut the door m hie face. And Con went home to rail at Norah and his own foolishness. And he shook his fist at an imaginary Mike Higgin and tried to console himself with the thought that if Mike had been out of the way Norah would have come m time to look j upon him kindly. Anyway, there was no good now thinking about putting up a shed for the two little black cows. ! For a week and more he kept quietly out of the way of everyon© at Tullyhogan, 1

for he knew that they would be getting the laugh at him. And as he sat over his git of fire he found his thoughts often straying to Honor Black with her sad little face and wistful grey eyes, and her poor little bare feet ; for the Blacks were the poorest people m the whole of Tullyhogan, and it was said that but for Honor the old people would have beeni worse. And so one day when Honor, came down the borreen with her peat sods she found Con idling about evidently on the watch for her. And he -begged humbly that he might carry her load, and she was not for letting him' at- first, and was mighty stiff and cold and withal' very sad, but she gave way at 'last, just as she did m time when Con persuade^ ber that Mike Higgin, for all his 6ft 3ia of stature and his handsome face, was perr haps no better than one of Con Rafferty'a size and looks. At any rate, she heard this all so often that she came to believe it herself, and though she had not a penny! that she could bring him, Con waa proucbr than any king. And it happened that Mike Higgin fell into wild ways, and it took more than two little cows to pay his' debts, and Norah lost her colour and developed a peevish temper ; and it was no wonder, for she was 6orely tried all through her wedded life.' But Con Rafferty grew industrious and his cabin flourished exceedingly, and there was a chance of him buying a cow of. his own some day. And it was, said that he had the bonniest wife m all Donegal, and Con knew that it was true and worshipped the very feet of her. And Honor Black had put the chalk mark on the best man after all.— M. A. P.