THAT BLUE-EYED COLLEEN.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXV, Issue 12, 23 July 1897, Page 21

THAT BLUE-EYED COLLEEN.

(By Thomas McEwen in the Windsor Magazine.")

'Twas the terrible bad luck I'd been having for some toime, wid no work to be hud at all at all. whin I got a letter from me Bister Bridget, who is after bein' housemaid in a gran' house in Glasgow. In her letter she baid it was a futman her misthress was in want ay, an' if I would come over the watther she would put in a word for me an' maybe I wud get the job. Well, over to Glasgow I goes wid the steamer from Belfast, an' 'tis afraid lam I'll not be after seem dear ould Oireland again. I was mortal say-sick comin' over, so 'tis thinkin' I am I'll never 'get back again, onless by wan of them balloons or else a miracle like Moses and the Kid Say. Whin I gets to Glasgow, I had some tay in a coffee-house on the qtiay, and thin I wint straight to Park Circus, to the foine house whi re Bridget is housemaid. 'Twas loike clxmbin' Jacob s ladder to get up to the dure, but I reaches the top of the stheps at last. Whin I rings the bell a wee gossoon, about the height of two scrubbers and dressed in blue clothes with brass buttons on thim opens the dure. ' Sez he to me as quick as loightnin', an' in the quarest lingo ye iver heard : " We've nothing for you to-day." •' Arrah now, haven't ye, me illigant spalpeen ? " aez I. " An 1 who's your tailor now, if 1 might ax the question ? 'Tis the gran' advertisemint yell be for him intoirely. Are ye after sleepin' in thim clothes with the brass sovereigns on thim ? They fit ye loike a glove, me son." " You imperent fellow," soz the crathur ; '■ if you don't move on I'll call a policeman." I cudn't help laughin' at him so I cudn't. " Polisman ! " sez I ; " faix that's the very kind ay gentleman I'd be deloighted to see. If all that me sister Bridget writes home it thrue 'tis ihe polismen are her best f rinds in this dirty ould Glasgow Muny's the noight they're afther havin' a bit of divarsion in the kitchen wid her " " Hush," sez the bit of a crathur, like a flash. " Are you Bridget Flannigan's brother 1 " • I am," sez I ; " and I'm after comin' over the say about the situation of futman." '• You should have gone round by the servants' door," sez he • '• but come in quietly and I'll take you downstairs." ' I stheps inside an' he shuts the dure an' takes me through a gran' passage wid chairs an' tables in it, an' picture on the walls on ivery side ay me, an' thin down some stairs an' into a kitchen as big as the whole ay the ould farrum-house at home. Bridget was sittin' at a table beside a flre, havin' her breakfast. She jumps up whin she sees me, and runs and throws her arrums round me neck, nearly knockin' down the wee fella wid the brass buttons. " Och, 'tis deloighted I am to see ye, Dennis, me dear ! " sez she. Thin she puts on the fryin'-pan an' boon I sits down to a foine dihh ay bacon an' eggs. I was just at me fourth egg when I hears a bell ring behind me. At that Bridget gets aff her chair. •'That's for me, Denis, me bhoy ; just wait here, will ye now an' I'll be afther axin' me lady if she'll see ye." " All roight. Bridget, me darlint, 'tis not lonely I'll be with this foine dish of bacon an' eggs to keep me company." Bridget goes away, an' I was just makin' meself at home wid me breakfast whin into the kitchen comes the prettiest wee colleen f iver seen. " The top ay the ruornin' to ys, acushla," sez I, gettin' up an' offenn her a chair. " Thank you," sez she, spakin' like the wee fella wid the buttons but foiner ; " I won't sit down. I thought Bridget was here." "She is not," sez I. '• Wan ay them bells forniustye is just after ringin', an" off she went sayin' her ladyship wanted her. But sure now, would Bridget's brother Denis not do your turn for a while .' " " Are you her brother .' " sez the colleen, smoilin as swate as ye plaze. ' " I ani. ' so/. I. " an' no one else. I'm just after comin' over from Oireland about the futman'.s place, an' blissed be the day I left Belfast an" tuk the steamer that's afther bringin' me, bay-sick all the toime, to be cured by the soight ay the loveliest colleen that iver was, an' that's yoursilf now." " I'm afraid your a dreadful flatterer, Mr. Flannigan," sez ghe still smoilin' in a curious way. "Is your home anywhere near Blarney Castle ? " "Not a bit ay it." sez I ; '• but 'tis not far from Shane's Castle on Lough Xeagh, if ye know the spot. But may I sup sorra if in all ould Oireland there's a pair ay bewitching,' beaucheous eyes the ayqual ay thim that's now forninst me ! 'Tis hopin' lam I'll have the faylicity ay gazin' at them many's the time if her ladyship's koind enough to give me the futman's place. 'Tis thinking lam ye're engaged by her ladyship like the rest ay the servants." " Well," sez she, " I am engaged here, but not exactly like the rest ay the servants." " Och, thin, 'tis supposin' I am ye're her ladyship's own attindant—what they call lady's maid maybes. I've beeu towld thim gran' ladies always have a faymale servant all to themselves for dressin' their hair an' sichlike trifles." "You've very nearly guessed correctly," sez she. "I do gometimes dress her ladyship's hair ; but yet I'm not exactly her maid either." "Och, well, 'twill just be a sort ay companion ye are thin as the sayin' is." ' " Yes, that's perhaps a more correct way of describing mv Dosition in the house." ' *

" Arrah now, alannah, 'tis the sin an' shame to waste your luvely oharrums on a number ay your own sex. Sure a luvely bit crathur loike ye wud be the most illigant gintleman's companion that ivir was. Tis the long toime I've been sarchin' for a companion wid luvely blue eyes an' hair ay sunshine loike your own, an' niver till this blissed day did I meet wid any wan so Bhuitable aa your purty silf. Cud we not be afther makin' an' agrayment mavourneen, wid just wan swate, deloightful kiss to put a shtamp on it ? " " I'm afraid you're too late," soz she. " I've already agreed to be a companion of the kind you speak of." " Ach, acushla, 'tis terrible disthressed lam to hear ay it. But maybes ye've put no sthamps to your agraymint, an' in that case ay coorse ye wudn't be afther thinkin' it bindin'. Faix now 'tis the gran' wan I am intoirely for puttin' sthamps on an agraymint ay the koind I'm epakin' ay. Arrah now, wud I not be afther givin ye a Bam pie ay how I can do it .' Troth, there was niver a boy that was betther at postman's knock than mesilf." She said nothin' to this, excep' to burst into the hearty laughin,' which sounded for all the world loike silver bells tinklin'. The table was betwixt us, bad scran to it ; if it hadn't been, begorra I'd have been after kissin' her where she stud, an' faix I believe Bhe'd have enjoyed it. But as I was gettin' ready to go round to her the kitchen dure opens an' in walks Bridget. Whin she sees the wee colleen standin' laughin' forninst me she comes forward an' s z to ber — " Beg pardon, me lady, this is me brother Dennis that I tould ye ay ; 'tis hoping I am yell be able to give him the futman's place." Och, och, och ! when 1 heard that I knowed I'd opened me mouth an' put me fut in it wid a vingeance. Here I'd been afther making luve to my lady hersilf, an' now — well I was sthruck spacheless all at wance. But begorra 'twas wan of the roight sort me lady was, for she sez to Bridget, sez she — " Well, Bridget, I've just been having a little conversation with your brother Dennis, and I think he is far too clever a young man for a footman ; but I'll speak to Sir Charles about him, and perhaps we may be able to give him a situation in which his abilities will have greater scope for exercise." Thin she turns to me an' sez smoilin' all over — " Good-bye, Mr. Flannigan. I shall be sure to tell my husband what a pleasant companion you have been this morning." Wid that she wint out ay the dure, lav in' me standin' wid me mouth open loike a sthuck pig. Well, that self -same day she sint me word to go an' see Sir Charles at his office, an' loike the rale gintleman he is he giv me a situation in his warehouse, an' I'm afther gettin' five an' twinty shillins' a wake stiddy, wid the promise ay a free house an' coals an' gas whiniver I can mate in wid a colleen that plazes me as well as did her ladyship that misfortunately had a prayvious ingagemint. An' bedad what I'm afther tellin' ye shows ye need niver be afraid ay offindin' a lady by lettin' her know ye admire her, if ye're only afther doing it in an illigant way, the same as mesilf.