AN AID TO MEMORY

New Zealand Tablet, 16 January 1913, Page 61

AN AID TO MEMORY

J. M. Caldwell, in Old Irish Life , tells a story of a young peasant, woman, Sally Sweeny, who used to walk into Galway twice a week to do shopping for her employers when they lived in the country. . She could neither read nor write, yet she never made a mistake with any of the messages that were entrusted to her. Once, however, her memory did fail her. One of the ladies of the family had ordered her to bring back a yard of some color of satin, and the unaccustomed word slipped out of Sally’s recollection, But she did not allow herself to be beaten without an effort to recall the word, so she went into the principal shop of Galway still thinking hard.- / What is that ye call the divil V she asked ‘whin it’s not divil that ye say to him?’ ’

‘ls it Satan you would be meaning?’ asked the astonished draper. ... ‘The very wan,’ said Sally, delightfully, * An’ ye’ll give me a yard.’