[Penelope’s Irish Experiences by Kate Douglas Wiggin]@TWC D-Link book
Penelope’s Irish Experiences

CHAPTER XI
7/10

"Faix, the thrains don't always be knowin' thimselves!" The starting of the daily 'Mail Express' from Ballyfuchsia is a time of great excitement and confusion, which on some occasions increases to positive panic.

The stationmaster, armed with a large dinner-bell, stands on the platform, wearing an expression of anxiety ludicrously unsuited to the situation.

The supreme moment had really arrived some time before, but he is waiting for Farmer Brodigan with his daughter Kathleen, and the Widdy Sullivan, and a few other local worthies who are a 'thrifle late on him.' Finally they come down the hill, and he paces up and down the station ringing the bell and uttering the warning cry, "This thrain never shtops! This thrain never shtops! This thrain never shtops!"-- giving one the idea that eternity, instead of Killarney, must be the final destination of the passengers.

The clock in the Ballyfuchsia telegraph and post office ceases to go for twenty-four hours at a time, and nobody heeds it, while the postman always has a few moments' leisure to lay down his knapsack of letters and pitch quoits with the Royal Irish Constabulary.

However, punctuality is perhaps an individual virtue more than an exclusively national one.


<<Back  Index  Next>>

D-Link book Top

TWC mobile books