[The Black Prophet: A Tale Of Irish Famine by William Carleton]@TWC D-Link bookThe Black Prophet: A Tale Of Irish Famine CHAPTER IV 15/17
"Instead of stealin' into the house thremblin' wid fear, as you ought to be, you walk in wid your brazen face, ballyraggin' us like a Hecthor." "Devil a taste I'm afeard," she replied, sturdily; "I did nothin' to be afeard or ashamed of, an' why should I ?" "Did you see Mr.Hanlon on your travels, eh ?" "You needn't say eh about it," she replied, "to be sure I did; it was to meet him that I went to the dance; I have no saicrets." "Ah, you'll come to a good end yet, I doubt," said her father. "Sure she needn't be afeard of Providence, any how," observed his wife. "To the divil wid you, at all events," he replied; "if you're not off out o' that to get me somethin' for this swellin' I'll make it worse for you." "Ay, ay, I'll go," looking at him with peculiar bitterness, "an wid the help of the same Providence that you laugh at, I'll take care that the same roof won't cover the three of us long.
I'm tired of this life, and come or go what may, I'll look to my sowl an' lead it no longer. "Do you mane to break our hearts ?" he replied, laughing; "for sure we couldn't do less afther her, Sally; eh, ha! ha! ha! Before you lave us, anyhow," he added, "go and get me some Gaiharrawan roots to bring down this swellin'; I can't go to the Grange wid sich a face as this on me." "You'll have a blacker an' a worse one on the day of judgment," replied Nelly, taking up an old spade as she spoke, and proceeding to look for the Casharrawan (Dandelion) roots he wanted. When she had gone, the prophet, assuming that peculiar sweetness of manner, for which he was so remarkable when it suited his purpose, turned to his daughter, and putting his hand into his waistcoat pocket, pulled out a tress of fair hair, whose shade and silky softness were exquisitely beautiful. "Do you see that," said he, "isn't that pretty ?" "Show," she replied, and taking the tress into her hand, she looked at it. "It is lovely; but isn't that aquil to it ?" she continued, letting loose her own of raven black and equal gloss and softness--"what can it brag over that? eh," and as she compared them her black eye flashed, and her cheek assumed a rich glow of pride and conscious beauty, that made her look just such a being as an old Grecian statuary would have wished to model from. "It is aiquil to hers any day," replied her father, softening into affection as he contemplated her; "and indeed, Sally, I think you're her match every way except--except--no matter, troth are you." "What are you going to do wid it ?" she asked; "is it to the Grange it's goin' ?" "It is an' I want you to help me in what I mentioned to you.
If I get what I'm promised, we'll lave the country, you and I, and as for that ould vagabond, we'll pitch her to ould Nick.
She's talking about devotion and has nothing but Providence in her lips." "But isn't there a Providence ?" asked his daughter, with a sparkling eye. "Devil a much myself knows or cares," he replied, with indifference, "whether there is or not." "Bekase if there is," she said, pausing--"if there is, one might as well--" She paused again and her fine features assumed an intellectual meaning--a sorrowful and meditative beauty, that gave a new and more attractive expression to her face than her father had ever witnessed on it before. "Don't vex me, Sarah," he replied, snappishly.
"Maybe it's goin' to imitate her you are.
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