Two Shoeless
Irish Girls Were My Other Companions, And One Of Them, Hearing That I Was
From England, Inquired If
I were acquainted with "one Mike Donovan, of
Skibbereen!" The landlady's daughter was also there, a little, sharp-
visaged, precocious
Torment of three years old, who spilt my ink and lost
my thimble; and then, coming up to me, said, "Well, stranger, I guess
you're kinder tired." She very unceremoniously detached my watch from my
chain, and, looking at it quite with the eye of a connoisseur, "guessed
it must have cost a pretty high figure"! After she had filled my purse
with ink, for which misdemeanour her mother offered no apology, I looked
into the tea-room, which presented the curious spectacle of forty men,
including a number of ship-carpenters of highly respectable appearance,
taking tea in the silent, business-like way in which Transatlantic meals
are generally despatched. My own meal, which the landlady evidently
intended should be a very luxurious one, consisted of stewed tea,
sweetened with molasses, soft cheese instead of butter, and dark rye-
bread.
The inn was so full that my hostess said she could not give me a bed -
rather an unwelcome announcement to a wayworn traveller - and with
considerable complacency she took me into a large, whitewashed, carpetless
room, furnished with one chair, a small table, and my valise. She gave me
two buffalo robes, and left me, hoping I should be comfortable! Rather
disposed to quarrel with a hardship which shortly afterwards I should have
laughed at, I rolled up my cloak for a pillow, wrapped myself in a
buffalo-skin, and slept as soundly as on the most luxurious couch.
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