This
was agreed to, and dear enough they were; but the weather was very
cold, and the lad was barefooted, and there was no other alternative
than either to accept her offer, or for him to go without.
In a few days, Monaghan brought them home; but I found upon
inspecting them that they were old socks new-footed. This was rather
too glaring a cheat, and I sent the lad back with them, and told him
to inform Mrs. R - - that as he had agreed to give the price for new
socks, he expected them to be new altogether.
The avaricious old woman did not deny the fact, but she fell to
cursing and swearing in an awful manner, and wished so much evil to
the lad, that, with the superstitious fear so common to the natives
of his country, he left her under the impression that she was gifted
with the evil eye, and was an "owld witch." He never went out of the
yard with the waggon and horses, but she rushed to the door, and
cursed him for a bare-heeled Irish blackguard, and wished that he
might overturn the waggon, kill the horses, and break his own
worthless neck.
"Ma'am," said John to me one day, after returning from C - - with the
team, "it would be betther for me to lave the masther intirely; for
shure if I do not, some mischief will befall me or the crathers.
That wicked owld wretch! I cannot thole her curses. Shure it's in
purgatory I am all the while."
"Nonsense, Monaghan! you are not a Catholic, and need not fear
purgatory. The next time the old woman commences her reprobate
conduct, tell her to hold her tongue, and mind her own business,
for curses, like chickens come home to roost."
The boy laughed heartily at the old Turkish proverb, but did not
reckon much on its efficacy to still the clamorous tongue of the
ill-natured old jade. The next day he had to pass her door with the
horses. No sooner did she hear the sound of the wheels, than out she
hobbled, and commenced her usual anathemas.
"Bad luck to yer croaking, yer ill-conditioned owld raven. It is not
me you are desthroying shure, but yer own poor miserable sinful
sowl. The owld one has the grief of ye already, for 'curses, like
chickens, come home to roost'; so get in wid ye, and hatch them to
yerself in the chimley corner. They'll all be roosting wid ye
by-and-by; and a nice warm nest they'll make for you, considering
the brave brood that belongs to you."
Whether the old woman was as superstitious as John, I know not; or
whether she was impressed with the moral truth of the proverb - for,
as I have before stated, she was no fool - is difficult to tell; but
she shrunk back into her den, and never attacked the lad again.
Poor John bore no malice in his heart, not he; for, in spite of
all the ill-natured things he had to endure from Uncle Joe and his
family, he never attempted to return evil for evil. In proof of
this, he was one day chopping firewood in the bush, at some distance
from Joe, who was engaged in the same employment with another man.
A tree in falling caught upon another, which, although a very large
maple, was hollow and very much decayed, and liable to be blown down
by the least shock of the wind. The tree hung directly over the path
that Uncle Joe was obliged to traverse daily with his team. He
looked up, and perceived, from the situation it occupied, that it
was necessary for his own safety to cut it down; but he lacked
courage to undertake so hazardous a job, which might be attended,
if the supporting tree gave way during the operation, with very
serious consequences. In a careless tone, he called to his companion
to cut down the tree.
"Do it yourself, H - -," said the axe man, with a grin. "My wife and
children want their man as much as your Hannah wants you."
"I'll not put axe to it," quoth Joe. Then, making signs to his
comrade to hold his tongue, he shouted to Monaghan, "Hollo, boy!
you're wanted here to cut down this tree. Don't you see that your
master's cattle might be killed if they should happen to pass under
it, and it should fall upon them."
"Thrue for you, Masther Joe; but your own cattle would have the
first chance. Why should I risk my life and limbs, by cutting down
the tree, when it was yerself that threw it so awkwardly over the
other?"
"Oh, but you are a boy, and have no wife and children to depend upon
you for bread," said Joe, gravely. "We are both family men. Don't
you see that 'tis your duty to cut down the tree?"
The lad swung the axe to and fro in his hand, eyeing Joe and the
tree alternately; but the natural kind-heartedness of the creature,
and his reckless courage, overcame all idea of self-preservation,
and raising aloft his slender but muscular arm, he cried out,
"If it's a life that must be sacrificed, why not mine as well as
another? Here goes! and the Lord have mercy on my sinful sowl!"
The tree fell, and, contrary to their expectations, without any
injury to John. The knowing Yankee burst into a loud laugh. "Well,
if you arn't a tarnation soft fool, I never saw one."
"What do you mane?" exclaimed John, his dark eyes flashing fire.
"If 'tis to insult me for doing that which neither of you dared to
do, you had better not thry that same.
