A Slim, Fair-Haired Woman, With Her Arms Bare And Her Feet And Legs In
The Same Classic Condition Under Her Short Dilapidated Skirts, Began To
Make Some Eloquent Remarks.
If there had been a thousand or two like her
I do think the seventy police would have had hard work to protect the
bailiff.
One of our company, a gentleman, remarked to her that she had a
fine arm of her own. "Troth, sir," said she, "If I was as well fed as
yourself it's finer it would be." We agreed with this gentleman that if
this woman was fed and clothed like other people she would certainly be
a fine-looking person. She drew near to enquire if we were in any way
connected with the police. Her enquiries were especially directed to
myself. She was told that I was an American lady, and a few faces that
scowled were smoothed into smiles immediately.
There were by this time four women and half a dozen boys present. No one
spoke above their breath but our woman of bare arms. In answer to
something addressed to her by our party, she said, "Sure they could not
take a better time than seed time to droive us out of our senses. Sure
God above has an eye and an ear for it. Look here," she said, throwing
out her handsome bare arm, "look at the bare fields lying waste because
the seed cannot be got to put in the ground; they're cryin' up to God
against it. The cratures here have not enough yellow male to keep the
hunger off. If they had waited till harvest there would be a color of
justice to it." This woman had all the talking to herself, no one else
had anything to say. She herself was not among those against whom the
processes were served.
We saw the process server leave the ranks of the police and walk down to
a wretched little cabin and return in a few moments. The order to march
was given, and the police tramped along to the next house, a bit off the
road. Two or three little children were in the field, apparently herding
cattle. The least one said to his brother in an accent of terror,
"Jimsey, Jimsey, the war is come at last."
Along the road, tramp, tramp, off the road through the bogs, every house
called at seeming worse than the last. A rumor had been running along
before us - ever before us - of an Amazonian army with pitchforks, tongs
and the hooks used for drawing the sea weed ashore, armed and ready,
some three hundred strong, waiting for the police. We never came up to
this army or caught a sight of their rags. Crossing a field we were told
of a merciful lady, a Mrs. Major Jones, who gave them seed potatoes and
trusted them with meal when they had nothing to eat. As the police
halted before some houses we heard the muttered exclamations of the few
women near, "Eagh!
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