Natured, giving them a few jokes of a pleasant kind as they passed; the
soldiers looking straight ahead in the most soldierly manner they could
assume, but smiling all the same, poor boys, for surely compliments are
better than hisses and hoots.
I never heard a sound so dreadful as the universal groan or hoot of this
great crowd. There was some speaking, a good deal of speaking, from the
window of the hotel, praising the crowd for their self-control, and
advising them to go home quietly for the honor of the country and the
good cause.
After the sale, the three bands and the great crowd, paraded the
streets. The cattle were brought round in the procession, their heads
snooded up for the occasion with green ribbon. I do not think the cattle
liked it a bit; they had had a full share of excitement in the first
part of the day.
The most active partisan of the Land League was an elderly girl. She was
the inventor and issuer of the most aggravating epithets that were put
into circulation during the whole proceedings. Her hair was dark and
gray (dhu glas), every hair curling by itself in the most defiant
manner. The heat of her patriotism had worn off some of the hair, for
she was getting a little bald through her curls - such an assertive
upturned little nose, such a firm mouth, such a determined protruding
chin.
