They Do Not Seem
To Have "Reasonable Suspects" On Their Minds.
The asses of Belturbet,
although some of them appear dressed in straw harness, and with creels,
are well fed and sleek and do not bray in a melancholy, gasping manner
as if they were squealing with hunger as the Leitrim asses do.
It rained
pretty steadily during the time I was in Belturbet, and the principal
trading to be seen from my window was the sale of heather besoms. A
woman and a young girl, barefooted and bareheaded, arrived at the corner
with an ass-load of this merchandise. They were sold at one half-penny
each. They were neatly made, and the heather of which they were composed
being in bloom they looked very pretty. How it did rain on these
dripping creatures! Being shut up by the weather I took an interest in
the besom merchants and their load, which was such a heavy one that a
good-natured bystander had to help to lift the load off the ass's back.
It was a long while before a customer appeared. At length a stout woman,
with the skirt of her dress over her head, ran across the street to buy
a broom. She bargained closely, getting the broom and a scrubber for one
half-penny, but as she was the first purchaser she spat upon the half-
penny for luck. Then came some more little girl buyers, who inspected
and turned over the brooms with an important commercial air, with intent
to get the worth of their half-penny and show to their mothers at home
that they were fit to be trusted to invest a half-penny wisely.
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