The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1877-08-25

| always SeIIlnS up amongst themselves TO
discurrldge low spirits at the wake of
one Of their friends who had died of
starvation, or been knocked in the head,
maybe, by custom house man-bad
luck to him!-for trying to smuggle "A
drop O. mountain dew for his reverence
Father O'Toole."
And were you a gravedigger after
you came to American" asked Phil.
Bedad, no, l was drafted the day
afther got my naturalization papers
bad luck to them!--and sent off to the
PotomIk along with Mikkllin. Afther
that l was so used to my shpade loike
that stuck by it, and first it was mar
ket gardiner | was till | threw over the
vegetation part, and was head man to a
howerist on the avenue"
And that was where the Duke--I
mean MIR. Goodenough-found you. Fa-
ther wanted a gardener, and the Duke
l mean Mr.. Goodenough- that he
always brought the beautiful bouquets
which he bought Reinette at one place,
and he thought you had more to do with
caring for the flowers than the proprietor
| himself
Mike gave long sigh, which ended in
whistle, shook his head, and planting
his spade firmly in the ground, went on
with his work
" What's the matter, Mike?"
"Only that same little granehouse is
for sale now, with gintale little shantv
with two rooms and bit of shop on
the road j'ined to it, where two people
might be aisy and comfortable loike, and
where a handy CURL might sell seeds and
flowers, and be afther making bouquets
for balls and weddings and funerals, and
crosses and wreaths of mortals for the
seminary; but, bedad, the last price he'll
be afther taking in money down, barrin'
the thousand to run on interest, is eight
hundred dollars, and it's only five hun
dred we've got betwane u.s."
Phil had no idea who the handy CURL
was so ambiguously referred to, and he
was so afflicted at the thought of Mikes
leaving that he did not ask. But what
will our own little garden do?" he asked.
"Oh, as to the loikes of that, you
won't made me at all this winter, and |
could come every week and do all that's
wanted in the shpring- time. Don't you
be afther pickin' them oranges. Masther
Phil; it's just ravin' your mall be, and
they amt ripe, nayther"
Dinghy, diddlety, my mammy's maid
She stole oranges | am afraid.
sang Phil, who had lately taken part in
some pantomimes from Mother Goose,
and for whom, in consequence, each
event of life suggested some quotation
from that classic author.
Shtalin', is it? Sure, it isn't Mary
Ann would be afther doing the loikes
of that, and don't you be saying any
thing about oranges to me, or it's pas
sion you'll be putting me in. Sure,
isn't Tim M'Crea an Orangemen, and it's
afther falling down his ladder and break.
ing his dirthy hod that | hope he'll be
dom one of these days. The saints
desart him for trying to shtale Mary
Ann away from meme that worshups
her shoe-strings. Sure | don't know
but he might have got her intirely if it
hadn't been for that little piece of paper
over the Toulouse door"
Why, how was that, Nike"
Sure it was the night O the card
party, this day week, when the Guild
gintleman left so suddint like q was
helpin' Mary Ann put the things to rights
in the parlor afther the company had
gomez He's got his walkin' ticket
says l, and it's right glad that am;
it's no more the loikes o him that's good
enough-his name it's lie,' says /
that's good enough to marry Miss
Reinette than hod-Carrier should marry
you,' says |. And with that she fetched
me slap on the side of the face with
the cards she'd been apiCKin' up. One
o them ships out of her hand, and so,
to be afther botherin' her, puts it in
my pocket. And supposin' the loikes
of some one else has been getting his
walkin' ticket says she, l don't see
why he shud be savin' it so careful like
says she.
"Well the next morning she comes
out to the garden, and | saw her eyes
were red like, as if she'd been crying
the night through, and, says she: 'Misther
Murphy, will you be afther giving me
that little ticket; it's mad the misthress
will be when she finds there's card in
the pack that's lost out of it, Then |
| gave it to her, but niver a word did
shpake. With that she gave little
start, and, says she: Did you see what
was on the card you gave me?' says she.
Nothing that you couldn't do without as
aisy as you could do without me, says 1.
Well, what she said next knocked the
surprise clane out of me. Its the
shamrock says She the little three
leaved shamrock, the emblem of ould
Ireland, and I'd give my life for the ould
country says she. Then you amt a
bit of an Granger, says l. Well, don't
exactly mind what we said next-some
blarney or other-but | do mind that,
just as l was afther kissin' her, your ma
dropped down on US loike thousand O.
brick"
6 declare" said Phil, you couldn't
make it more like the book if you tried:
"The king of spades,
He kissed the maids,
Which veXed the queen full sore"
And Reinette, from her hiding. place
in the arbor, heard it all. So Mary Ann
had been having her troubles TOO, and
the cards had told her fortune. If her
own could be decided in some such way,
Then the thought came to her that the
same rules held good when diamonds
were trumps as when spade happened
to be the card turned, and that so the