The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1879-11-01
SMOKING A WITCH.
A Donegal Legend.

"Pm feared to go WI you the NIGHT,
Jack"
"Feared Is it feared you are2 It's
the fine, brave man you are, for certain"
These last words, spoken in tone of
whitening scOrn, were addressed to Tom
Doolan by his comrade and neighbor,
Jack Devenny.
The two men were about to launch
their boat and row across the Tough, to
cut osiers on the island, and Tom, whose
face was pale, and whose step tottered,
hung back when the time came to take
his place and begin to handle his oar
1t was sunny August day. The
mountains, covered with heather, glow.
ed a warm crimson in the sunshine; when
the corn fields were like sheets of gold,
and Tamney Tough was mirror to re-
fleet unbrokenly the blue sky and sailing
clouds.
Far away beyond Mulroy, an inlet of
the Atlantic, stretched other mountains,
tier upon tier, the nearest hills purple,
the more distant ones like smoke-colored
phantous against the sky. Even the
acres on acres of bog that lay between
the corn fields had beauty of their
own. Every thing was silent. There
was no whir and bleat of snipe, no cry
of gull or plover. Smoke rose from the
chimneys Of the little mud cabins scat
tered here and there over the country,
but there were no voices to be heard
only in the village of Tamney there was
some slight traffic and stir.
Cleared is it you are, TamW re-
peated Deyenny, as he showed off from
the land.
"Ay-the witch! the witch!" faltered
the other, paler than before.
On q sloping feld just below the Tough
was cabin no better than those in the
village, and Tom raised his timid eyes
taward it while he whispered, " the
WITCH the WITCH"
Betty Moriarty had lived there a;
long as the oldest inhabitant. Paddy
Stevens, who had been born in the year
1908, declared that she had seemed az
old woman when he was a boy; and now
in 1900, she looked younger than he.
There was another circumstance thai
made Betty's neighbours regard her with
awe.
She had no ostensible means of sup
port, yet she had plenty of everything
in her cottage; a pile of the driest turf
which no one had seen cut, and butter
that she had not bought at the shop
clothes that, like the garments of the
children Of Israel, "waxed not DID,
All this seemed to be not merely
comfort, but wealth and splendor, in the
eyes of the simple people. Many (
woman who happened to have small
churning firmly believed Betty to have
drawn away the butter from her churn
but was afraid to quarrel with her, anC
therefore spoke Of her loss in guarded
whispers.
The only person who had courage
to reproach the witch was Ton
Doolan, whom she had now reduced t.
an abject state OF fear.
Some months before the beginning o
our story Betty had kissed Toms young
est boy without saying GOOD bless you
for bonny wean," and the child haC
pinned away ever since. Father Dan
indeed, had confirmed the suspicious o
the parents by certifying that the ittl
fellow was suffering from the baneful in
huence of an evil eye.
When Tom Doolan had openly charge,
her with having bewitched the child
and had driven her down the villag
street, not, indeed, lifting his own han,
to her, but permitting his boys to pei
her with mud and pebbles, she had turn
ed to shake her stick at him and threaten
vengeance, muttering curses "not lou
but Deep
"She said she'd waste me to skin an
bone; she said her eyed be on me SLEEP
ing an waking" faltered the tremblin
man.
Whisht, wi your foolitchness," re
proved his companion.
Little Eileen Devenny, too young q
six years old to be afraid of the witch
came to Betty's door at that moment
and peeped in.
She saw the old woman pour waite
into large tub that stood in the middl
OF the room, and place a wooden dish i
It; and, full of interest and curiosity
she walked into the cabin.
There, wean, said Betty, "yo1
watch thon tub, an tell me what tn
wee dish does, an I'll gle you piece vi
taste O butter an sugar on it."
The witch crouched by the hearth
with her pointed chin supported on he
skinny, claw-like hands. Her face Wa
thin and furrowed, her nose meagre an
hooked, her eyes cruel and cunning, an
Inc long teeth that her parted lips dl
closed while she muttered Incarnation
looked cruel, too.
What is it you're sayin', Betty?
asked the child
Watch the wee dish, child, an te
me what you see."
Goa, Betty! Betty! the dish is goin
round an round in the tub"
More muttering.
What's the dish doing now, Ellee
mavourneen?"
Goa! oh! oh! Musha! mushal 1t
spinning round as fast as anythingl 1t
turning over There! It's full of watt
lite gone to the bottom of the tub!'
"TlaHs right;" and Betty rubbe
her skinny claws together, and CRIME
with pleasure. "Thon's your daddy
hoal that's suck in Famney LOugh," 81
ehuvkled, "an' thon thief o the worl