Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1879-10-29
Olga large family, who had only one cow,


eyes and haxen hair, and we thought
her pleasant sight as she tripped along
the Tamley road to market, followed by
her little crowd of white headed children.
The uninitiated, at least, look at her
with pleasure; but the Roman Catholics
cross themselves furtively when they
meet her, and the old and ignorant
among her Protestant neighbors regard
her with evident fear and dislike.
edo you mean to say that she is able
to draw the butter away from your
churn?" we asked our old friend the
farmer.
"Troth is she, miss; there's ma divil-
ment too hard or too bad for that witch
woman Sure she turns herself into 8
hare avery summer NIGHT, an milks the
COWS in the fields. / ha' started big
hare from among my ain cows in this
very field, an as sure as Pm livin'
sinner, it made for yon hole in the back
O Norah's house."
"Do you really think Norah's the
hare?"
"Think it, miss? God bless your in
nocent wit! Pm sure of it. 1t wad be
charity to the countryside to shoot
her WI bit of siller-in troth, if I was
as souple as I used to be, I'd do it my
sep."
"Does it take long to turn her back
into a woman?"
els it long, miss? Not minute.
She just says wheen words that the bad
man learned her, an she's in her ain
shape again."
els Norah the only witch in the
country.
"Na, ma; there's her mother at Cool
back, and her grandmother at Milford !;
all the breed O. them Taylors was witches.
But there's warlocks too; mind to ha'
seen ane O. them when / was a wee chiel
the height O. my stick"
ooh, please tell me all about it"
I was sketching in the old farmers
own meadow, behind the witch's cottage,
and he stood near me, leaning on his
stick; and as I washed in the delicate or
gorgeous tints of my picture, / listened
to his weird tale.
"It was in the County Derry" he be-
gan, "that all my people was born and
bred. The Derry gentlemen was great
riders, an fond of hunting, an it was aye
spree for the wee boys to follow the
hunt. [ could run nigh hand as fast as
hound myself in them days. One day
q mind it as well as if it was yesterday
we couldn't start hare ava, an the
gentlemen was all out O patience, when
we come upon an ould man sitting cob
bling shoes, an herding COWS, in wild
kind O. place below the Birdstown noun
tains.
/" Wad your honors wish me to start
hare for yez says the ould man, risin'
to his feet.
"Ay, surely says the gentlemen,
for we Gamma find hare this day, at all
at ALL
CO Weel,' says the ould man, if I
find hare in thon wood, says he, will
yez gle me five shillin' when the run is
over?"
"Ay, surely, good man, you'll get
the five shillin" say they.
"Wi' that the ould fellow down WI
his awl, and the brogue he was cobbliDg,
an into a clump O bushes that was
about hundred yards off the knowe
where we found him.
He wasna three minutes in the wood
till big hare ran out, an the hounds
after it, an ava over the country. Weel,
we had the best run O that season, but
the hounds couldna get up WI the hare
ava; and at last it brung them back to
the knove fornenst the wood, and ran in
amang the trees, just where it ran out in
! the morning. The hounds lost it there,
an the ould fellow stepped out O the
wood an up to the huntsman. AN
whar's my shillin'?' says he. Weel,
he got the money, an then he smiled up
in the gentleman's face, an Wasn't that
weel run for an ould man?' says he.
Now, my lady, that's as true as gospel.
I ha' seen quare things in my time.
Will l tell you about the black pig that
I found in the potato feld?"
"PIease do; / should like to hear it"
These wild fancies suited the sur.
rounding landscape. Witchcraft seemed
to have fitting home among the noun.
tain lakes and rugged hills Of Donegal,
and fairyland might still exist in the
dells and slopes, and bowers of eglantine
where Titania could have slept.
The farmers stories had, for the mo-
ment, all the effect of truth; he had left
boastful youth very far behind him,
and we rejoiced to have made his &C.
quaintance in his narrative old age"
"My father" he began, was yard
man to his honor Sir William Francis,
of Castle Francis, in the County Derry,
when one summer evening him and me
seen wee slip O black pig running
along the potato ridges in his honor's
home park. [ was brave runner, an
after the little pig. [ caught it, an
held it till my father came up, and be-
tween us we got it into the yard at the
castle, and shut it into sty to itsep.
His honor, Sir William, made inquiries
far an wide to find out if any one had
lost a wee black pig; in troth I wilma
just say, for fear I'd tell lie, but do
think he had it printed in the news.
papers; but naebody wad own the pig,
and dell ane wad take present OF.
$50 there it stopped, an it ate an
ate, till it was that heavy it couldn't get
in an out at the door O the sly, an a
bed had to be made for it in the cart
shed.
/