The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-11-09
copyright by American Press Association


erny knew that, little as she knew of the
! great desolate world she was wandering
about in She knew many fairies around
! Inniskillen. From the time her mother
| had first told her about her fairy god
mother who bad done so much for her, she
had loved the wee people, and when the
| other children had gathered together for
| their games Norah had always stolen
away into the groves and dells she knew
so we'll to talk with her little friends She
had never quite seen them, though some
times she almost had, and she had many
time found their footprints, and had heard
their faint songs plainly whenever she lay
on the fragrant grass with her eyes closed.
And she knew her godmOther loved her,
for the McInernys were poor and many
choice trihe came to Rorah which her IA
ther could not afford to buy, and there was
many cake of wheaton bread that neither
father nor mother would eat lest the fairy
godmother should be angered
But the year of the famine came, and all
manner of sorrows fell on all the people
around, so that those who could, fed from
the homes they could not keep, and Nc
Inerny was one.
praise God we have little hoard put
by, Ellen" he said to the wife, "an' we
have good health and stren'th. Av we
shtay here we'll have none O. thin three
in a year, for the bitther bad times is come
to tn ouId country, an many a neigh
ber'll have nayther bit nor sup afore the
WHITTIER. Best we'd go t Ameriky whites
we can, for, praise God. nayther wan o. us
cd kape penny put by an the neighbors
shtarvin'."
And Norah cried and said good-by to the
fairies with her little heart breaking, and
went with father and mother on the great
ship that sailed so many days to the west.
And still westward for many days more
they went, in wonderful cars that sped like
light Itself, over hills and through cities,
till there were no more hills and no more
cities, but prairies of waving grain as far
as the eye could reach in every direction.
Enough bread was growing to feed all Ire
land, and the dear, good people at home
were hungry Norah wondered that the
fairies, who knew so much and who could
do so much, should not carry some of all
this plenty across the sea. She did not
know till long afterward that they were
busy at that very work. and that ships were
loading even then with fairy gifts that
would soon gladden. so many Irish homes.
Stout hands and willing hearts will
make home almost anywhere, and away
out on the prairie there was soon a little
shanty that sheltered three strangers, lonely
enough in the vast solitude, but happy in
one another's love. Only little Norah
grieved for the fairies, and wondered al
ways whether they had forgotten her. She
was certain her godmotEer had not, and
she asked her mother if she might not
pray to the good fairy every night after she
had told her beads and prayed to the holy
Virgin. Mrs. McInerny said no. Prayers
were not for fairies; but she thought per
haps a fairy spell would work, even across
the sea, if the good people had not forgot
ten-and who ever heard of fairy god
mother forgetting?
And winters and summers went by, and
Norah from the little slip of girl with big
black eyes and pale thin features, grew into
a tall, slender damsel with merry heart
and rosy cheeks. She was shy as the fawns
that she sometimes saw on the prairies,
and when occasionally some stranger came
TO the snug house that had replaced the
shanty Norah would shrink away, almost
afraid to meet his eyes. The nearest neigh