The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-07-27
w. E.. COX,

he circulated. "Ihat'S the 'RRkes o. Nal
low. They'll be 'afther jiegin' it at, the
eSf It isnt tSe first pat'thern I've seen in
nigh on year"
Tne.scene as We approached 1t was AMI
mated. -Four roads met in a coy little
hollow, where the hawthorn hedges had
grown to NOISY trees. Overhead the crows
clroled, cawing carelessly, and on the
smooth, white clay road, hard as any dane
burned young fellows stood up. opposite
each other .sand footed it with sort of
silent enthusiasm that is Celtic only in very
modern days. Gathered around the dancers
were orones who might have been druidical
prieetesses and groups Of square-built,
wearing each but a single garment. The
old piper, in battered knee breaches, walked
to and fro on the short grass among the
daisies, and blew till his cheeks pulled out
and every colleen and gossoon of them all
beat the time.
"Arrah, look to yourself, Patrick
Good for ye, Maggie Yobin; that was a
foine step!'' So the onlookers admonished
and oheered them on while the jig was in
full swing.
At the approach of strangers whist ye''
went around; there's Teddy COMM" and,
Maggie, whose big supple figure had been
all abandon, her head, her arms and her
whole body dancing as heartily as her feet,
f1rst became awkward, the angles came in
her elbows, her smile faded, she dropped
out of step and fell back hastily to lose
herself in the little crowd. while Patrick
looked neither to the right nor to the left,
but danced stolidly on, and the piper piped
his loudest, both disdaining to pay any at
to storm barricade cabin or had
hot water flung on her from window. II
was rather a painful reminder of the
STRAINED relations between the cabins
/ ana the ''big houses" but in minute the
vaRrant. harmless character of the tourists
seemed to be recognized, for two chubby
little colleens, clad chiefly in their own in
nocence, scrambled through gap in the
hedge, and reappeared hastily with tin
pail holding milk at penny glass;
with which they with undyng hope pur-
sued the car for half a mile, ohurning into
butter. with their steady dog trot, all that
they did not spill.
has the heart for dancing-is very little bit
of the peasant girls Sunday. Early in the
morning one sees her coming through the
wet grass, down the long lanes from every
little cabin under its own clump of trees
mile maybe from the country road
perched high on the rounded slope of the
hills. Her skirt is of fresh homespun but
no longer than that she wears on week days.
Her head is still bare or. maybe, if she is
past Is and out at service, she has achieved
the dignity of straw hat with bunch OF
cheap fiowers-a piece of gorgeousness
which accords we'll with her ideas of the
days proprieties but interferes with thu
travellers notions of the picturesque ani
traditional. Fortunately or unfortunately
according to the point of view
the straw hat is only occasional
The narrow country road leads he
through the foxgloyes and the whitey-pin
| roses-a couple of miles or maybe four-t
| the huddled streets of the dark little vi
| lage, where the parish chapel is as dark an
buildings, but she kneels in all faith an
sincerity, tells her beads with pious indus
try and tries to keep her thoughts, not fro
wandering but from wandering too ia
while the Latin rolls out sonoriously wit
edifyinR if unintelligible sound. When Il
little congregation files out again under Il
sky and the elders stop to talk-alas!
: eyictions or tenants defense leagues..tl
} colleen, whose eyes are bright, has no la,
of brown peasant lads or. more blissf
) still, of one to walk the homeward TO,
. with her and pull her yellow acacia bloor
and roses.
t Monday is different matter. for I
0 serious business of life begins for the pref
8 colleen when she is only slip of gi
+ There is always cabinful of young
= brothers and sisters to mind and stockin
1 to knit when the wool can be come by /
: sale at the nearest market town. if not
: wear, and spinning to be done on the din
9 old wheel that stands when the SUNNI
9 days are ine on the stone inst outside I
!. cabin door, and weaving, too. on the SIN
\ and awkward handloom OF rough a
. rather primitive dannels-though I
spinning and weaving here 40 elsewhere Z