The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-03-26

an odd wizened little wretch, and every
one Stunned him. The children loathed
him, so they hooted him from a distance,
or stoned him from behind walls.
Indeed, at this time his only ally was
the pig that lived in one corner of the
hovei. The pig was a friendly animal,
his front half was dull white and the
other half black, and this gave him a
homely look, as if he was sitting in his
shirt sleeves. Andy would shrink into a
corner and sit cuddled there with one arm
around the pigs neck. Old Mike Loner-
gan took to drink. and spent every even
| ing at the shebeen-small blame to himl-
for how could man beexpected to stay at
home with a changeling sitting in cor
ner and staring at him? He complained
that even at night, when the pig was
snoring and the smoky cabin was only lit
by the waning turf fire. he could still 500
the child s eyes, for Andy was wake u
and used to wriggle off the shelf that ad
been fitted for bed for him (since no Ole
could sleep with a changeing) and snug
gle against the warm flank of his COM
rade.
When the pig was driven to the town of
Ennistimon Andy was left friendless, for
the new pig was lean and morose, and
then in all winds and weather he was to
be found on the cliffs of Moher. Some
times he stopped out ali night, till hunger
would bring him back, when the Loner-
! gans were rejoicing at his disappearance.
He knew every inch of the cliffs, and spent
half his time lying on the edge of the gray
preclpice, looking down at the sea 800 feet
below, or watching the clouds of sea birds.
He found new paths down the cliff side
and clambered like a goat. He knew
where the gulls nested, but never robbed
them, and the caves where the seals lived,
and the seals shouldered their way
| orb fao oil Nv
at him with soft eyes.
When he was about Ia, the famine year
came; fever and s'The Hunger'' swept
Glare. The fever took Lonergan and his
wife, and they were buried in the dead pit
at Liscannor; it left Andy, but it left him
blind. Then the neighbors began to have
their doubts whether he was changeline
after all; for the FAIRIES are faithful, and
who ever heard of changeling being left
blind and penniless? If he was only
mortal he had been cruelty treated, SO to
make amends they gave him the fiddle
that had belonged to the Clark man
that is the blind man-of St. Bridget Is
we'll, who had lately starved. There was
still feeling that he was unit for holy
well, SO he took up post at the Nissan
nor crossroads, and there levied a toll on
passers with the professional heart broken
cry:
Remember the dark man? For God s
sake, remember the dark manl''
For nearly twenty years Andy haunted
| the crossroads; he came to be hon
ored as one of the inststu-
lions of Moher, though the folk
considered there was much that was
uncanny about him, he was also silent,
and he hated the smell OF whisky.
He went to his post every morning
with such steadiness that Mary Shaugh-
messy used to say that the noise of
his stick on the road was better
than a clock to her. And every one
he met gave him kind and most respect
ful greeting. He spent his evenings
alone, lying curled up like a dog on his
hearth, staring at the spluttering turf
with blind eyes.
| This was his best time, yet even then he
had lonesome and hard life. Often in
winter he came very near starving, for the
passers by the crossroads had then sell
| dom a half-penny to spare. He never
begged frcm any one except at the cross
roads, and his dog Bonaparte would not
| have taken aims in his tin can anywhere
else. But Larry Roman the blacksmith
watched tenderly over him. Larry-who
! is childless and has a stern wife-needs
some one to protect and has made himself
guardian of every cripple and witless in
| County Clare; neglected children look to
| him for sugarstlcks and pelted dogs fly to
! him for refuge. When the snow sheeted
| the moors and had like to have soaked
| Andy's roof, it was Larry climbed up and
cleared the thatch. When the window
was broken it was Larry mended it with
an old pair of trousers; ''for sure" said
he, ga dark man can see as far through
them as through glass; When the blind
man was starving silently, it was Larry
stocked the cabin with meal and potatoes,
that himself could i'll spare, but he told
me he did it "unbeknownst, for Dark
Andy was terrible proud
| Now those were the times when Corne-
! Illus Desmond ruled Moher in the old
kindly haphazard way, never troubling
penniless tenants. But "Corney' died
and the daisies grew over him, and thea