The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1894-12-01
Select Storp.
KATTIE'S WEDDING.
From All the Year Round.

1t was the last Thursday in Epiphany,
and fair day in Gurteen. The one and only
street the village boasted of was thronged
with folk laughing and chattering as none
but an Irish crowd can laugh and chatter;
indeed, so great were their numbers that to
get along at all you had to turn aside and
scramble through the shingle, where the
boats lay within shouting distance of their
owners doors. But there was little buy
ing and selling that day in the hamlet on
the ocean edge. The little pink ''boneen
and the matronly, hoary- headed sow slept
more or less peacefully in the long line of
carts, with their high red crates, that lined
the narrow footpath, as nobody seemed to
want them. In fact, they were there more
to give the assembly the tone of a fair
for all men knew that match making
was the real business of today, the last fair
day before Lent, and so the last great
chance to make match.
Treading their way up and down the vii
lage passed the boys in Sunday best,
ostentatiously ignoring the girls. who, in
their turn, tried to look as if they did not
know that they were verify in the marriage
market. and as if they liked wearing boots.
On the green beneath the chapel there was
dancing to the lit of Larry o. Toole's fiddle;
square dances in which partners sailed up
and down past each other with hands held
high as if lifelong coolness had just
sprung up between them, while their busy
feet never ceased to mark the rhythm on
the ''fioor' -jigs, reels, singles and dou-
bles-when some bolder spirit would
throw the shoes off av him and take
his place on the door that lay on the grass
for such as ventured ''pas de seul.
Then Blind Larry would screw his old eyes
tight shut and make his bow dance on the
strings to the tune of The Trip to the Cot
tage' or The Humors of Whisky, while
the rest of the assembly gathered around,
beating time with head and foot, with such
remarks as Tis he have the efmint fur
dancin' : Haven't he great warrant
throw the legs, now 2 'Wisha. more
power to ye're elbow, Larry
But while youth disported itself on the
green. age and experience abode in the vii
lage. matching their sons and daughters in
holy wedlock. In such cases it is not
necessary that Corydon and Phyllis should
be acquainted, but Corydon Senior must
be satisfied that Phyllis does not come
empty-h handed. Nevertheless, the young
people sometimes managed to introduce
some romance into the transaction; and of
one such case shall tell.
While Blind Larry iris jigs' for the
fair, party of four people were taking
solemn counsel in little shanty by the
beach. This was Andy Lyneham' forge,
and Andy himself was in the midst of the
conclave. Not that he took any part in
it; he had nothing to say, as rule-and
now he listened sJllenly while his old mother
was making match for him with the
daughter of Terence Flannigan, who, with
his wife, completed the numberof conspira-
tors
..Andeed, Nirs. Lyneham, ma am, =
Mrs. Flannigan was saying as she threw
back the great hood of her long cloak,
.andeed, ma am, tisn' like as if me dater
Katie hadn't ne er boy at all afther her;
there whips av thin wantin' her,
sThere is that corroborated her hus-
band, emphatically.
But ye see, ma am, she went on,
me an me husband wants some one that
have trade; times is so bad wild the land. z
.Thrue fur ye, Mrs. Flannigan, ma am,
said the other woman with garrulous polite
ness. 'sThim as has land is robbed intirely
these times. Tis well fer ye, Terence
Flannigan, that we've been putin by a
bit av money thin thirty years, she added
cunningly
Little enough, ma am, little enough,
said Terence; ''but I'll give Katie man
hundred poun the day afther the mar
ryin' n'-diyil pinny more.
'.Faix, thin, tbs no great match afther
all, said Mrs. Lyneham, gathering her
heavy cloak closer about her as If to go.
s.Iook at that, now T cried the other
woman, faring up; maybe ye wouldn' t
GIT an offer likeit so handy again. Where
would the likes av ye git hundred pOun' !,
or half av it p
An where would ye git fine, hearty
lump ay a boy ike my Andy? The best
smith that ever dr7ye nail in a shoe +
cried Mrs. Lyneham, fairly dancing with
rage.
How'd ye'r whisht, mother. Ye'ye
dale too much chat out av ye. said the
bone of contention, rising from the anvil
where he had been sitting. chewing a long
straw in silence. II Il take the girl, Ter.