The record-union., 1894-10-06

| thought, and still with a shade OF anxiety
in his honest, rugged face.
She stood for little leaning against the
fireplace, drinking in our words, and par
tIcuIarly all references to foreign lands,
with almost Hereby hungry eyes; and
finally, after partaking of bit OF food,
disappeared with her brothers and sisters
10 their beds in the lott above.
Whatever subject we spoke upon, we
somehow always came back to Eileen.
In a little time | found that the girl had
been her fathers constant companion for
years i'll the dangerous work of the sea;
could manage boat with all the skill
and deXterity or man; had shared every
manner OF arduous task involved IN
mackerel and longtime fishing. and knew
| every eddy OF the sea, every nook and
| Granny of the coast, every rock, lslet,
shoal and fishing ground, as Familiarity as
the canniest Kerry fisherman, from Din
| gle TO kinsale.
Aside from the few Irish Iasses at the
| fair at Cahirsiveen, Eileen was the only
maiden grown l had noticed that day
| though | had seen her once before in a
way that now filled me with dread for the
! peace of this fishers homeland | asked
her father where the bright-faced girls OF
| Kerry had gone.
"Gone is it-gone? Heughp' he an
swered with sudden spirit. over tn say
! entirelyv'
but surely they could not all go to
America" | ventured protestinglY.
AN couldn't they though? It's bred
| they are in th' milk av their mothers
| breasts to do that same!; This with Bit
| terness. "a girsha's no better nor ten
year high whin th' fayver's on her.
| Faith. an she'll work like baste, am
save like an ould bite, slyer and desayt-
| fuller nor Ould Nick himself; an whin
ye'd be thinkin' she'd marry some honest
! bye an bide wild her own, like dacenC
| crayture, Pz-i-i-pi an away she's gone
| like an aigle over the sayi'
Here the fisherman drew his little wife
closely to him with gesture of wondrous
pride and fondness.
wouldn't be in it th' day-heaven
bless and kape her till me dyin'
| hour-if hadn't stole her wan night
| from the Caragh-side, like thief o th
wurrld, an thin bate th' three broth
ers sinseless, broke th' ould mans skull
| for hint o me temper, an sint word to
eleven uncleS for meetin', at their own
convaynance, barrin' any fast-day o th'
seven ~
"How, then, have you kept Eileen ?''
asked eagerly, thinking of what l knew
and he did not.
He turned quickly to me with a stern
face, putting his little wife almost rudely
| away. In another instant his huge fist
came down with a tremendous crash
upon the deal table.
Fore God, I'd kill th' man or woman
| thaPd entice her from th' dure! Pd see
her dead, afore I'd let her turn wanderer
| beyant th' sayv'
The little wife attempted to soothe him
with many grooming words, but be was
| terribly swept by the storm of feeling
! upon him. lie paced the cabin eXcitedly;
ntnnDaH tbTOnOh the nDnT info tho niu bt
| and back again: and after shrug of bis
| whole frame, like some great animal
| tlinging another of, continued impetu-
| ously:
"Ould Ireland - save her = is sorra
| enough, heaven knows; But tn heart o.
her is aiten out, more by th' fayver O.
| LAWN, than by th' wurra o stayin'.
| LUX at her now !-th' young am tn
strong clutchin' th' very pennies from
her dead eyes to fly away wild am enrich
some other land, till only th' tremblin'
ould an tn rottin' dead remainr'
4 saw instantly it was the one sub
ject sore above all others in the heart of
the majestic though simple figure before
me. He had painted a wofully true pic
ture of one of Ireland's causes OF decay;
but l was astonished at the revelation
which followed, the truth of which l
could no longer doubt after what l had
seen scarcely two hours before.
9TH poor craythurs, they're not to
| blamep' He said this with compass
sionate gesture which seemed to compre-
hend Eileen above us in the loft where
there had more than once been q rustlng
and stirring, as OF someone impatient to
hear and know.
Its th' diviPs own sowls that like
snakes iver crawl over th' ould sod wild
their blisthering tongue, tayzin' thu
chlIder away. Many bone O. theirs
pve cracked already, am, by th' five
Grasses, I'll murther th' first wan that
steps foot in Port Mageel'
Pressing him for explanation | learned
this startling fact: That veritable human
ferret5, il not in the direct pay of the
transatlantic steamship companies, vet
still subsisting upon the profits of the ne
tarious traffic, penetrate the remotest re-
gions of Ireland, sowing the seed of dis
satisfaction and unrest and perSistentlY
painting the rewards and delights of
effort and life in foreign lands, until the
country districts are constantly in such
tremOrs Of excitement and heartache for
those who are going or are gone that
there is no lowly home where is not how
ering the shadow OF a terror so great that
it lacks even the consoling tnality of
death itself.
'And men really do this thing from
year to year for LIVELIHOOD" l asked in
honest Indignation.
MIL. H.-Il1lu. 1ulISS MOISGI uOI DdSL6S.
No place is free o. thin. They're at
livery fair, weddin' or wake. They're
at th' dure o. th sanctuary. They'll
mark yer childer at christin' an niver
lose sight o thin till they're min an
women grown. They'll folly the dead
among th' livin' to snatch another livin'
wan away. They'll Grape in yer home by
day or by night. Heugh!" he concluded
with gesture at his throat as if choking,
they Grape upon yer life here in Ire
land till ye can't braythe widout smellin'
th' dlviPS smoke upon thin etarnally?''
he bent his shaggy head sorrowfuily
and ruminatively for moment. Then,
as If thinking aloud, he added:
Is, yls. Faith, John l.. Shea's sat
in his boat, strivin' for thin ashore, wild
Eileen beside him, for many year,
Watchin' thin staymers trailin' smok @
acros the water, am wishin', wiShin',
wishin' livery wand strike bottom afore
they'd take away one body from this
blissed Kerry homei'
l could not but give hearty 'amen"
to that, but long, long into that night, in
my couch upon the seines, troubled forms
and scenes We're woven into my half
waking dreams. With, and across these,
like pitiful wraiths of sorrow, passed and
repassed the faces in this humble fishers
home, the trailing smoke of the TAR, low
lying ocean steamers leaving their wakes
of woe behind, and that one pitiiess face
had now twice seen and which could
never be forgotten until the moment of all
forgeJfulness should come.
VI.
/ had seen and heard but little the
evening before, but that little, in connec-
ton with what had been accidentally SO
dramatically revealed while we sat be-
side the dying emb6rs in the fishers tiny
cabin, told me that the dread and insidi-
Gus influence the brave, home-saving
soul had SO long and valiantly battled
was about to Iriumph over ali the