Evening star., 1896-10-24


tanned the ingredients which she used ac-
cording to an immemorial recipe. From the
mottled gray lichen "crottaP' which clothes
our powders with hues strangely like those
OF the heeces browsing among them she ex-
tracted a warm tawny brown; a fiaky mass
or the rusty black turf SCOT supplied her
with strong yellow. and the dull-red bog
ore boiled paradoxically into black.
be alsy VIII you. you little thief of the
misc hief, Hugh said to the sheep NC
Nellls she Is. sure enough! there's the
mark Musha. lads, let's give her dab or
so of what's left in the ould pots. 'Twould
improve her appearance finely
"Ay, would it," said Timothy 'She's an
l:nnathural ugly ohio of a crather the way
she IS now Bedad. they've couple of bar
rels destroyed on u.s."
"A few odd sthrakes of the black an
yella ID make her look iligant" said Hugh
Och. man. don't let her get away, but lift
her a1sy. Maggie, did you see e'er sign
OF the stick they had stirrin' the stuff wild?
But It's apt to be cool enough agin now"
Ah, boys. burt it's ragin' mad McNeills
III be II you go for to do such thing"
Margaret said. half scared. and laundering
IN her furry on wrong note as she al
once perceived. For her brothers promptly
responded in sort of fugal movement
-, ANA sure who's puryintin' of them?
lil1es They're re- .S Welcome bedad. them, or the
rafson they'll have before they're a great
while oulder, musha Moyah.' And they
proceeded with all the greater enthusiasm
became
more ambitiously elaborate in the course
of execution.
PART II.
Early next morning, while the noun
tain shadow still threw purple cloak over
the steep fields Of Meenaclure. where all
the dewdrops were ready to twinkle as
soon as q ray reached them, and when
Mrs. Neil Mcneil was preparing break
fast, which at this shorr-coming summer
season consisted chiefly of Indian meal,
her eldest daughter ran in to her with
news. There was somethin', Molly said.
leppin about in the pig stye. Now, the
McNeills' stye just then stood empty, in
the interval between the dispatch of their
last lean fat pig to Letterkenny fair, and
the hoped-for fall in the market price of
the wee springy which was to replace
him So, Mrs. McNeill said: "Och blath-
ers. child alive, what would there be in
it at al?
But it's rustlin' in the straw-I heard
1t-and duntin' the door wild its head like"
Molly persisted.
Sure. then, run and see what 1t is,
honey" said her mother, who was pre-
occupied with a critical stage of her por-
ridge. and a piece of practical business
on hand generally dtsposes us to adopt a
skeptical attitude toward marvels.
Maybe one of the hins might have aut-
tered into it, but there's apter to not be
anythin'.''
Molly. whose mood was not enterprising,
reinforced her courage with the company
of Judy and Thady before she went to in
vestigate, and d minute afterward she
came rushing back uttering terrified la
mentations, whereof the burden seemed
to be: It's tiger sheep" Her report
! could no longer be disresarded. and the
rest of the family were presently grouped
round the low wall of the little lean-to
shed, which did really contain an inmate
OF extraordinary aspect. Its form was
that OF nswly.shorn sheep. long-legged
and lank-bodied like others of it's race. but
in coloring altogether exceptional. Boldly
| marked stripes of black and tawny yellow
alternated all over it. with brilliant sym
metry not surpassed by the natural his
tory chromograph which famed on the
wall of Rathf!esh national school, and
which now recurred to little Molly's mind
in conjunction with the fact that the wear
age. wicked baste. that would be swallyin'
all before It," whereupon she had shrieked.
Tiger Sheep" and fled from ravening
jaws.
Her. parents and grandparents, on the
contrary. stood and surveyed the phenom-
enon with almost unutterable wrath. Traces
of a human hand in its production were
plain enough, for the beast had been fast
| ened into the stye by rope round her
! neck, which was further ornamented with
long brackenfronds and tufts of curiously
Colored wool, studiously grosteque. In fact,
had she been mercilessly endowed with
fered from a modification as acute as was
,, that Of her owners. instead of trotting off
quite satisfied, when once she was released
and at liberty to resume her fastidious nib
bling among the dewy tussocks
That's some divilment of the O'Farrells
! and the back Of me hand to the whole of
| them!' said Neil McNeill, with clenched
eyebrows, themselves and their blamed
| impotence, and their stinkin' brashes, The
! old woman's niver done boilin' them I'D for
| her wool. It's slung about her head, /
| wish they were. sooner than to be used for
misthratin' other peoples dacint bastes."
Deed. now, thrue for you,' said his
| mother. Sure wasn't she tellln me her
| self yesterday evenin' she'd been busy all
! day gettin' her yarn dyed agin she would
| be knittin' the boys their socks? Gad'rin
| the suit she said she was this good while.
| That's the way they done it-och, the yara-
bonds!"
ITS a bad job said old Joe McNeill.
| shaking his Respondent white head
Il wouldn't ever ha' thought It Of them. 50
| said Mrs. Neill. "On'y them boys is that
| terrible wild, goodness forgive them. there 7
| no demented notion they mayn't take int q
| their heads. But what at all could we do
| for the misfort'nit crathur? Sure, it's dis
| tressful to see her goin' about that scan
| dalous figure. 1 can't abide the sisht of
| her."
| Our bogland dyes, however, are very fast.
| and for manyA a day that summer Mrs. Neil
| had to endure the apparition of the O'F'ar-
| rell's victim, who. of course, became q
| painfully conspicuous object on the hill
| side, where she roamed blissfully unaware
I OF how her owners eyes f01fowed ho, ,yitI =,