Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1896-10-15

Bridget Harrigan Is goin' to marry
Tom O'Shea!'
WHAT says I.
"'It's fact says he.
"'You lie, Billy Sheehan,' says I, for
I was mad.
"'Very WE'LL says he, marcl,in' away
with his little fiddle under his arm,
If I do says he, I won't lie at your
dure, for anyhow it will be long tonne
before you'll want me to fiddle at your
weddin', unless we takes up wild the
turnip-headed one!' And away he whit
down the street, whistlin' The Weddin'
of Ballypoureen.'
swell, sor, twas thrue enough what
the little BLACKBOARD had been afther
tellin' me; Bridget was to be married
directly Lent was over, and Father
Cronin had been spoken to, and Tom
O'Shea had got the master to give him
small cottage and few acres, just
what I had my eye on, too, bad cess
to him.
"Twas to be the grandest weddin'
at all at all! A pig was killed and an
illigant little key of whisky stood on
the dresser, wild tap ready to be
driven into it. Well, the mcrnin' of the
day when Tom O'Shea was to be mar
ried, he was out Shawn himself at the
cabin dure, when up comes little Billy
Sheehan out of breath, and widout the
little fiddle.
"'Tom,' says he, when he could
spake, you're done
"'No, I'm not says Tom latherin' the
other side of his'jaw, but I'm half done,
and I'll do you too, my little fiddler,
while me hand is in, for the gurls
might think yer chin bit rough for
q weddin'.'
"'There'll be no weddin' this day.
says Billy.
"'What are you talkin' about, man
alive? says Tom.
$50! the thruth, as I'm livin' man.
says Billy. The woman won't have
ye.'
"'Won't have me?' says Tom. Go
long, me little joker
"'Divil joke, says Billy. She's sit
tim at home in her common clothes,
and she says she won't have we. And
the foive gallons of the best whisky in
Oireland, and a grand pig just waitin'
to be swallowed! O., tits wicked, ter
rible wicked intoirely!'
"'Well,' says Tom, cool as the day
after Christmas, wait till I wash the
lather off me, an I'll jog down to the
farm and see what ails me lady, for I'm
very much sot on being married to-
day!'
"Whin he got to the house, there
was the divil's ructions goin' on. The
ould man and Peg and an ould aunt
that lived wild EN-, they were all at
Bridget, coaxin' and Begin and
badgerin' her to marry Tom, and all to
no good; the more they talked the
more Bridget sat still and said nothin,'
only the face of her showed she meant
to have her way.
'As soon as liver Tom came in she
said, says she: Tom O'Shea, I'm very
sorry, but won't marry ye, and there's
my hand on it'll"
"Well, Tom took lucifer match out
of his pocket and lit his poipe, and sat
down; but the divil word he said.
Only all the neighbors outside, think
ing of the pig and the whisky, said
great deal; they couldn't bear to
think of the waste that Bridget was
bringin' on the family. And the ould
father, too, he was terrible mad, know
in what people were sayin'.
"At length Peggy up, an says she:
I'll tell we what, Biddy, if ye give me
them grand clothes We have for the
weddin' I'll marry Tom O'Shea myself
sooner than the family should be dis
graced in this way
"'Faith!' says Bridget, we may have
livery stitch 1 have in the world if We
marry Tom, an me blessin' into the
bargain
But Tom sat still smokin' his dud-
heen and turnin' the matter over in his
head. AT the long last he said, straight
and strong: What boot will get?'
"'What boot will we get?' says the
ould father.
Yes says Tom; what will ye
throw in?'
hoI w ,NC VAIN hihC mar
rigan, strivin' to end the matter COM
Portable an friendly.
"'Well,' says Tom, there's that two
acre field that broken 1 haven't grain
to set it with. Now, if you'll throw in
bag of seed oats, along wild Peggy, it's
a bargain
Done says the old man, an he
spits in the palm of his fist and houlds
it out straight and friendly to Tom.
$50 the match was made, and they
shook hands on it. An Tom said to
Billy Sheehan the day after the weddin,'
when they got sober, he didn't rightly
think there was more than the differ
ence of bag of oats between any two
women alive.
"Well, sor, a couple of months after
Pegs weddin' me an Bridget was mar
ried; for twas me she wanted all the
time, only she got mad that / didn't ak
her an didn't come down tn that dance
all along O. that etarnal rogue of the
captains. And, faith, she's been a
good wife an very clean about tbs
house; but she never was any hand wild
pigs! Wild all her beauty she can't
keep pig any fatter than the wheel of
q cart; while there's Tom O'Shea's vito