The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-10-05
SULLIYAN'S BARGAIN.
<From he Cornhill Magazine.)

Ia ShS caAo ooot 6oiN u wynn "
1udy Sullivan as they toiled uphill to-
aether from their mutual well.
I'm not sure about selling him, Mrs.
Flynn. dear; twas more like shopping,
II take It,"
AN how was that, acushla?"
-Ye see, me father had had it on his
nE1lnd to get shut of Jerry this good
while back; he was gettin' a bit stiff,
md he thought av he waited too long
he'd be getting too ould entirely"
ooh. fax, he was ould enough to be
valuable" rejoined Mrs. Flynn, with a
derisive Taught. isn't he the wan age,
as yer brother Matt-as is in Ameriky
and hat will bring him in for five and
twenty year., though he is not on the
Parish register? Well, I mind the two!
a gray foal and a fat lump av a baby,
when I come to Thardy's corner, a
young slip av a girl heself."
Mrs. Flynn was now a stout, elderly
m with a pair of somewhat roll
Hc&<ing brown eyes, and a Drumming tin
can in either hand, while her compan-
Ism was "a slip Of a GIRL" dressed in a
Washed-Out lilac cotton, with a curly
red hair and a freckled face, who car
He'd with anxious care a brown tea
pot and a black kettle.
The pair were celebrities in their
humble way-the matron for her long
tongue and the maiden for her light
fOo They lived almost next door to
one another, in a cluster Of cabins, too
Insignificant to claim the title of viii
Iage, and known by the name of
Thady's Corner" although there was
NO corner to be SEEM; on the contrary,
the little gathering was boldly perched
On the side of a bare hill, about five
miles from Killarney.
~And what sort of a dale di yer faith
CT make out over the baste?" resumed
Mrs. Flynn.
ooh, dale, indeed! Twas q travelling
tinker as came round one day last
week when the old Jerry waa bet up
with turf drawing, and a scarcely a
7eE; under him and the thief had such a
alNtherin' way wild him We persuaded
E1e father hat the ass was just dying
on his feet, and he offered to take him
to bury him, SO hat he mightn't
have the annoyance Of seeing him in
the death-grip! However, me father
was not so soft as all that, and after
the DEVILS own ~haranguing and BAR
gaining, the tinker Civ two shillings
HI lIAOIlCy q IOootlIIS LO1h LII q
big skillet-the biggest pot I ever laid
eyes on"
"Well, to be sure, twas no great price
and yer at the loss of the ass"
FAX, we are so, and miss him at
every hands turn. Me father spent the
money on porther, and me mother is
raging mad to find her elegant big pot
was just on ould wan patched up, and
has a hole in it the size of a caubeen.
Sure, tits no manner av use at all, at
all. We have just stuck it in the gap
I'm the garden to keep the pig out, and
1T does that as we'll as anything else,
an the villain Of a tinker went and TUX
n couple of the best hins away wild
him. by way av keeping the ass COM
pany."
1.-The blaggard!' calculated Mrs.
Flynn, now setting down her two cans
and placing her hands on her capacious
hips. "Them thinkers is shocking
thieves; they would stale the cross off
an ass back. and whatsomever they
mend melts in yer hand I'm terrible
sorry for we. Would We knaw the chap
agin?"
"Me father says he'd swear to him in
Jerusalem. He had a patch over wan
eye. and a black-an-white waistcoate."
"Well, I'd a wish fer Guild Jerry
there Is not a funeral or a wedding, nor
a wake in these parts he hasn't had a
in. Many and many a lift he CIV
me; -bedad, he was as souple as the
best in it, and when he had a mind he
would rattle a a as we'll as any ass
going the road"
Maybe the next van will do as well.
Mrs. Flynn, DEAR" ~rejoined Judy, with
smiling complacency.
1.-The next wan, do yer say! Begorra!
the price of a cracked skillet won't go
in buying a good baste."
~Sure, didn't me father have an. order
from Matt, ere yesterday, fer four
poundsi I expect Matt would be vexed
ff he heard tell o ould Jerry, see
kng they was reared together, and wor'
companions, as I may say. We wor'
laying out to buy a SOW, but, after all,
We see we have the cart and tackling,
80 me father is going to buy a Inc
young donkey, or maybe a jennet at the
Eair at Killorgin."
els that so?" returned Mrs. Flynn.
drawing in her double chin and cycling
the girl gravely. "Still, I'm thinking, We
will be lost widout old Jerry; he was a
grand wan to draw turf or hay, or to
so to chapel n market. He knew
every turn in the road, and who will
bring yer dada safe back on fair days,
ayick? Sure, they had only to stretch
him on the car. and Jerry just TUX
MIN same as a Christian. and maybe
Uetther. for he was a wather Under.
Where's the young man Will DO that
He was terribly experienced, we see,'
warming with her theme, and no ex-
snense whatever, but KEEP himself. 1t
isn't every ass would ate turf n
wbins and sticks-aye! I've seen him
breaking his fast on a newspaper be-
fore now. I'm thinking a young wan
will be twice as impident! Howsomever,
4 can't be wasting me whole day dis
4coursin' Of an ass, though ne was the
only one in Thady's
And taking up her shimmering cans
/, Mrs. Flynn pursued her way with an
! air OF logged resolution, until she hap
pened to encounter another matron en-
route to the we'll, and again felt called
upon to halt-though Judy, with the
fear of her mother before her eyes, u
ried on with a civil good evening.
Ibid We hear OF Sullivan swopping
away old Jerry for q cracket sk11et!'