The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-12-09
GREAT UNCLE MCCARTHY.
DIV F. O'C. SOmerVille.
copyright by E. O'C. Somerville.)

oranarnd at any moment of the day or
night to sell a horse. -.
syou,u be apt to find this place a bit
lonesome after the hotel remarked MI
FURRY. alphabetically, as he placed ms
foot in it's steaming boot on the nop,
but it's a fine, sound house, anyway
and lots of rooms in it, though, lnoeed'
70 tell YOU the truth, l never was through
the whole of them since the Ime NY
great-uncle, Denis Mccarthy. died mere.
The dear knows | had enough OF 1t that
time He paused and lit a cigarette
'eThose top floors, now he resumed
.T wouldn't make too free with them.
There's some Of them would Jump unuel
Won like a spring bed. Manys the nlgnt
was in and out of those attics, follow
ing my poor uncle when ne nad d pau
tnrn on him-the horrors, you know
there were nights he never stopped
walking through the house. Good Lord.
will I ever forget the morning he said
he saw the devil coming up the avenue!
Look at the two horns on him, says he,
and he out with his gun and shot nm,
and. begad. it was his own donkey!
The autumn evening gray with rain,
was darkening in the tall windows, and
the wind was beginning to make bully
ing rushes among the shrubs in the area;
a shower Of SCOT ratified down the chlm-
ney and fell on the hearthrug.
More rain coming" said Mr.. Knox,
rising composedIy. you'll have to put
a goose down these chimneys some day
| soon; it's the only way in the world to
| clean them. Well, I'm for the road.
You'll come out on the gray next week,
l hope; the hounds'H be meeting here.
He threw his cigarette into the fire and
! extended a hand to me. "Goodby, MAJOR,
you'll see plenty of me and my hounds
before you're done. There's a power OF
foxes in the plantations here.
This was scarcely reassur1ng Tor a
man who hoped to shoot woodcock, and
l limited as much.
0 is it the cock?" said Mr.. FURRY.
"B'leeve me. the best shoots ever | had
here the hounds were in it the day be-
fore"
When Mr.. Knox had gone, / began to
picture myself going across country roar
ing, while Philippa put the goose down
the chimney: but when l sat down to
write to her l did not feel equal to
icing humorous about it. l dilated pond
4rously on my cold, my hard work, and
Guy loneliness, and eventually went to
bed At l. o'clock full of cold shivers and
hot Whisky-and-water.
After a couple of hours OF feverish
doing, l began to understand what had
driven Great-Uncle Mccarthy to peram-
bulate the house by night. I should have
said my couch was stuffed with old boots
I have seldom spent a more wretched
! night. The rain drummed with soft fin
gers on my window panes; the house
was full Of noises. | seemed to see Great
Uncle Mccarthy ranging the passage
with FURRY at his heels; several times
thought | heard him. Whispering
seemed borne on the wind through my
keyhole, boards creaked in the room
overhead. and once l could have sWorI
that a hand passed, cropping, over the
panels of my door.
The morning broke %stormily, and
woke to find Mrs. Cadogan's understudy
a grimy nephew of about eighteen, stand
ing by my bedside, with a black bottle
in his hand.
"Thcre's no bath in the house. sir,
was his reply to my command; but me
ant said, would we like a taggeen?"
This alternative proved to be a glas:
Of raw Whiskey. l declined it.
l look back to that first week Of house
keeping at Shreelane as to a comedy eX
cessively badly staged and striped will
lurid melodrama. Daily, shrouded il
macintosh, l set forth for the PETIT.
E., Sessions Courts Of my wide district
daily, in the inevitable atmosphere O
wet frieze and perjury. 1 listened to in
dictments of old women who plucke,
geese alive, of publicans whose hospi
tality to their friends broke forth I'm
comfortably on Sunday afternoons, Q
parties" who, in the language of tn
police sergeant, were subtly defined a
sE~>+ +o-.or l---1-~ I.+ =: ~~@I G-I4.~
: thrim."
| got used to it all in time-I suppos
: one can get used to anything-I eve
became callous to the surprises of Mrs
Cadogan's cooking. AS the weathe
hardened and the Wocdcock came il
and one by one l discovered and naile
!, up the rat holes, / began to find lf
e%ndurable.
The one feature of my establishmen
to which l could not become Injured wa
the pervading sub-presence of some thin
Or things which for my own convenience
l summarized as Great-Uncle McCarth,
There were nights on which ! was eel
tain that 1 heard the inebriate Snuff
!, Of his foot overhead, the touch of hi
fumbling hand against the walls. Their
were dark times before the dawn whe
sounds went to and fro, the moving {
weights, the creaking of doors, a fal
away rapping in which was a workman
like suggestion of the undertaken,
. rumble Of wheels on the avenue.
In the process of time l brought Great
Uncle Mccarthy down to a fine pcin
On Friday nights he made collins an
N drove hearscs; during the rest of til
week he rarely did more than patter an
shuttle in the attics over my head.
d One night, about the middle of Dc
cember, | awOke, suddenly aware tn;
=" some noise had fallen like a hcav
. stone into my dreams. AS l felt for tt
matches it came again, the long, gruds
! ing groan and the uncompromising bar
, of the cross door at the head of tt
s kitchen stairs. | told myself that it VIZ
! a draught that had done it, but it was
u perfectly still night. Even as 1 listene
II a sound of wheels on the avenue shoe
J the Stiffness. In a few minutes ! VIZ
stealthily cropping my way down my oN
le staircase, with a box of matches in N