The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1905-03-01

ohy tney uedrQ Eileen Oge " Ituoi N
singing in the meadow, and they grew
% Jealous of her voice that ever since
then, mind you, they fly so far up
into the sky that it is only the angels
can hear them.
As for the thrush sure, he always
stopped his song entirely when he
heard Eileen, as much as to say:
Faith, I'm no fool to be comparin'
me voice side by side wild Eileen Oge." !"
All, she was the sweet.spoken col
leen! Whenever she'd go milking of
an evening the COWS would fight with
one another to see which Of them
she'd milk first, for Eileen was great
favorite with man and beast, on ac-
count of her gentle ways and the
friendly word she had for everything.
Even Thade Rafferty's awful dog,
that swallowed the handouts the day
the peeler tried to put them on his
master at the pattern, would fawn at
her feet as she went by, and wag his
tail that strong with joy at the sight
of her that he'd lift his body off the
ground so he would. She could go
past Thade's door any time in the
day or night, although any one else
in the village wouldn't come within a
farm of the place, and even then they
would walk tiptoe and have their
hearts in their mouths for very fear
of Thade's dog, who had what you
might call boycott of his own on
the biggest half of Ardmore.
This made it mighty unhandy for
Bryan Barry, whose blacksmith's
shop was next to Thade Rafferty's
farm, and more than once Bryan
wished that Thade's dog was in
place hotter than the forge and where
they say no bellows is needed to keep
the blaze going.
Well, it happened in the dusk of
winters evening that poor, blind
piper with hair as white as the driven
snow, and big green patch on his
left eye, was coming down the boreen
that led into the village and feeling
his way slowly before him with
stick when Thade Rafferty's terrible
dog spied him and ran at him with
mouthful of roar that was enough to
frighten a scarecrow out Of a corn
field. The piper heard the beast, and
stood stock still, not knowing what to
do or which way to turn. Of course he
could not see what was going on, but
somehow he knew the dogs remarks
were intended for him, and he took
fresh hold of his stick preparing to
give the animal a clip If he could.
The dog came on tearing and raging
as II he would eat dozen pipers, and
sure 1t looked every minute as if he'd
make rag of the poor man, but as
luck would have it who'd come along
but Eileen Oge. Just as the dog was
going 10 make a jump at the poor
blind piper she called out: "Bothera-
tion, lie down there!"
Botheration was the name Of the
dog, and at the sound of Eileen's
voice all the devilment seemed to go
out Of him and he wagged his tail
with Joy at seeing her, and took no
more notice of the piper, who went
his way, glad enough that he had a
whole skin instead of having a skin
full of holes.
y, Now, be good dog, Botheration!"
said Eileen, patting the beast on the
head, and from a bowling monster
he grew as meek as kitten.
1t was no wonder that the boys of
Ardmore adored Eileen Oge; neither
was it any wonder that some of the
boys of Drimbawn, just beyond Fo-
chill's Gap, in the mountain, were un-
der the spell of her beauty and gentle
ness. 1t was on the day of the great
hurling match between the Drimbawn
and Ardmore boys that Ulick Darcy
first set eyes on Eileen. Ulick was
the greatest hurler in the country
since the time of the Danes, but when
1t became known that he had been
smitten with Eileens charms there
was an end of the hurting matches be-
tween Drimbawn and Ardmore The
Ardmore boys vowed that no Darcy
should ever wed Eileen. AS for them
selves, they were all in love with her,
and she could make her choice of a
husband among score of them any
day, but it would be sudden death to
an outsider from across the mountain
who would dare take hand in the
courtship of Eileen Oge.
All this attention annoyed Eileen
greatly. If you we're girl, maybe
you'd think it nice to have every boy
in the village breaking his heart for
your sake and ready to break the
head of every other boy that would
dare to look sweet at you; but Eileen
didn't like it at all, and more betoken
she had good reason for that same,
because the more the boys liked her
the more the girls didn't, and it
grieved her to think that everybody
couldn't be as friendly to her as Thade
Rafferty's cross dog.
Well, that's the way things were in
Ardmore the night the blind piper
came to put frivolity into the feet of
the people with his deluder ing music.
The dance was in Bryan Barry's barn,
and all the young people in Ardmore
were there, some with shoes and some