Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1908-01-31

TOUGH ON O'BRIEN.

By A. GUTTER.


McCornathy there is scarce to be
passed on the road betwixt Castledare
and Port Stewart in the county OF
Derry. He is very bold indeed, as
are they both of them, those McCon-
athys, their mother being a widow
woman and their father dead. You've
heard tell of the time Cormac put the
robbers to fight on Dreen bridge az
jimmy Finerty's wedding.
He was coming home along from
Port Stewart, fairly sober, when, be-
hold, just stretch from his own cabin
on the Castledare end of the bridge,
stood two evil looking fellows with
clubs to them. And Cormac McCon-
athy, wanting yet some so years OF
the graveyard age in his bones, in
stead of going and crossing the river
and being slung into it, all for the
shilhng-sixpence down in his breech-
es, he just craftily drops aside into the
shadows and begins to bray like
donkey Then he talks to the donkey
in a persuasive, soothing tone, advis-
ing him to go back home to Port
Stewart. The donkey brays back In
confidential pitch of voice. Cormae
blarneys him a bit more, till the
blackguards on the bridge take alarm
at the supernatural proceeding, and
Cormac passes over alone unmoles,ed.
Well now. That same Cormac Nc
Conathy is brother to Willie, who had
the bad luck to offend the fairy. The
day Willie was IL he went out with
the Kernahan boys of Portrush, on a
freighter, 'twixt Liverpool and Mo-
vile. It was short trips and good
pay, or at least, better pay than moth
ing at all, which is what he was get
ting and plenty of it before that day.
The Widow McConathy's darling he
was, being her very youngest, and Cor
mac the only other son to hei back
So II was the brave heart in her that
spoke up and said: y
Good bye to We, Willie ashore"
says she. 'I'll be lookin' for We the
Wednesday" she says AN reminder
yer mothers stockin', an the honest
days it'll take we to fill it with silver
shillin's." Which was very thrifty
sentiment, coming from Bridget Nc
Conathy, the generous woman she Is.
Still, three years might have suf-
feed to part fill the stocking had not
Willie found few other places to I'LL
with the shillings, what with Liver
pool two days the week, and a day
now and again in old Derry. to say
nothing of Portrush, and Neville and
Castledare itself, where there is just
as fine potheen.
William McConathy came along to
be 20 in no time at all; and one day
when he was unlading turfs on the
George Dock at Liverpool, his bod fell
crosswise Of his right leg and snapped
It like a jug handle. They set it after
a fashion, and the next Wednesday
found Willie laid up snug and tight in
his mothers own cabin forby the Cas-
tledare end of Dreen bridge.
II was a piece of luck for Willie
McConathy that he had learned to
read bit, for there was an old book
In the cabin, delightful thing to be
looking into the weeks the leg of him
was knitting a stitch at time. That
book was the one Father Muldoon
gave to old Cormac (the dead one),
who, to tell the truth Of it, had been
to school once at Colerane and learn
ed a great deal more than he ever
could remember at all. Anyhow, they
never made priest Of him.
Well, now, that sort was in the
book as made 1t highly entertaining;
It being all written by William Shakes
pear. "A Midsummer Nights Dream"
was the name Of one piece In 1t; and
Il was In there whole lines together
that Willie got to read without skip
ping more than q good many OF the
words.
It's a nice, cool place they have I'M
der Dreen bridge for hot summer days
like those when Willie was waiting for
his bones to mend. A man can sit
there on a rock and just forget every
thing but the GOODNESS and whatever
is on his mind. II you have the little
cruiskeen near by handy, so much the
better for you. When the water had
run under the bridge six weeks since
he had his hurt, Willie began to hop
out on a crutch. He used to take the
book and go and sit on the rock by
the water. He took the other along,
too; and between the witcheries OF
them both he had the following adj
ventures, which have all from Will
lies voice in my ear.
"Divil a wurrud out Of i'm, and me
standin' here the past hour with it
ALL" Twas a tiny voice, says Willie,
and he looked about him to see who
was speaking.
There was the book on the rock
where he had laid 1t when he took
his bit of a doze the afternoon; there
was the fine little bottle, such CON-
fort: and there was the crutch. All!
There on the strand straight before
him in a light made by the dancing
waves reflected up against the stone
arch, Sure, 1t was the little king out
of the book, big as life, which was not
big a bit, for he was of the Good Peo-
pie!
Willie looked at him. "The top o.
the day, your majesty" says he. King
Oberon, believe"
Now the king had robes all over
him and the sweetest of a golden