The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-01-30
THE HOMECOMING.


Mss Ellen's home, long and low. with lime
washed walls cleaning white under golden straw
matched roof stood half way up the side of
lonely hill IN County Clare-all about it was stony
and barren; great rocks Law everywhere growing
more numerous as the hills rose until at last the
lands about their SUBMITS became little else save
great, arid blue-gray wastes of stones
But the half dozen little fields surrounding Miss
tllen's home were something very different pre-
senting as they did Cike many another County
Glare holding. won back to generous fertility at
God knows what cost of labor and ife) verits-
Bile oasis OF green and smiling veFdure in the gray
wilderness about them. Yet even here to one who
had known the comfortable farmstead few wears
GARNER, there were certain evidences of neglect
Here and there the rough unmortared low stone
walls which formed the boundaries of each little
field had been suffered to fall without replace
ment; stray flock of goats from neghboring
hillside brewsed peacefully and unafraid on Miss
Liens crop OF grass. The haggard and byres were
unkemPt. even the little garden that had been
aglow with cleaning blossoms under its overhang-
ing canopy Of apple trees seemed sadly altered and
decayed. Weeds and grass grew pentifully in the
flower beds, on the gravel paths between
their now overgrown boxedgings, where last au-
tumns harvest of dead leaves was still rotting and
undisturbed
The interior of the little house alone retained
something of its former neatness and comfort and
Yet there seemed loneliness and chill about the
WHOM coy rooms an air OF beng InSUtfclently
lived IN, lack of sufficient lighting and warming
faint odor even of mustiness from the rows of
books now lying so long unopened on their shelves
In front of the low turf fire woman sat sew
ing patiently in the Pickering light thrown by one
solitary candle. A cat purred contentedly in the
warmest of the wide open hearth-a sure
sign Of hard weather. little wire-haired wheaton
terrier lay eurled comfortably asleep on the edge
Of his mistress skirt A typical old maids cntour-
age. one would say-the purring cat, the terrier,
the economy even niggardliness of the small turf
fire, the Pickering candle. Miss Ellen was
not niggardy by nature, but she was "a lone wom-
an without anyone to lean or to help her.
Things not prosperous with her; she knew
not how long she might keep the roof above
her head. and light and firing dear. in these
dreary lengthy days of December it behooved her
to be saving of both.
Nor could she be called exactly an old maid.
silver thread CLEANED here and there, it was
true, in her thick brown tresses; wistful. lined
look in her face the result less of tine than of grief
and of loneliness gave her prematurely aged ap-
pearance and yet it was but few years ago since
people thought of gentle Ellen O'Sullivan
Of the winsomest and gayest, as she certainly was
of the kindest young cailins in the length and
breadth of the barony.
Her neighbors often wondered was it Maurces
death. or the going away of Matt O'Drscoll that
had most wrought such a change in her. Maurice
had been Ellen's elder and only brother, who had
acted the part almost of father to the girl since
the death of both her parents, while she was still
than child! Maurice had been good man.
though utterly unlike his neighbors-it was said
that he, too had changed greatly from the time
he had failed for the priesthood through delicate
health-fragile in body, stern and serious in mind
greatly taken up with his books and wholly de-
voted to his young sister Ellen, whom he watched
over with tender if jealous.
There had been something of selflshness. too,
in his love for her. people agreed He never want
ed the child to go anywhere to dance, or pattern
wedding or christening, and when, despite all his
precautions. Ellen and young Matt O'Drlscoll had
fallen head-overheels in love with each other, the
stern elder brother had put end to the little ro-
nance by blackening poor Matts name and fame
in the eyes of the girl 1t quite true that Matt
had been once coming home drunk from a
football match but that was all that could be said
against him. Moreover it had been only once,
and the heart-stirring victory by Matt and his
companions over the great rival team from Coun-
" Cork might have made some excuse for HIM IN
the ewes of indugent people.
But with Maurice OSullivan there was no ex-
cuse: Matt was BLACKBOARD and drunkard, and
though poor Ellen shed many tears and spent some
sIeenless and unhappy nights over it, it had not
been too difficult in the end for Maurice TO per-
suade her to give the fellow up and be content 10
stav at home under the fostering care OF the broth
or who loved her. and whom yet she had never
disappointed or disobeyed
And now Maurice was dead for two years-had
sipped out of life suddenly day, without warn
ing or knowledge from the heart disease which hao
boen +bc bar 10 the priesthood for hlm-and she
,ras 1oFt lonely From the day of his death she
had never been a moment free from haTassing care
and anxiety. Maurice had been too fond OF his
hacks oyer 70 become a good farmer. and without
her knowing if things had been steadily deterio-
rating since the time of her fathers death. one
by one the few cattle and horses, even some OF ne