The Irish Twins Part 11

It was after dark when at last they drove into the yard. Mrs McQueen came running to the door to greet them and hear all about the Fair.

Eileen and Larry told her about the prize, and about Lady Kathleen buying the pig, and about seeing the Tinker, while their Father was putting up Colleen.

Then when he came in with all his bundles, and took the three golden sovereigns out of his pocket, to show to the Mother, the Twins couldn't keep still another minute. "It's for you! To pay the rent!" they cried.

The Father and Mother looked at each other. "Now, what are they at all," said Mrs McQueen, "but the best children in the width of the world? Wasn't I after telling you that we'd make it out somehow? And to think of her being a thoroughbred like that, and we never knowing it at all." She meant the pig!

But Mr McQueen never said a word. He just gave Larry and Eileen a great hug. Then Mr McQueen went over all the errands with his wife, and last of all he brought out the shawl. "There, old woman," he said, "is a fairing for you!"

"The Saints be praised for this day!" cried Mrs McQueen. "The rent paid, and me with a fine new shawl the equal of any in the parish."

It was a happy family that went to bed in the little farmhouse that night. Only Mrs McQueen didn't sleep well. She got up a number of times in the night to be sure there were no Tinkers prowling about.

"For one can't be too careful with so much money in the house," she said to herself.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

SUNDAY.

The next Sunday all the McQueen family went to Ma.s.s and Mrs McQueen wore her new shawl. The chapel was quite a distance away, and as they walked and all the neighbours walked, too, they had a pleasant time talking together along the way.

Dennis and the Twins walked together, and Larry and Eileen told Dennis all about the Fair, and about selling the pig to the Lady Kathleen, and "Begorra," said Dennis, "but that little pig was after bringing you all the luck in the world, wasn't she?" All the other boys and girls wanted to hear about it. Most of them had never been to a Fair. So Eileen and Larry talked all the way to church, and that was two miles and a half of talk, the shortest way you could go.

Just as they neared the church, what should they see but Grannie Malone, coming in grandeur, riding on a jaunting-car! Beside her was a big man with a tall hat on his head.

"'Tis her son Michael, back from the States!" cried the Twins. "He said in a letter he was coming."

They ran as fast as they could to reach the church door in time to see them go in. Everybody else stopped, too, they were so surprised, and everybody said to everybody else, "Well, for dear's sake, if that's not Michael Malone come back to see his old Mother!"

And then they whispered among themselves, "Look at the grand clothes on him, and the scarf pin the bigness of a ha'penny piece, and the hat!

Sure, America must be the rich place entirely."

And when Michael got out of the cart and helped out his old Mother, there were many hands held out for him to shake, and many old neighbours for him to greet.

"This is a proud day for you, Grannie Malone," said Mrs McQueen.

"It is," said Grannie, "and a sad day, too, for he's after taking me back to America, and 'tis likely I'll never set my two eyes on old Ireland again, when once the width of the sea comes between us."

She wiped her eyes as she spoke. Then the bell rang to call the people into the chapel. It was little the congregation heard of the service that day, for however much they tried they couldn't help looking at the back of Michael's head and at Grannie's bonnet.

And afterward, when all the people were outside the church door, Grannie Malone said to different old friends of Michael, "Come along to my house this afternoon, and listen to Himself telling about the States!"

That afternoon when the McQueens had finished their noon meal, the whole family walked up the road to Grannie's house. There were a good many people there before them. Grannie's little house was full to the door.

Michael stood by the fireplace, and as the McQueens came in he was saying, "It's the truth I'm telling you! There are over forty States in the Union, and many of them bigger than the whole of Ireland itself!

There are places in it where you could travel as far as from Dublin to Belfast without ever seeing a town at all; just fields without stones or trees lying there begging for the plough, and sorrow a person to give it them!"

"Will you listen to that now?" said Grannie.

"And more than that, if you'll believe me," Michael went on, "there do be places in America where they _give away_ land, let alone buying it!

Just by going and living on it for a time and doing a little work on it, you can get one hundred and sixty acres of land, for your own, mind you!"

"The Saints preserve us, but that might be like Heaven itself, if I may make bold to say so," said Mrs Maguire.

"You may well say that, Mrs Maguire," Michael answered, "for there, when a man has bent his back, and put in sweat and labour to enrich the land, it is not for some one else he does it, but for himself and his children. Of course, the land that is given away is far from big cities, and it's queer and lonely sometimes on the distant farms, for they do not live in villages, as we do, but each farmhouse is by itself on its own land, and no neighbours handy. So for myself, I stayed in the big city."

"You seem to have prospered, Michael," said Mr McQueen.

"I have so," Michael answered. "There are jobs in plenty for the willing hands. Sure, no Irishman would give up at all when there's always something new to try. And there's always somebody from the old sod there to help you if the luck turns on you. Do you remember Patrick Doran, now? He lived forninst the blacksmith shop years ago. Well, Patrick is a great man. He's a man of fortune, and a good friend to myself. One year when times were hard, and work not so plenty, I lost my job, and didn't Patrick help me to another the very next week? Not long after that Patrick ran for Alderman, and myself and many another like me, worked hard for to get him elected, and since then I've been in politics myself. First Patrick got me a job on the police force, and then I was Captain, and since then, by one change and another, if I do say it, I'm an Alderman myself!"

"It's wonderful, sure," Mr Maguire said, when Michael had finished, "but I'm not wishful for to change. Sure, old Ireland is good enough for me, and I'd not be missing the larks singing in the spring in the green fields of Erin, and the smell of the peat on the hearth in winter.

It's queer and lonesome I'd be without these things, and that's the truth."

He threw his head back and began to sing. Everybody joined in and sang, too. This is the song they sang:--

"Old Ireland you're my jewel sure, My heart's delight and glory, Till Time shall pa.s.s his empty gla.s.s Your name shall live in story.

"And this shall be the song for me, The first my heart was learning, When first my tongue its accents flung, Old Ireland, you're my darling!

"From Dublin Bay to Cork's Sweet Cove, Old Ireland, you're my darling My darling, my darling, From Dublin Bay to Cork's Sweet Cove; Old Ireland, you're my darling."

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

MR MCQUEEN MAKES UP HIS MIND.

Michael sang with the others. And when the song was ended, he said, "'Tis a true word, Mr Maguire, that there's no place like old Ireland; and you'll not find an Irishman anywhere in America that wouldn't put the man down that said a word against her. But what with the landlords taking every s.h.i.+lling you can sc.r.a.pe together and charging you higher rent whenever you make a bit of an improvement on your farm, there's no chance at all to get on in the world. And with the children, G.o.d bless them, coming along by sixes and dozens, and little for them to do at home, and no place to put them when they grow up, sure, it's well to go where they've a better chance.

"Look at the schools now! If you could see the school that my Patrick goes to, you'd never rest at all until your children had the same!

Sure, the schoolhouses are like palaces over there, and as for learning, the children pick it up as a hen does corn!"

"And are there no faults with America, whatever?" Mr McQueen said to Michael.

"There do be faults with her," Michael answered, "and I'll never be the man to say otherwise. There's plenty of things to be said about America that would leave you thinking 'tis a long way this side of Heaven. But whatever it is that's wrong, 'tis the people themselves that make it so, and by the same token it is themselves that can cure the trouble when they're so minded. It's not like having your troubles put down on you by the people that's above you, and that you can't reach at all for to be correcting them! All I say is there's a better chance over there for yourself and the children."

The Twins and Dennis and the other young people were getting tired of sitting still by this time, and when Michael stopped talking about America they jumped up. The children ran outdoors and played tag around Grannie's house, and the older people stayed inside.

By and by Grannie came to the door and called them. "Come in, every one of you," she cried, "and have a fine bit of cake with currants in it!

Sure, Michael brought the currants and all the things for to make it yesterday, thinking maybe there'd be neighbours in. And maybe 'tis the last bit of cake I'll be making for you at all, for 'tis but two weeks now until we start across the water." She wiped her eyes on her ap.r.o.n.

Mr McQueen was very quiet as he walked home with Mrs McQueen and the Twins. And that evening, after the children were in bed, he sat for a long time silent, with his pipe in his mouth. His pipe went out and he did not notice it. By and by he said to Mrs McQueen, "I've made up my mind--"

"The Lord save us! To what?" said Mrs McQueen.

"To go to America," said Mr McQueen.

Mrs McQueen hid her face in her hands and rocked back and forth and cried. "To be leaving the place I was born, and where my father and mother were born before me, and all the neighbours, and this old house that's been home since ever I married you--'twill break the heart in my body," she said.