I"ll go and see the priest."
""It was a mere optical allusion," said the priest, when I told him how the gintleman was sometimes big and sometimes small, a "mere optical allusion, Rory," he says; "had you been tasting the crayture?"
""Troth, maybe I had," says I.
""Well," says he, "that was it. To my thinking this sailor gintleman is an honest man enough. Meet him, Rory, in Dublin as he axed you, and sail with him, Tim; sure it"ll make a man o" ye, and your mother and Molly as well, Rory."
""Well," says I, "give me your blessin", your riverance, and I"ll be after going."
""I"ll not be denying ye that same," says his riverance.
"But it was mother and Molly that wept when I told them where I was going. Och! they did weep, to be sure; but when I told them of all the foine countries I"d see, and all the goold I"d bring home, troth it"s brighten up they did wonderful, and for all the fortnight before I sailed we did nothing but talk, and talk, and talk, bar that all the time they were talking it is mending me shirts and darning me stockings the dear craytures were.
"Well wi" this and wi" that the time pa.s.sed away quickly enough, and at long last I bade them good-bye, and with a big lump in me throat, away I started for Dublin Bay.
"I mind it well, boys; it was the dark hour av midnight when we got up anchor and sailed away, and there was such a thunderstorm rattling over the big hill o" Howth as I"d never seen the likes of in my born days.
There wasn"t a breath av wind either, but somehow that didn"t make a morsel av difference to the ship one way or another. She was a quare ship.
"We were far out of sight av land next morning, and with niver another ship to be seen. It didn"t seem sailing we were, boys, but flying; it didn"t seem through the water we went, but over it, boys. It"s a foine ship she was, and a purty one as well.
"Talk av white decks, boys! ours were alabaster, and the copper nails in her weren"t copper at all, but the purest av gold, and the bra.s.s work the same. Sure didn"t I get me ould knife out just to try it.
""Don"t you be sc.r.a.ping at that," says the captain, right behind me, "and spoiling the looks av the ship. It"s plenty of that we"ll get where we"re going to."
"Then I looks up, and there stood the captain right a-top av the binnacle, and sorra more than one eye had he. "By the powers!" says I, "what have ye done with your other eye, captain?"
""Whisht, Rory!" says he; "it"s in the locker down below I keep the other. One eye is enough to use at a time."
""If it"s a good one," says I, talking friendly loike.
""It"s me weather eye, Rory," says he; "but go and do your duty, Rory, and keep silence when ye talk to your supairior officer."
"The crew av this strange ship, boys, were forty av the foinest fellows that ever walked on two legs, barrin" that niver a one o" them had more than one leg apiece, and it was hop they did instead av walking like dacint Christians. "Only one leg apiece," says I to the bo"swain"s mate.
""One leg is enough to go to sea with," says he; "but go and do your duty, Rory, and keep silence when ye spake to your supairior officer."
"It was a quare ship, boys, with a one-eyed captain and a one-legged crew.
"It was, maybe, a fortnight after we sailed, and maybe more, when one day the sky grew all dark, the wind blew, and the thunders rolled and rattled, and the seas rose mountains high, and sure I thought the end of the world had come, and what would poor mother and Molly do without me.
But short was the time given me to think, boys.
""It"s all your fault," cried my messmates, swarming round me.
""Out with one eye," cries the captain.
""Off with one leg," cries the crew.
""Never a one av me eyes will ye have, ye spalpeens!" I roars; "and as for me legs, I manes to stick to the whole lot av the two av them. Come on," I cries; "stand up foreninst Rory if there is a bit av courage among ye."
"But what could one man do among so many av them, boys? And it"s down they"d have had me, and me one leg would have been off in a jiffey, if I hadn"t made the best use av the pair av them. "Bad success to ye all,"
I cries, jumping on to the bowsprit, "ye bog-trotting crew; I"ll trust to the tinder mercies av the sharks afore I"ll stop longer among ye."
And over I leapt into the boiling sea. The water went surging into my ears as I sank, but even at that moment it was me poor mother and Molly I was thinking most about, and whativer they"d do athout me at all, at all.
"Boys, when I came to the top av the wather agin, sorra a ship was to be seen anywhere; the sky was clear and blue, and the wind had all gone down. "Rory O"Reilly!" says a voice near me.
"And with that I looks round, and what should I see, but the ugliest craythure av an ould man that ever was born.
""You"re well rid o" the lot," says the craythure.
""Thrue for you," says I; "and as ye spake so frindly loike, maybe you"d be after tellin" me how far it is to the nearest house av entertainment."
""Take a howld av me tail," says the craythure, "and sure I"ll tow ye there in a twinklin"."
""Is it a merman ye are, then," says I, "or the little ould man av the sea?"
""It"s a merman, sure enough," he replied; and wi" that I catches howld av his tail, and away we goes as cheerful as ye plaze, boys, and all the toime the ould craythure kept tellin" me about the beautiful home av the mermaids beneath the blue says, and their couches av pearl and coralline halls, and the lovely gardens, with the flowers all growing and moving with the wash av the warm waves, and av the strange-shaped fishes with diamonds and sparkling gems in their heads, that swim round and round av a noight to give the purty damsels light, to ate and to drink and to dance in.
""And do you dwell among all this beauty?" says I to the ugly old craythure.
""What!" says he, "the loikes o" me dwell in sich places? No," says he, "Rory O"Reilly, it"s only a slave I am, for there is a moighty difference twixt a _mermaid_ and a _merman_. But here you are at the island."
"And with that he gave his tail a shake, and I found myself lying in the sunshine on the coral sands, with no little ould man near me at all, at all.
"Now, boys, what should happen next, but I should fall as sound asleep as a babe in its cradle. Maybe it was the pangs of hunger that wakened me, and maybe it wasn"t, for before I opened me eyes, I had opened me ears, and such a confusion av swate sounds I"d never heard before, and sartainly never since.
"I kept me eyes firmly closed, wondering where I was, and trying to think back; and think back I did to the goblin ship and its goblin crew, and the little ould man av the sea that towed me on sh.o.r.e with his tail.
The sounds were at first like the murmur av bees, then bird songs were added to them, sweeter than all delicious strains av music, that stirred every pulse in me body. And with that I opened me eyes.
"I"ll give ye me word av honour, boys, and me hand on it as well, I was so astonished at all I saw around me, that never a thing could I do at all, at all, but lie still and stare.
"It was in fairyland I was, sure enough. What were those beautiful beings, I kept asking myself, that glided over the golden ground, or, with trailing, gauzy garments and flowing hair, went floating through the sky itself, keeping time every one of them to the dreamy rhythm of the music that filled the air, and didn"t seem to come from any direction in particular? Were they peris, sylphs, fays, or fairies, or a choice selection of mermaids come on sh.o.r.e for a dance?
"I"d fallen asleep on the snow-white sand. There was no sand here now, sure; all was green and gold, and shrubs and flowers and coloured fountains were all around me. But it was night all the same. And the strange thing was this, every leaf and flower gave out light of its own colour. But, glimmering down through the beautiful haze, I could see the twinkling stars, and I offered up a prayer and felt safe.
"The music grew quicker, merrier, madder, and at last sure I couldn"t stand it a moment longer, and up I starts.
""Och! if you plaze," I says, "I"ll mingle in the mazy dance meself, and there isn"t a boy in Ballyporeen can bate me at the rale ould Oirish jig."
"But sure, boys, as Burns says--
""In a moment all was dark."
"Away went shrubs and flowers and fountains and sylphs and fairies and fays and all, and there stood poor Rory O"Reilly on the sands once more, with the wee waves frothing up at his feet, and scratching his head, and feeling more like a fool than ever he did in his born days.
""Well, sure," says I to myself, "there is no knowing what to make av it. But," I says, "a little more sleep won"t hurt me, anyhow."
"So down I lies again on the sand.
"It was daylight when I awoke again once more. But where was I now? No fairies this time. But sure I was among the strangest race of beings imagination could conceive av. The country all around me was honest and purty enough; trees, fields, hills, and houses, and all might have been a part of ould Oirland itself. But the people, boys--why, it was indiarubber they must have been made av, and nothing else. At one moment a man would be as tall and thin as a flagstaff, next moment about the shape and fashion of a bull frog. They could stretch their arms out till twenty yards long, and make their mouths big enough to swallow a sheep. It wasn"t in at the door either they"d be going when entering their dwellings, but straight through the keyhole.