This might do for a while, but it could not last. They were idle, drunken, and ill-conducted; and it was not to be supposed that they would get a farthing candle on their words. They were, of course, _dhruv_ to great straits; and faith, they soon found that their fighting, and drinking, and idleness made them the laughing-sport of the neighbours; but neither brought food to their _childhre_, put a coat upon their backs, nor satisfied their landlord when he came to look for his own. Still, the never a one of Bill but was a funny fellow with strangers, though, as we said, the greatest rogue unhanged.
One day he was standing against his own anvil, completely in a brown study--being brought to his wit"s end how to make out a breakfast for the family. The wife was scolding and cursing in the house, and the naked creatures of childhre squalling about her knees for food. Bill was fairly at an amplush, and knew not where or how to turn himself, when a poor withered old beggar came into the forge, tottering on his staff. A long white beard fell from his chin, and he looked as thin and hungry that you might blow him, one would think, over the house.
Bill at this moment had been brought to his senses by distress, and his heart had a touch of pity towards the old man; for, on looking at him a second time, he clearly saw starvation and sorrow in his face.
"G.o.d save you, honest man!" said Bill.
The old man gave a sigh, and raising himself with great pain, on his staff, he looked at Bill in a very beseeching way.
"Musha, G.o.d save you kindly!" says he; "maybe you could give a poor, hungry, helpless ould man a mouthful of something to ait? You see yourself I"m not able to work; if I was, I"d scorn to be behoulding to anyone."
"Faith, honest man," said Bill, "if you knew who you"re speaking to, you"d as soon ask a monkey for a churn-staff as me for either mate or money. There"s not a blackguard in the three kingdoms so fairly on the _shaughran_ as I am for both the one and the other. The wife within is sending the curses thick and heavy on me, and the childhre"s playing the cat"s melody to keep her in comfort. Take my word for it, poor man, if I had either mate or money I"d help you, for I know particularly well what it is to want them at the present spaking; an empty sack won"t stand, neighbour."
So far Bill told him truth. The good thought was in his heart, because he found himself on a footing with the beggar; and nothing brings down pride, or softens the heart, like feeling what it is to want.
"Why, you are in a worse state than I am," said the old man; "you have a family to provide for, and I have only myself to support."
"You may kiss the book on that, my old worthy," replied Bill; "but come, what I can do for you I will; plant yourself up here beside the fire, and I"ll give it a blast or two of my bellows that will warm the old blood in your body. It"s a cold, miserable, snowy day, and a good heat will be of service."
"Thank you kindly," said the old man; "I _am_ cold, and a warming at your fire will do me good, sure enough. Oh, it _is a bitter, bitter day; G.o.d bless it!" _ He then sat down, and Bill blew a rousing blast that soon made the stranger edge back from the heat. In a short time he felt quite comfortable, and when the numbness was taken out of his joints, he b.u.t.toned himself up and prepared to depart.
"Now," says he to Bill, "you hadn"t the food to give me, but _what you could you did_. Ask any three wishes you choose, and be they what they may, take my word for it, they shall be granted."
Now, the truth is, that Bill, though he believed himself a great man in point of "cuteness, wanted, after all, a full quarter of being square; for there is always a great difference between a wise man and a knave. Bill was so much of a rogue that he could not, for the blood of him, ask an honest wish, but stood scratching his head in a puzzle.
"Three wishes!" said he. "Why, let me see--did you say _three_?"
"Ay," replied the stranger, "three wishes--that was what I said."
"Well," said Bill, "here goes,--aha!--let me alone, my old worthy!--faith I"ll overreach the parish, if what you say is true.
I"ll cheat them in dozens, rich and poor, old and young: let me alone, man,--I have it here;" and he tapped his forehead with great glee.
"Faith, you"re the sort to meet of a frosty morning, when a man wants his breakfast; and I"m sorry that I have neither money nor credit to get a bottle of whiskey, that we might take our _morning_ together."
"Well, but let us hear the wishes," said the old man; "my time is short, and I cannot stay much longer."
"Do you see this sledge-hammer?" said Bill; "I wish, in the first place, that whoever takes it up in their hands may never be able to lay it down till I give them lave; and that whoever begins to sledge with it may never stop sledging till it"s my pleasure to release him."
"Secondly--I have an arm-chair, and I wish that whoever sits down in it may never rise out of it till they have my consent."
"And, thirdly--that whatever money I put into my purse, n.o.body may have power to take it out of it but myself!"
"You devil"s rip!" says the old man in a pa.s.sion, shaking his staff across Bill"s nose, "why did you not ask something that would sarve you both here and hereafter? Sure it"s as common as the market-cross, that there"s not a vagabone in his Majesty"s dominions stands more in need of both."
"Oh! by the elevens," said Bill, "I forgot that altogether! Maybe you"d be civil enough to let me change one of them? The sorra purtier wish ever was made than I"ll make, if you"ll give me another chance."
"Get out, you reprobate," said the old fellow, still in a pa.s.sion.
"Your day of grace is past. Little you knew who was speaking to you all this time. I"m St. Moroky, you blackguard, and I gave you an opportunity of doing something for yourself and your family; but you neglected it, and now your fate is cast, you dirty, bog-trotting profligate. Sure, it"s well known what you are! Aren"t you a by-word in everybody"s mouth, you and your scold of a wife? By this and by that, if ever you happen to come across me again, I"ll send you to where you won"t freeze, you villain!"
He then gave Bill a rap of his cudgel over the head, and laid him at his length beside the bellows, kicked a broken coal-scuttle out of his way, and left the forge in a fury.
When Billy recovered himself from the effects of the blow, and began to think on what had happened, he could have quartered himself with vexation for not asking great wealth as one of the wishes at least; but now the die was cast on him, and he could only make the most of the three he pitched upon.
He now bethought him how he might turn them to the best account, and here his cunning came to his aid. He began by sending for his wealthiest neighbours on pretence of business; and when he got them under his roof, he offered them the arm-chair to sit down in. He now had them safe, nor could all the art of man relieve them except worthy Bill was willing. Bill"s plan was to make the best bargain he could before he released his prisoners; and let him alone for knowing how to make their purses bleed. There wasn"t a wealthy man in the country he did not fleece. The parson of the parish bled heavily; so did the lawyer; and a rich attorney, who had retired from practice, swore that the Court of Chancery itself was paradise compared to Bill"s chair.
This was all very good for a time. The fame of his chair, however, soon spread; so did that of his sledge. In a short time neither man, woman, nor child would darken his door; all avoided him and his fixtures as they would a spring-gun or man-trap. Bill, so long as he fleeced his neighbours, never wrought a hand"s turn; so that when his money was out, he found himself as badly off as ever. In addition to all this, his character was fifty times worse than before; for it was the general belief that he had dealings with the old boy. Nothing now could exceed his misery, distress, and ill-temper. The wife and he and their children all fought among one another. Everybody hated them, cursed them, and avoided them. The people thought they were acquainted with more than Christian people ought to know. This, of course, came to Bill"s ears, and it vexed him very much.
One day he was walking about the fields, thinking of how he could raise the wind once more; the day was dark, and he found himself, before he stopped, in the bottom of a lonely glen covered by great bushes that grew on each side. "Well," thought he, when every other means of raising money failed him, "it"s reported that I"m in league with the old boy, and as it"s a folly to have the name of the connection without the profit, I"m ready to make a bargain with him any day;--so," said he, raising his voice, "Nick, you sinner, if you be convanient and willing, why stand out here; show your best leg--here"s your man."
The words were hardly out of his mouth when a dark, sober-looking old gentleman, not unlike a lawyer, walked up to him. Bill looked at the foot and saw the hoof.--"Morrow, Nick," says Bill.
"Morrow, Bill," says Nick. "Well, Bill, what"s the news?"
"Devil a much myself hears of late," says Bill; "is there anything _fresh_ below?"
"I can"t exactly say, Bill; I spend little of my time down now; the Tories are in office, and my hands are consequently too full of business here to pay much attention to anything else."
"A fine place this, sir," says Bill, "to take a const.i.tutional walk in; when I want an appet.i.te I often come this way myself--hem! _High_ feeding is very bad without exercise."
"High feeding! Come, come, Bill, you know you didn"t taste a morsel these four-and-twenty hours."
"You know that"s a bounce, Nick. I eat a breakfast this morning that would put a stone of flesh on you, if you only smelt at it."
"No matter; this is not to the purpose. What"s that you were muttering to yourself awhile ago? If you want to come to the brunt, here I"m for you."
"Nick," said Bill, "you"re complate; you want nothing barring a pair of Brian O"Lynn"s breeches."
Bill, in fact, was bent on making his companion open the bargain, because he had often heard that, in that case, with proper care on his own part, he might defeat him in the long run. The other, however, was his match.
"What was the nature of Brian"s garment," inquired Nick. "Why, you know the song," said Bill--
""Brian O"Lynn had no breeches to wear, So he got a sheep"s skin for to make him a pair; With the fleshy side out and the woolly side in, They"ll be pleasant and _cool_, says Brian O"Lynn."
"A _cool_ pare would sarve you, Nick."
"You"re mighty waggish to-day, Misther Dawson."
"And good right I have," said Bill; "I"m a man snug and well to do in the world; have lots of money, plenty of good eating and drinking, and what more need a man wish for?"
"True," said the other; "in the meantime it"s rather odd that so respectable a man should not have six inches of unbroken cloth in his apparel. You are as naked a tatterdemalion as I ever laid my eyes on; in full dress for a party of scare-crows, William."
"That"s my own fancy, Nick; I don"t work at my trade like a gentleman.
This is my forge dress, you know."
"Well, but what did you summon me here for?" said the other; "you may as well speak out, I tell you; for, my good friend, unless _you_ do, _I_ shan"t. Smell that."
"I smell more than that," said Bill; "and by the way, I"ll thank you to give me the windy side of you--curse all sulphur, I say. There, that"s what I call an improvement in my condition. But as you _are_ so stiff," says Bill, "why, the short and long of it is--that--hem--you see I"m--tut--sure you know I have a thriving trade of my own, and that if I like I needn"t be at a loss; but in the meantime I"m rather in a kind of a so--so--don"t you _take_?"
And Bill winked knowingly, hoping to trick him into the first proposal.
"You must speak above-board, my friend," says the other. "I"m a man of few words, blunt and honest. If you have anything to say, be plain.