The Widow O"Callaghan"s Boys.
by Gulielma Zollinger.
CHAPTER I
When Mr. O"Callaghan died, after a long, severe, and expensive sickness, he left to his widow a state of unlimited poverty and seven boys.
"Sure, an" sivin"s the parfect number," she said through her tears as she looked round on her flock; "and Tim was the bist man as iver lived, may the saints presarve him an" rist him from his dreadful pains!"
Thus did she loyally ignore the poverty. It was the last of February.
Soon they must leave the tiny house of three rooms and the farm, for another renter stood ready to take possession. There would be nothing to take with them but their clothing and their scant household furniture, for the farm rent and the sickness had swallowed up the crop, the farming implements, and all the stock.
Pat, who was fifteen and the oldest, looked gloomily out at one of the kitchen windows, and Mike, the next brother, a boy of thirteen, looked as gloomily as he could out of the other. Mike always followed Pat"s lead.
When eleven-year-old Andy was a baby Pat had taken him for a pet.
Accordingly, when, two years later, Jim was born, Mike took him in charge. To-day Pat"s arm was thrown protectingly over Andy"s shoulders, while Jim stood in the embrace of Mike"s arm at the other window. Barney and Tommie, aged seven and five respectively, whispered together in a corner, and three-year-old Larry sat on the floor at his mother"s feet looking wonderingly up into her face.
Five days the father had slept in his grave, and still there was the same solemn hush of sorrow in the house that fell upon it when he died.
"And what do you intend to do?" sympathetically asked Mrs. Smith, a well-to-do farmer"s wife and a neighbor.
The widow straightened her trim little figure, wiped her eyes, and replied in a firm voice: "It"s goin" to town I am, where there"s work to be got, as well as good schoolin" for the b"ys."
"But don"t you think that seven boys are almost more than one little woman can support? Hadn"t you better put some of them out--for a time?"--the kind neighbor was quick to add, as she saw the gathering frown on the widow"s face.
"Sure," she replied, "twas the Lord give me the b"ys, an" "twas the Lord took away their blissid father. Do ye think He"d "a" done ayther wan or the other if He hadn"t thought I could care for "em all? An" I will, too. It may be we"ll be hungry--yis, an" cold, too--wanst in a while.
But it won"t be for long."
"But town is a bad place for boys, I"m told," urged the neighbor.
"Not for mine," answered the widow quietly. "They"re their father"s b"ys, an" I can depind on "em. They moind me loightest word. Come here, Pat, an" Moike, an" Andy, an" Jim, an" Barney, an" Tommie!"
Obediently the six drew near. She raised Larry to her lap, and looked up touchingly into their faces. "Can"t I depind on ye, b"ys?"
"Yes, mother, course you can," answered Pat for them all.
A moment the widow paused to steady her voice, and then resumed, "It"s all settled. A-Sat.u.r.day I goes to town to get a place. A-Monday we moves."
The neighbor saw that it was indeed settled, and, like a discreet woman, did not push her counsel further, but presently took her leave, hoping that the future might be brighter than it promised for Mrs. O"Callaghan and her boys.
"Aise "em up an" down the hills, Pat, the dear bastes that your father loved!"
Mrs. O"Callaghan and Pat were driving to Wennott behind the team that was theirs no longer, and it was Sat.u.r.day. No need to speak to Pat. The whip rested in the socket, and he wished, for his part, that the horses would crawl. He knew how poor they were, and he did not want to go to town. But mother said town, and town it must be.
Down across the railroad track, a little northeast of the depot, was a triangular bit of ground containing about as much as two lots, and on it had been erected a poor little shanty of two rooms. The widow knew of this place, and she meant to try to secure it.
""Twill jist do for the loikes of us, Pat, for it"s a low rint we"re after, an" a place quiet loike an" free from obsarvers. If it"s poor ye are, well an" good, but, says I, "There"s no use of makin" a show of it." For it"s not a pretty show that poverty makes, so it ain"t, an", says I, "A pretty show or none." I see you"re of my moind," she continued with a shrewd glance at him, "an" it heartens me whin ye agree with me, for your father"s gone, an" him and me used to agree wonderful."
Pat"s lips twitched. He had been very fond of his father. And all at once it seemed to him that town and the shanty were the two most desirable things in their future.
"But, cheer up, Pat! "Twas your father as was a loively man, d"ye moind?
Yon"s the town. It"s hopin" I am that our business"ll soon be done."
Pat"s face brightened a little, for he found the entry into even so small a town as Wennott a diversion. To-day he looked about him with new interest, for here were streets and stores that were to become familiar to him. They entered the town from the south and drove directly to its center, where stood the courthouse in a small square surrounded by an iron hitching-rack. Stores faced it on every side, and above the stores were the lawyers" offices. Which one belonged to the man who had charge of the place the widow wished to rent, she wondered, and Pat wondered, as she stood by, while he tied the horses.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "It"s your father"s ways you have."]
Above the stores, too, were doctors" offices, and dentists" offices, dress-making-shops, and suites of rooms where young couples and, in some instances, small families lived.
"We"ll jist be inquirin", Pat. "Tis the only way. But what to ask for, I don"t know. Shall I be sayin" the bit of a place beyant the tracks?"
"Yes, mother. That"s what you want, ain"t it?"
"Sure it is, an" nothin" else, nayther. It"s your father"s ways you have, Pat. "Twas himsilf as wint iver straight after what he wanted."
Pat"s eyes beamed and he held himself more proudly. What higher praise could there be for him than to be thought like his father?
It chanced that the first lawyer they asked was the right one.
"Luck"s for us," whispered the little widow. "Though maybe "twouldn"t have been against us, nayther, if we"d had to hunt a bit."
And then all three set out to look at the poor little property.
"Sure, an" it suits me purpose intoirely," declared Mrs. O"Callaghan when the bargain had been concluded. "An" it"s home we"ll be goin" at wanst. We"ve naught to be buyin" the day, seein" we"re movin" in on Monday."
Pat made no answer.
"Did you see thim geese a-squawkin" down by the tracks?" asked Mrs.
O"Callaghan, as she and her son settled themselves on the high spring seat of the farm wagon.
Pat nodded.
"There"s an idea," said his mother. "There"s more than wan in the world as can raise geese. An" geese is nice atin", too. I didn"t see no runnin" water near, but there"s a plinty of ditches and low places where there"ll be water a-standin" a good bit of the toime. An" thim that can"t git runnin" water must take standin". Yis, Pat, be they geese or min, in this world they must take what they can git an" fat up on it as much as they can, too."
The thin little woman--thin from overwork and anxiety and grief--spoke thus to her tall son, who, from rapid growing, was thin, too, and she spoke with a soberness that told how she was trying to strengthen her own courage to meet the days before her. Absorbed in themselves, mother and son paid no heed to their surroundings, the horses fell into their accustomed brisk trot, and they were soon out on the narrow road that lay between the fields.
"Now, Pat, me b"y," said Mrs. O"Callaghan, rousing herself, "you"re the oldest an" I"ll tell you my plans. I"m a-goin" to git washin" to do."
The boy looked at his mother in astonishment.
"I know I"m little," she nodded back at him, "but it"s the grit in me that makes me strong. I can do it. For Tim"s b"ys an" mine I can do it.
Four days in the week I"ll wash for other people, Friday I"ll wash for my own, Sat.u.r.day I"ll mind for "em, an" Sunday I"ll rist."
A few moments there was silence. The widow seemed to have no more to say.