Page:Camperdown - Griffith - 1836.djvu/208

 him, easy like, with one hand, by the waistband behind, over the currant bushes, and set him gently down on the other side, and then Betty she laughed out loud, scornful like. Sammy Oram, after that, had no heart to work next to Bonny Betty. 'And I knew what he comed next to me for at the time,' said she, 'but I said I'll fit him when he's ready to spake—he a fader to my childer—he's not a fader to his own. There's Lizzy Conolly, she's a good enough body for him, and he'll find her a better mammy to his childer than I would be.' Sammy's a man, your honour, that soon tires of a wife. I remember once he tould me when his first wife had been a long time ailen, that he wished he could get her back to Ireland to her fader, he did not see why he was obliged to take care of another man's child. But Sammy's an honest man, your honour, and he'll may be do well yet. I think the hint of Lizzy Conolly not a bad one, and she's fond of little childer. We are all wishing to see your honour, not forgetting our respects to Mrs. M'Curdy and sweet little Nory. I remain your honour's humble and obedient servant, "."

On the fourth of July the four gates were thrown open, and all the village, rich and poor, went in, for the first time, to see what the idle hours of six persons had accomplished. The praises that the men and boys received, to say nothing of Bonny Betty, who was there in all her pride with her children, quite compensated them for any little extra fatigue they had undergone. The boys and girls were neatly dressed, and the poor women, the wives of the gardeners, began to take rank among the better order of labourers, for their husbands were beginning to attract notice. It was constantly—"Well, Jemmy Brady, how does your