Page:Darby O'Gill and the Good People by Herminie Templeton Kavanagh (1903).djvu/212

Rh here’s luck an’ good fortune to the ghost or skelling-ton that lays his hand on me this blessed night!” He stuck his two hands deep in his pockets and whirled one leg across the other—the most aggrawating thing a man can do. But Bridget was not the laste discouraged; she only made up her mind to come at him on his soft side, so she spoke up an’ said:

“Suppose I was dying of the faver, Darby O’Gill, an’ Cormac rayfused to bring over a pinch of tay to. What, then, would ye think of the stone-cutter?”

Malachi, the cat, stopped licking his paws, an’ trun a sharp, inquiring eye at his master.

“Bridget,” says the knowledgeable man, giving his hand an argifying wave. “We have two separate ways of being good. Your way is to scurry round an’ do good acts. My way is to keep from doing bad ones. An’ who knows,” he says, with a pious sigh, “which way is the betther one. It isn’t for us to judge,” says he, shakin’ his head solemn at the fire.

Bridget walked out in front of him an’ fowlded her arms tight.

“So you won’t go,” she says, sharp an’ suddin’.

“The divil a foot!” says he, beginnin’ to whustle. Rh