Page:Harvey O'Higgins--Silent Sam and other stories.djvu/99

Rh "She was a fine fat gurl, as soft as feathers.

"'Faith,' I says, 'if I 'd knowed this, now, I 'd niver 've done it. 'Tis worse an' better than I thought,' I says. 'But look yeh now,' I says. 'I 'm only sworn fer three months,' I says, 'an' if yeh 'll marry me now, I 'll be back in July to yeh.'

"'Twas takin' advantage av the poor gurl, I know. But we done it. I married her with her eyes wet. An' 'twas n't the las' time they were so ner mine nayther—God hilp us!"

A rubber-tired coupé bowled past them, carrying the wreck of some midnight dissipation to the Turkish baths around the corner. Feeny spat solemnly and changed the leg.

"God hilp us!" the watchman said. "We marched off that day—the twilft' av April—like we was goin' to another clam-bake down the Bay—with the crowd, whoopin', an' the band bleatin', an' us the bully boys!—down Canal Street to th' ol' 'Baltic,' that was lyin' where we 'd ust to catch eels, many 's the time—long, yellah-bellied eels—an' bat thim on the head fer supper.… My, my! Little we thought! Little we thought!"

Feeny cleared his throat. "Did yuh serve all the war?"

"I did not—worse luck! I got no further than Bull Run.… We sailed down to Washin'ton an' wint into quarters there. An' we toorned out to a fire that was burnin' nex to a big hotel. I mind that well.… An' thin we were shunted here an' shunted there fer