Page:Minnie's Bishop and Other Stories (1915).djvu/114

 The fourteen young Geraghtys who rejoiced the hearts of three pairs of parents had all struggled into the world without medical assistance. The people on the mainland might levy rates on themselves if they liked, and squander the money on useless luxuries. The three families on Inishbee got on very well without roads, workhouses, or doctors, and saw no reason why they should pay for what they neither had nor wanted.

Matty Hynes took quite a different view of the matter. It was his business to collect the rates. He had, ultimately, to pay over the whole sum levied into the banking account of the County Council. If he failed to collect the contribution due by any particular householder he suffered the loss himself. When the people of Inishbee refused to pay, Matty Hynes was £2 7s. 4d. poorer than he ought to have been. He disliked losing the money. He disliked still more the feeling that the three families of Geraghtys were robbing him. He, too, waiving the consideration of the smallness of the sum in dispute, took his stand on principle. The money was due, and what is due must, if society is to survive, be paid. He put this view of the matter before the Geraghtys, but they were not affected by it. Their position remained unchanged.

The law provides the rate-collector with a weapon against defaulters. It allows him to seize their property and sell it by public auction, satisfying his claim out of the proceeds of the sale. The Geraghtys