Page:Shiana - Peadar Ua Laoghaire.djvu/85

Rh "Mother!" he called, at the top of his voice.

Sive put her head out at the door, chewing a mouthful of bread.

"Mother!" Michael called again. "Come out here and come along home at once. You have something else to do than to be coming here like a little dog trotting through the mud for them. If they have a match to make, let them make it themselves or leave it alone."

Sive swallowed the bit that was in her mouth.

"Confound you, you cripple!" said she. "What's wrong with you now?"

"Cripple, indeed?" said Michael. "There is enough, and double enough, wrong with me. You were not satisfied with having your own name and your father's name in the mouths of the people, without dragging my mother into your business. But I'll take right good care that what you failed in yourselves you shall not succeed in by her help. Mother! mother, I say!"

"Be off with you home, you mis-shapen thing, and don't be deaving us! And if you have taken a drop, go to bed and sleep it off,'" [sic] said she.

"I tell you I won't stir a foot to leave this place till she comes out," said he. "And I tell you another thing, and believe it from me; that you needn't be tearing off your clothes for rage because Shiana wouldn't marry you. He wouldn't marry you if there were nobody in Ireland but you, you brazen old thing! Mother! mother, I say! Come out here, or I will come in and carry you out."

"Ach, you lame ape, if you don't leave that place and clear out of my sight double quick, I'll put a mark on you that will stick to you as long