"
In the meantime the bailiff had raised his head out of the water, and
presented a visage which it was impossible to view with gravity. The
widow's anxiety prevented her from seeing it in a ludicrous light; but
Owen's severe face assumed a grave smile, as the man shook himself and
attempted to comprehend the nature of his situation. The young urchins,
who had fallen back at the appearance of Owen and the widow, now burst
into a peal of mirth, in which, however, Jemmy, whose fiercer passions
had been roused, did not join.
"Frank M'Murt," said the widow, "I take the mother of heaven to witness,
that it vexes my heart to see you get sich thratement in my place; an'
I wouldn't for the best cow I have that sich a _brieuliagh_ (* squabble)
happened. _Dher charp agusmanim_, (** by my soul and body) Jimmy, but
I'll make you suffer for drawin' down this upon my head, and me had
enough over it afore."
"I don't care," replied Jemmy; "whoever comes to take our property from
us, an' us willin' to work will suffer for it. Do you think I'd see thim
crathurs at their dhry phatie, an' our cows standin' in a pound for no
rason? No; high hangin' to me, but I'll split to the skull the first man
that takes them; an' all I'm sorry for is, that it's not the vagabone
Landlord himself that's near me. That's our thanks for paying many
a good pound, in honesty and dacency, to him an' his; lavin' us to a
schamin' agent, an' not even to that same, but to his undher-strap-pers,
that's robbin' us on both sides between them.
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