The father having proposed, and the son acceded to these arrangements, the next thing to be done was to pitch upon a proper girl as his wife. This being a more important matter, was thus discussed by the father and son, one evening, at their own fireside, in the presence of Sheelah.
“Now, Phelim,” said the father, “look about you, an' tell us what girl in the neighborhood you'd like to be married to.”
“Why,” replied Phelim, “I'll lave that to you; jist point out the girl you'd like for your daughter-in-law, an' be she rich, poor, ould, or ugly, I'll delude her. That's the chat.”
“Ah, Phelim, if you could put your comedher an Gracey Dalton, you'd be a made boy. She has the full of a rabbit-skin o' guineas.”
“A made boy! Faith, they say I'm that as it is, you know. But would you wish me to put my comedher on Gracey Dalton? Spake out.”
“To be sure I would.”
“Ay,” observed the mother, “or what 'ud you think of Miss Pattherson? That 'ud be the girl. She has a fine farm, an' five hundre pounds. She's a Protestant, but Phelim could make a Christian of her.”
“To be sure I could,” said Phelim, “have her thumpin' her breast, and countin' her Padareens in no time. Would you wish me to have her, mudher?”
“Throth an' I would, avick.”
“That 'ud never do,” observed the father. “Sure you don't think she'd ever think of the likes o' Phelim?”
“Don't make a goose of yourself, ould man,” observed Phelim. “Do you think if I set about it, that I'd not manufacture her senses as asy as I'd peel a piatee?”
“Well, well,” replied the father, “in the name o' Goodness make up to her. Faith it ud' be somethin' to have a jauntin' car in the family!”
“Ay, but what the sorra will I do for a suit o' clo'es?” observed Phelim. “I could never go near her in these breeches. My elbows, too, are out o' this ould coat, bad luck to it! An' as for a waistcoat, why, I dunna but it's a sin to call what I'm wearin' a waistcoat at all. Thin agin—why, blood alive, sure I can't go to her barefooted, an' I dunna but it 'ud be dacenter to do that same, than to step out in sich excuses for brogues as these. An' in regard o' the stockins', why, I've pulled them down, strivin' to look dacent, till one 'ud think the balls o' my legs is at my heels.”
“The sorra word's in that but thruth, any how,” observed the father; “but what's to be done? For we have no way of gettin' them.”
“Faith, I don't know that,” said Phelim. “What if we'd borry? I could get the loan of a pair of breeches from Dudley Dwire, an' a coat from Sam Appleton. We might thry Billy Brady for a waistcoat, an' a pair of stockings. Barny Buckram-back, the pinsioner, 'ud lend me his pumps; an' we want nothing now but a hat.”
“Nothin' under a Caroline 'ud do, goin' there,” observed the father.
“I think Father O'Hara 'ud oblige me wid the loan o' one for a day or two;” said Phelim; “he has two or three o' them, all as good as ever.”
“But, Phelim,” said the father, “before we go to all this trouble, are you sure you could put your comedher on Miss Pattherson?”
“None o' your nonsense,” said Phelim, “don't you know I could? I hate a man to be puttin' questions to me, when he knows them himself. It's a fashion you have got, an' you ought to dhrop it.”
“Well thin,” said the father, “let us set about it to-morrow. If we can borry the clo'es, thry your luck.”
Phelim and the father, the next morning, set out each in a different direction, to see how far they could succeed on the borrowing system. The father was to make a descent on Dudley Dwire for the breeches, and appeal to the generosity of Sam Appleton for the coat. Phelim himself was to lay his case before the priest, and to assail Buckram-back, the pensioner, on his way home, for the brogues.
When Phelim arrived at the priest's house, he found none of the family up but the housekeeper. After bidding her good morrow, and being desired to sit down, he entered into conversation with the good woman, who felt anxious to know the scandal of the whole parish.
“Aren't you a son of Larry Toole's, young man?”
“I am, indeed, Mrs. Doran. I'm Phelim O'Toole, my mother says.”
“I hope you're comin' to spake to the priest about your duty.”
“Why, then, be gorra, I'm glad you axed me, so I am—for only you seen the pinance in my face, you'd never suppose sich a thing. I want to make my confishion to him, wid the help o' Goodness.”
“Is there any news goin', Phelim?”
“Divil a much, barrin' what you hard yourself, I suppose, about Frank Fogarty, that went mad yesterday, for risin' the meal on the poor, an' ate the ears off himself afore anybody could see him.”
“Vick na hoiah, Phelim; do you tell me so?”
“Why man o' Moses, is it possible you did not hear it, ma'am?”
“Oh, worra, man alive, not a syllable! Ate the ears off of himself! Phelim, acushla, see what it is to be hard an the poor!”
“Oh, he was ever an' always the biggest nagar livin', ma'am. Ay, an' when he was tied up, till a blessed priest 'ud be brought to maliwgue the divil out of him, he got a scythe an' cut his own two hands off.”
“No thin, Phelim!”
“Faitha, ma'am, sure enough. I suppose, ma'am, you hard about Biddy Duignan?”
“Who is she, Phelim?”
“Why the misfortunate crathurs a daughter of her father's, ould Mick Duignan, of Tavenimore.”
“An' what about her, Phehm! What happened her?”
“Faix, ma'am, a bit of a mistake she met wid; but, anyhow, ould Harry Connolly's to stand in the chapel nine Sundays, an' to make three Stations to Lough Dergh for it. Bedad, they say it's as purty a crathur as you'd see in a day's thravellin'.”
“Harry Connolly! Why, I know Harry, but I never heard of Biddy Duiguan, or her father at all. Harry Connolly! Is it a man that's bent over his staff for the last twenty years! Hut, tut, Phelim, don't say sich a thing.”
“Why, ma'am, sure he takes wid it himself; he doesn't deny it at all, the ould sinner.”
“Oh, that I mayn't sin, Phelim, if one knows who to thrust in this world, so they don't. Why the desateful ould—hut, Phelim, I can't give into it.”
“Faix, ma'am, no wondher; but sure when he confesses it himself! Bedad, Mrs. Doran, I never seen you look so well. Upon my sowl, you'd take the shine out o' the youngest o' thim!”
“Is it me, Phelim? Why, you're beside yourself.”
“Beside myself, am I? Faith, an' if I am, what I said's thruth, anyhow. I'd give more nor I'll name, to have so red a pair of cheeks as you have. Sowl, they're thumpers.”
“Ha, ha, ha! Oh, that I mayn't sin, but that's a good joke! An ould woman near sixty!”
“Now, Mrs. Doran, that's nonsense, an' nothing else. Near sixty! Oh, by my purty, that's runnin' away wid the story entirely—No, nor thirty. Faith, I know them that's not more nor five or six-an'-twenty, that 'ud be glad to borry the loan of your face for a while. Divil a word o' lie in that.”
“No, no, Phelim, aroon, I seen the day; but that's past. I remimber when the people did say I was worth lookin' at. Won't you sit near the fire? You're in the dhraft there.”
“Thank you kindly, ma'am; faith, you have the name, far an' near, for bein' the civilest woman alive this day. But, upon my sowl, if you wor