SHIANA
147
Kate.—Upon my word, it's my opinion that the greatest gentlemen are the greatest thieves. There is that gentleman who evicted the MacKeowns. It is said that he has ten thousand a year over in England. That would not satisfy him, but he must needs come over here to the poor MacKeowns and fling them out in a deluge of rain on Christmas Eve. The old couple were there, and the young couple, and nine children. The eldest was the same age as Peg, and the youngest was three weeks old. When they were out, and the rain falling in torrents, young John MacKeown made a shed for them against the ditch as a shelter. The gentleman came and pulled down the shed.
Nora.—Oh, dear, Kate! Surely he did not do that?
Kate.—Indeed he did. The bailiff told him there was some point of law in it, and that he would have the same trouble in evicting them from the shed as he had in evicting them from the house. He pulled down the shed, at all events. Then the poor old man cried; and when the gentleman saw him crying, "See," said he, "how the old cock cries."
Sheila.—What does that mean, Kate?
Kate.—"Feuċ mar ġoilean an sean ċocaíġe."
Sheila.—Oh, to think of it! When it was he that was making him cry!
Abbie.—I should be inclined to say to that gentleman what Mary Partolan said to the man who had robbed her of a year's butter, when she found she had no legal remedy. "Upon my word," said she, "it is a good thing that there is a hell."
