102 JIMMY BUTLER AND THE OWL. the miskaties bit me hands and face to a blister; an' after tumblin' and stumblin' around till I was fairly bamfoozled, I sat down on a log, all of a trimble, to think that I was lost intirely, an' that maybe a lion or some other wild craythur would devour me before morning. Just then I heard somebody a long way off say, "Whip poor Will!" "Bedad," sez I, "I'm glad that it isn't Jamie that's got to take it, though it seems it's more in sorrow than in anger they are doin' it, or why should they say, 'poor Will?' an' sure they can't be Injin, haythin, or naygur, for it's plain English they're afther spakin'. Maybe they might help me out o' this," so I shouted at the top of my voice, “A lost man!" Thin I listened. Prisently an answer came. "Who? Whoo? Whooo?" "Jamie Butler, the waiver!" sez I, as loud as I could roar, an' snatchin' up me bundle an' stick, I started in the direction of the voice. Whin I thought I had got near the place I stopped and shouted again, “A lost man!" "Who! Whoo! Whooo!" said a voice right over my head. "Sure," thinks I, "it's a mighty quare place for a man to be at this time of night; maybe it's some settler scrapin' sugar off a sugar-bush for the children's breakfast in the mornin'. But where's Will and the rest of them?" All this wint through me head like a flash, an' thin I answered his inquiry. "Jamie Butler, the waiver," sez I; "and if it wouldn't inconvanience yer honor, would yez be kind enough to step down and show me the way to the house of Dennis O'Dowd?" "Who! Whoo! Whooo!" sez he. "Dennis O'Dowd," sez I, civil enough, " and a dacent man he is, and first cousin to me own mother." "Who! Whoo! Whooo!" sez he again. "Me mother!" sez I, "and as fine a woman as iver peeled a biled pratie wid her thumb nail, and her father's name was Paddy McFiggin. "Who! Whoo! Whooo!" "Paddy McFiggin! bad luck to yer deaf ould head, Paddy McFiggin, I say-do ye hear that? An' he was the tallest man in all county Tipperary, excipt Jim Doyle, the blacksmith." "Who! Whoo! Whooo!" "Jim Doyle, the blacksmith," sez I, "ye good for nothin' blaggurd naygur, and if yez don't come down and show me the way this min't, I'll climb up there and break every bone in your skin, ye spalpeen, so sure as me name is Jimmy Butler!" JIMMY BUTLER AND THE OWL. 103 "Who! Whoo! Whooo!" sez he, as impident as ever. I said niver a word, but lavin' down me bundle, and takin' me stick in me teeth, I began to climb the tree. Whin I got among the branches I looked quietly around till I saw a pair of big eyes just forninst me. "Whist," sez I, "and I'll let him. have a taste of an Irish stick," and wid that I let drive and lost me balance an' came tumblin' to the ground, nearly breakin' me neck wid the fall. Whin I came to me sinsis I had a very sore head wid a lump on it like a goose egg, and half of me Sunday coat-tail torn off intirely. I spoke to the chap in the tree, but could git niver an answer, at all, at all. Sure, thinks I, he must have gone home to rowl up his head, for by the powers I didn't throw me stick for nothin'. Well, by this time the moon was up and I could see a little, and I detarmined to make one more effort to reach Dennis's. I wint on cautiously for a while, an' thin I heard a bell. "Sure," sez I, "I'm comin' to a settlement now, for I hear the church bell." I kept on toward the sound till I came to an ould cow wid a bell on. She started to run, but I was too quick for her, and got her by the tail and hung on, thinkin' that maybe she would take me out of the woods. On we wint, like an ould country steeple-chase, till, sure enough, we came out to a clearin' and a house in sight wid a light in it. So, leaving the ould cow puffin' and blowin' in a shed, I went to the house, and as luck would have it, whose should it be but Dennis's. He gave me a raal Irish welcome, and introduced me to his two daughters-as purty a pair of girls as iver ye clapped an eye on. But whin I tould him my adventure in the woods, and about the fellow who made fun of me, they all laughed and roared, and Dennis said it was an owl. "An ould what? 66 bird." sez I. 'Why, an owl, a bird," sez he. tell me now?" sez I. "Sure it's a quare country and a quare "Do ye tell me now And thin they all laughed again, till at last I laughed myself, that 104 THE OLD WAYS AND THE NEW. hearty like, and dropped right into a chair between the two purty girls, and the ould chap winked at me and roared again. Dennis is me father-in-law now, and he often yet delights to tell our children about their daddy's adventure wid the owl. It was hard work, it was slow work, a-swing- To think that I ever should live to see work ing the old scythe then : Unlike the mower that went through the grass like death through the ranks of men. I stood and looked till my old eyes ached, amazed at its speed and power; The work that it took me a day to do, it done in one short hour. done in this wonderful way! Old tools are of little service now, and farmin' The women have got their sewin'-machines John said that I hadn't seen the half: when 'Twasn't you that had it so easy, wife, in the days so long gone by; You riz up early, and sat up late, a-toilin' for |