A STORY OF LOVE AND POVERTY IN IRISH PEASANT LIFE
CHAPTER I
LOVE IS ENOUGH
nna's purty, an' she's good as well as purty, but th' beauty an' goodness that's hers is short lived, I'm thinkin'," said old Bridget McGrady to her neighbor Mrs. Tierney, as Mrs. Gilmore passed the door, leading her five-year-old girl, Anna, by the hand. The old women were sitting on the doorstep as the worshipers came down the lane from early mass on a summer morning.
"Thrue for you, Bridget, for th' do say that th' Virgin takes all sich childther before they're ten."
"Musha, but Mrs. Gilmore'll take on terrible," continued Mrs. Tierney, "but th' will of God must be done."
Anna was dressed in a dainty pink dress. A wide blue ribbon kept her wealth of jet black hair in order as it hung down her back and the squeaking of her little shoes drew attention to the fact that they were new and in the fashion.
"It's a mortal pity she's a girl," said Bridget, "bekase she might hev been an althar boy before she goes."