After which assurance Mrs. Ryan cooled down, and allowed her husband to smoke his pipe in thoughtful silence.
"What on airth are ye thinkin' uv, Mrs. Fisher, to let yer husban' sign against a dhrap uv good beer?" she said the next morning to her neighbour.
"I'm downright glad he has, and I mean to do the same. You see, the children's set the example, and were so earnest for their father to sign, that he made up his mind to do so. I wish you'd let your little ones do the same, and persuade your husband too."
"Bad cess to ye for settin' yerself up to be suparior to yer neighbours, and advasin' uv them to follow yer example. Faix, I'd rather me husban' git dhrunk ivery blissid day uv his life, an' bate me black and blue inter the bargain, nor sign the pledge." And in high dudgeon Mrs. Ryan went in, slamming her door behind her with great violence.
Weeks and months passed away, and still, in the dingy court where the Ryans and Fishers lived, the same sad scenes of sin and degradation were witnessed. One day it was rumoured that the Fishers were moving into a better neighbourhood, which rumour proved to be correct.
"An' didn't I say as her ladyship, wid her illigant slips uv childer, an' her jintleman husban' wad soon be too suparior intoirely to mix wid the likes uv us. Axin' yer kind lave, shure it's Peggy Ryan as wishes ye ivery blissin', an' has the honour uv givin' ye a partin' bit uv advace. Lave yer dacint neighbours alone, an' don't hould yer head up so high, me dear." Thus saying, Mrs. Ryan stood in front of Mrs. Fisher, who was about to follow her goods and chattels out of the court, and, to the amusement of the bystanders, spread out her scanty skirts, and made a sweeping curtesy. For some time past Mrs. Fisher had found it difficult to live peaceably among her neighbours, proving how advantageous to health and pocket her own and her husband's Temperance principles had been, they had both tried to secure adherents to the good cause. They had met with little success, and in some instances, notably that of Mrs. Ryan, had earned for themselves continual abuse and scorn.
Years passed and Donovan Ryan went down to a drunkard's grave unwept and unhonoured. With rapid footsteps his wife followed him, leaving to the children as her legacy, the craving for intoxicants which had been engendered in their infancy and ministered to with such assiduity in following years.
Is the story improbable, impossible? No, for thousands of lives cursed with the disease of drink attest its truth.
There was a ray of hope seen; there was help offered in earlier years; but some hand, perhaps that of the wife and mother, quenched the hope, and thrust aside the offered help, and forced those for whose salvation it was responsible into paths of ever-deepening darkness and rayless despair.