Well, Bill Malowney let one roar out iv him, an’ away he rolled over the field iv battle like a slitther (as Bonypart and the Duke iv Wellington, that was watching the manoeuvres from a distance, both consayved) into glory.
An’ sure enough the Frinch was overjoyed beyant all bounds, an’ small blame to them—an’ the Duke of Wellington, I’m toult, was never all out the same man sinst.
At any rate, the news kem home how Billy Malowney was murdhered by the Frinch in furrin parts.
Well, all this time, you may be sure, there was no want iv boys comin’ to coort purty Molly Donovan; but one way ar another, she always kept puttin’ them off constant. An’ though her father and mother was nathurally anxious to get rid of her respickably, they did not like to marry her off in spite iv her teeth.
An’ this way, promising one while and puttin’ it off another, she conthrived to get on from one Shrove to another, until near seven years was over and gone from the time when Billy Malowney listed for furrin sarvice.
It was nigh hand a year from the time whin the news iv Leum-a-rinka bein’ killed by the Frinch came home, an’ in place iv forgettin’ him, as the saisins wint over, it’s what Molly was growin’ paler and more lonesome every day, antil the neighbours thought she was fallin’ into a decline; and this is the way it was with her whin the fair of Lisnamoe kem round.
It was a beautiful evenin’, just at the time iv the reapin’ iv the oats, and the sun was shinin’ through the red clouds far away over the hills iv Cahirmore.
Her father an’ mother, an’ the biys an’ girls, was all away down in the fair, and Molly sittin’ all alone on the step of the stile, listenin’ to the foolish little birds whistlin’ among the leaves—and the sound of the mountain-river flowin’ through the stones an’ bushes—an’ the crows flyin’ home high overhead to the woods iv Glinvarlogh—an’ down in the glen, far away, she could see the fair-green iv Lisnamoe in the mist, an’ sunshine among the grey rocks and threes—an’ the cows an’ horses, an’ the blue frieze, an’ the red cloaks, an’ the tents, an’ the smoke, an’ the ould round tower—all as soft an’ as sorrowful as a dhrame iv ould times.
An’ while she was looking this way, an’ thinking iv Leum-a-rinka—poor Bill iv the dance, that was sleepin’ in his lonesome glory in the fields of Spain—she began to sing the song he used to like so well in the ould times:
“Shule, shule, shule a-roon;”