In the barn the company were very merry, Dandy himself being as pleasant as any of them, unless when his brow became shaded by the very natural anxiety for the welfare of his wife and child, which from time to time returned upon him. Stories were told, songs sung, and jokes passed, all full of good nature and not a little fun, some of it at the expense of the Dandy himself, who laughed at and took it all in good part. An occasional bulletin came out through a servant maid, that matters were just the same way; a piece of intelligence which damped Keho’s mirth considerably. At length he himself was sent for by the Midwife, who wished to speak with him at the door.
“I hope there’s nothing like danger, Rose?”
“Not at all, honey; but the truth is, we want a seventh son who isn’t left-handed.”
“A seventh son! Why, what do you want him for?”
“Why, dear, just to give her three shakes in his arms;—it never fails.”
“Bedad, an’ that’s fortunate; for there’s Mickey M’Sorley of the Broad Bog’s a seventh son, an’ he’s not two gunshots from this.”
“Well, aroon, hurry off one or two o’ the boys for him, and tell Phil, if he makes haste, that I’ll have a word to say to him afore I go.” This intimation to Phil put feathers to his heels; for from the moment that he and Barny started, he did not once cease to go at the top of his speed. It followed as a matter of course that honest Mickey M’Sorley dressed himself and was back at Keho’s house before the family believed it possible the parties could have been there. This ceremony of getting a seventh son to shake the sick woman, in cases where difficulty or danger may be apprehended, is one which frequently occurs in remote parts of the country. To be sure, it is only a form, the man merely taking her in his arms, and moving her gently three times. The writer of this, when young, saw it performed with his own eyes, as the saying is; but in his case the man was not a seventh son, for no such person could be procured. When this difficulty arises, any man who has the character of being lucky, provided he is not married to a red-haired wife, may be called in to give the three shakes. In other and more dangerous cases Rose would send out persons to gather half a dozen heads of blasted barley; and having stripped them of the black fine powder with which they were covered, she would administer it in a little new milk, and this was always attended by the best effects. It is somewhat surprising that the whole Faculty should have adopted this singular medicine in cases of similar difficulty, for in truth it is that which is now administered under the more scientific name of Ergot of rye.
In the case before us, the seventh son sustained his reputation for good luck. In about three quarters of an hour Dandy was called in “to kiss a strange young gintleman that wanted to see him.” This was an agreeable ceremony to Dandy, as it always is, to catch the first glimpse of one’s own first-born. On entering he found Rose sitting beside the bed in all the pomp of authority and pride of success, bearing the infant in her arms, and dandling it up and down, more from habit than any necessity that then existed for doing so.
“Well,” said she, “here we are all safe and sound, God willin’; an’ if you’re not the father of as purty a young man as ever I laid eyes on, I’m not here. Corny Keho, come an’ kiss your son, I say.”
Corny advanced, somewhat puzzled whether to laugh or cry, and taking the child up with a smile, he kissed it five times—for that is the mystic number—and as he placed it once more in Rose’s arms, there was a solitary tear on its cheek.