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Nelly's explanation of her present odd circumstances was very simple, and, on the whole, satisfactory.
It had found its way in at the hole in the roof of the hut, and the wind had blown a great deal through the crevices of the doorway, so that a snow-wreath more than a foot high lay close to Nelly's elbow. This was bad enough, but what made it worse was that a perfect hurricane was blowing outside.
Peggy laughed, then slipping her arm through Nelly's, said: "Come up to the house with us. Mammy will know what you need to make you feel stronger, and you are going to be Polly's and my girl this afternoon."
Quick to understand, Polly slipped to Nelly's other side, and the two strong, robust girls, upon whom fortune and Nature had smiled so kindly, led their less fortunate little sister to the great house.
Please God he would live to deck the Tree for the delight of Nelly's children! It was the thought of the golden heads of the little lads and lasses yet to be dancing about the Tree that brought the dimness to his eyes, the look of happy dreams to his face. The Tree was far from being a perfunctory, haphazard affair. Everything had been thought out and planned beforehand.
But this passes; and now half believing that Nelly's thoughts have run over the same ground with yours you turn special pleader for your fancy. You argue for the beauty which you just now affirmed; you do your utmost to win over Nelly to some burst of admiration. Yet there she sits beside you, thoughtfully and half sadly, playing with the frail autumn flowers that grow at her side.
M'Bean had two visitors over from Ballyhoy: Annie Cassidy, elderly and rather grim, with her young friend Nelly Walsh. "Nelly's bound to be havin' bad luck this year of her life," Annie observed in the course of conversation, "for not a new stitch has she put on her to-day, and it Easter. That's an unlucky thing, accordin' to the sayin'."
Warming them over the fire until the oil exuded, she would apply them to the hairy jowl of the girl, and anon to her furry forehead and cheeks. While there is life there is hope is evidently Nelly's creed, and so she crunched and warmed the pungently odorous leaves, and rubbed the hands that had often smitten her in anger.
Walsh, standing amazed; "Nelly's widin there this instiant of time, readyin' herself up." "Maybe you'll tell me," said Joe, "that I didn't see her streelin' down the Junction lane afore I was lavin' Kellys'." "And maybe you'll tell me," said Nelly's grandmother, "that she wasn't just now callin' to me they were wantin' wather.
They walked on beside each other, strangely content. And yet, with what undercurrents of sensitive and wounded consciousness on her side, of anxiety on his! At the top of Red Bank they came up with Marsworth and Miss Stewart. Nelly's curiosity was more piqued than ever.
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