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An' she looks at the Angel in me colleen's arms an' the Angel looks at her; an', whisht! afore you could wink, out flies the knowin' baby from the one to the other! An' then, bless us! The time there was!
At last Larry said, "You go on with yourself to Grannie Malone's for the jug, Eileen, and I'll stay here until she finishes the thistles." So he sat down by the road on a stone and Eileen trotted off to Grannie's. When Eileen got back with the jug, she found Larry still sitting beside the road. He was talking with a freckled-faced boy, and Colleen's head was still in the thistles.
"You're all right, go ahead," her commander sang out from the bridge. Yet trouble came of it. The Colleen's gang were making a set when along came the Lynx, the same cutter that had ordered our own skipper not to set two or three days back in the fog, and we had set in spite of him. I think I said that he had a bad reputation among our fleet.
They wore few clothes, and no shoes and stockings, and their breakfast of bread and potatoes was soon eaten. The Mother had already milked the cow, and when they had had a drink of fresh milk they were ready to start. Mr McQueen was at the door with "Colleen," the donkey, and when Larry and Eileen came out, he put them both on Colleen's back, and they started down the road toward the bog.
"Why," said one of O'Donnell's crew as we were coming down the dock, "if any crawly-spined crawfish loses his nerve and jumps to our halyards, thinkin' the Colleen's going to capsize why, he'll get fooled and why? Because our halyards are all housed aloft by the skipper's orders." That sounded strong, but it was true. When we reached the end of our dock we looked for ourselves, and there it was.
The Twins slid off Colleen's back, and ran to the spot where the camp had been. There, indeed, was the mark of a fire, and near by were some wisps of straw. There were the marks of horses' feet, too, and Eileen found a white goose feather by the thorn-bush, and a piece of broken rope. "They were here surely," Mr McQueen said, "and far enough away they are by this time, no doubt.
"I'll kill you by inches, Harrigan. You'll read hell in my eyes before your end. Drink this!" He raised Harrigan's almost lifeless head and forced the neck of a whisky bottle between his teeth. "Ah-h!" said Harrigan, blinking and coughing after the strong liquor had burned its way down his throat. "The feel av your throat under me thumbs was sweeter than the touch av a colleen's hand, McTee!
"Faith, that jade with the dark eyes knew what she was doing when she made this water hot! They're ready now, and I'll want a piece of stuff to lay them on. Find me a piece of the colleen's finery, something old that she won't be wanting to use any more."
Mr McQueen was a thrifty man, and got his supply of turf early in the season. He would cut it out in long black blocks, like thick mud, and leave it in the sun to dry. When it was quite dry he would carry it home on Colleen's back, pile it in a high turf-stack near the kitchen door, and it would burn in the fireplace all winter.
"Howly Moses!" a voice in shrill agitation broke in upon her preoccupation. "An' is it sheddin' tears ye are upon the blessed gunpowther? Sure the colleen's crazed! Millia Murther! the beautiful ca'tridges is ruint intoirely! Any man moight be proud an' plazed to be kilt by the loikes o' them! How many o' them big wathery tears have yez been after sheddin' into aich o' them lovely ca'tridges?"
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