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"Give up Saint Andrew's!" repeated Father Mack in a low, startled voice. "You, Dan! Give up! Oh, no, my boy, no!" "Aunt Winnie will die if I don't," blurted out Dan, despairingly. "Pete Patterson says so. And I can take her home and give her back her little rooms over Mulligans', and the blue teapot and Tabby, and everything she loves. And Pete says I can work up to be his partner."
She told of the attic home over the Mulligans' for which Aunt Winnie was "pining," and of the dreams that Dan dreamed. "It would seem a pity," Miss Stella said, "for him to give up and go down." "By George, he must not, he shall not!" said the old sailor. "You want me to do something for him? Out with it, my lady!" "Yes.
Mulligans to be had for the asking. "Yes, Mr. Oliver, she's insoide. Oh! it's fri'nds ye hev wid ye!" and she started back. "Only my father and Mr. Gill," and he brushed past Mrs. Mulligan, parted the heavy portieres that divided Madge's working studio from the narrow hall, thrust in his head and called out, in his cheeriest voice: "Madge, who do you think is outside? Guess! Father and Uncle Nat.
I came flying back to take up my old quarters at the Mulligans' and find the house shut up and everybody gone. Land! It did give me a turn, sure! I was counting on that little room upstairs, and all Aunt Winnie's things she left there, and Tabby and the stove and the blue teapot. But they're all gone."
"In Kildormey, sur." "Where did you get your tickets?" "From Mr. O'Grady, sur." Now, I knew Kildormey as well as I know this ship, and I knew O'Grady was our agent there. I would have given a good deal at that moment for a few words with him. But I knew of no Mulligans in Kildormey, although, of course, there might be. I was born myself only a few miles from the place.
In the course of my tramping I encountered hundreds of hoboes, whom I hailed or who hailed me, and with whom I waited at water-tanks, "boiled-up," cooked "mulligans," "battered" the "drag" or "privates," and beat trains, and who passed and were seen never again.
Dan felt his own eyes blurring as he thought of all she had done, of all she was ready to sacrifice. And and the other thought followed swiftly: he could give it all back to her, the little attic rooms over Mulligans', the flowerpot in the window, the blue teapot on the stove, Tabby on the hearth-rug, he could give it all back to Aunt Win and bring her home.
Aunt Winnie broke down and sobbed outright, while Danny was conscious of a lump in his throat that held him dumb. "Poor Tabby!" continued Aunt Winnie. "I hope the Mulligans are good to her, Dan. D'ye ever see her as ye pass their gate?" "I do," answered Dan. "Molly Mulligan has tied a blue ribbon around her neck, and she is the pride of the house."
The other letters were very much in the same tone: some other old lady was dying or failing fast; for, with all its twilight peace, Aunt Winnie was in a valley of the shadow, where the light of youth and hope and cheer that whistling, laughing Dan brought into Mulligans' attic could not shine.
"My dear fellow, how could you think I could so far insult you?" says I. "Well, then," says he, "that's a matter settled, and we go." What the deuce was I to do? I wrote to Mrs. Perkins; and that kind lady replied, that she would receive the Mulligan, or any other of my friends, with the greatest cordiality. "Fancy a party, all Mulligans!" thought I, with a secret terror. Following Mrs.
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