Page:Darby O'Gill and the Good People by Herminie Templeton Kavanagh (1903).djvu/117

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HOW THE FAIRIES CAME TO IRELAND

himself up and down on the edge of the steps. ‘Maybe you wouldn’t think it of me, Brian Connors, but I’m a fallen angel,’ says he.

“‘Wait a bit, Thaddeus Flynn!’ says I. ‘Don’t jump!’ I says.

“‘I must jump,’ he says, ‘or I’ll be trun,’ says he.

“The next thing I knew he was swirling and darting and shooting a mile below me.

“And I know,” says the King, wiping his eyes with his cloak, “that when the Day of Judgment comes I’ll have at laste one friend waiting for me below to show me the coolest spots and the pleasant places.

“The next minute up came the white army with presners—angels, black and white, who had taken no side in the battle, but had stood apart like ourselves.

“ ‘A man,’ says the Angel Gabriel, ‘who, for fear of his skin, won’t stand for the right when the right is in danger, may not desarve hell, but he’s not fit for heaven. Fill up the stars with these cowards and throw the lavin’s into the say!’ he ordhered.

“With that he swung a lad in the air, and gave him a fling that sent him ten miles out intil the sky. Every other good angel follyed shuit, and I watched

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