Page:Darby O'Gill and the Good People by Herminie Templeton Kavanagh (1903).djvu/30

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DARBY O’GILL AND THE GOOD PEOPLE

say pious words to one of the Good People, or to one undher their black charm, is like cutting him with a knife?”

The next night she came to Darby again.

“Watch yerself now,” she says, “for to-night they’re goin’ to lave the door of the mountain open to thry you; and if you stir two steps outside they’ll put the comeither on you,” she says.

Sure enough, when Darby took his walk down the passage after supper, as he did every night, there the side of the mountain lay wide open and no one in sight. The temptation to make one rush was great; but he only looked out a minute, and went whustling down the passage, knowing well that a hundred hidden eyes were on him the while. For a dozen nights after it was the same.

At another time Maureen said:

“The King himself is going to thry you hard the day, so beware!” She had no sooner said the words than Darby was called for, and went up to the King.

“Darby, my sowl,” says the King, in a sootherin’ way, “have this noggin of punch. A betther never was brewed; it’s the last we’ll have for many a day.

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