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Manners, J. Hartley, 1870-1928

"Peg O' My Heart"

"
"'What are yer doin' here at all?' sez I. 'Faith, it's the foine
thing I'm in,' sez he. 'An' what is it?' sez I. 'Politics!' sez he,
with a knowin' grin. 'Politics is it?' I asks, all innocent as a
baby. 'That's what I'm doin',' sez he. 'An' I want to tell ye the
Irish are wastin' their time worryin their heads over their own
country when here's a great foine beautiful rich one over here just
ripe, an' waitin' to be plucked. What wud we be doin' tryin' to run
Ireland when we can run America. Answer me that,' sez he. 'Run
America?' sez I, all dazed. 'That's what the Irish are doin' this
minnit. Ye'd betther get on in while the goin's good. It's a
wondherful melon the Irish are goin' to cut out here one o' these
fine days,' an' he gave me a knowin' grin, shouted to me where he
was to be found and away he wint."
"There's many a backslider from the 'Cause' out here, I'm thinkin',"
continued the doctor.
"If it's me ye mane, ye're wrong. I'm no backslider."
"Kinsella towld me where to find ye. Sure it's many's the long day
since ye lay on yer back in 'The Gap' with yer hide full o' lead,
and ye cursin' the English government. Ye think different now maybe
to what ye did then?"
"Sure I think different. Other times, other ways.


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