AN IRISHMAN'S FORTUNE i8i 



dollars a month. I guess I'll go down and fetch 

 my team, and to-morrow he can get on to the 

 summer-fallow with my team and Dick, and I'll 

 keep to the breaking with the three big horses. 

 I guess he's too good a man to waste his time doing 

 chores and getting out stones." 



I was deeply interested in the increase of the land 

 under cultivation, and eagerly assented to the sugges- 

 tion that he should go down with Nancy and bring 

 back the team at once. " I'll do the chores I 

 promised. 'Twas a piece of luck finding him ! " he 

 said. 



I liked the Irishman well. As a rule when I have 

 more than one man working for me I don't share 

 their meal, partly because I couldn't help noticing 

 that they ate much more when I wasn't there, and 

 also in those days I often used to dash in from my 

 outdoor chores at 10.30, light the fire, peel the 

 potatoes, and make the pudding, and serve it on the 

 first stroke of 12, and by the last stroke I was thankful 

 to flop into the armchair in my own room with the 

 solace of an " individual " teapot and bread and 

 butter. 



But Pat was witty and most willing as a raconteur, 

 and on one or two occasions — to my cost as it proved 

 — I shared meals. On Wednesday and Thursday 

 the work simply raced ahead, you could positively 

 see the new fields forming from the distance of my 

 bedroom window, and my flower-beds expanded too. 

 On the Tuesday night Pat insisted on taking the 

 spade out of my hand so that I might learn to dig 

 like an Irishman, the principal point being to dis- 

 perse the sod with a hard bang from the back of the 

 spade after turning it. It was delightful to see 





