THE OLD STATION-MASTER 1 



The man had for fifty years of his hfe been employed 

 on a railway in the North of Ireland; for thirty of 

 them he had been a station-master. Finally he was 

 pensioned off by the Company, being past his work, 

 and he and his old sister came back to Galway and 

 lived in a cabin at the back of Ross on seven shillings 

 a week. 



The craving for his native place was stilled, or 

 rather killed by his return; when I saw him he com- 

 plained of living " in this dirty cabin," and spoke 

 with a miserable regret of his trim station-house and 

 his responsibilities there. His head was beginning 

 to wander, and he sat all day by the fire in the dark 

 cottage, still wearing the blue clothes of his better 

 days, still retaining the brevity and self-reliance of 

 manner inculcated by years of responsibility. 



Through the open door he could see the dirty, 

 crooked flags outside of the lintel, and a rickety wall 

 that enclosed a few square yards of manure-heap ; the 

 hens and ducks came in and out, and vexed the dull 

 eye accustomed to seeing things in their proper 

 place. There were few other visitors ; he had outlived 

 the friends of his youth, he had forgotten the land- 

 marks and the aims of village life, even his speech 

 had the twang and sing-song of the North. 



As the winter days went on his mind anchored 

 itself more strongly to the past, and allowed the 



^ This sketch and the one that follows it are unfinished studies taken from 

 one of the note-books of Martin Ross. — E. (E. S. 



78 



