!6 
BIZZ AND HEK FOES. 
[Nature anil Art, February 1, ISC 7. 
us by our greengrocer Hatchment, who had a right 
to dispose of her as lie pleased. 
The man sturdily persisted “that the ‘baste’ 
was his, and he’d have it, if there was law or 
justice to be had in England,” and he placed his 
hand resolutely on the gate, which, as usual, was 
locked inside. 
I told him he should not have the dog unless he 
proved his right to it ; — just as I said so, cook, who 
had only heard my voice and only seen a rabbit-skin 
cap above the rails, came from the kitchen, straight 
to the gate. Instantly, an exceedingly rough and 
dirty hand Avas thrust through the bars, exposing 
also a thick and bony Avrist, accompanied by a shout 
so loud, that all the dogs barked, the toll-man’s 
magpie chattered, and the toll-man poked his head 
out of his sentry-box. 
After a A T ariety of ejaculations the A’oice sub- 
sided into words, — “ Oh, Molly O’Gorman, and is it 
yourself that’s in it ? Molly, Avon’t you give me a 
shake of the hand for the sake of old times, — 
though you did cast me off, and never thought it 
Avorth your Avhile to inquire Avlietlier 1 Avas dead or 
alive. Oh, Molly dear, have you forgotten the 
babby-house I built you, in the grip of the dry 
ditcli ? — and the magpie I reared for you, that stole 
the priest’s spectacles 1 — and the ‘ hide-and- seek,’ 
and ‘blind man’s buff,’ and the ‘jig’ Ave used to 
dance in the SAveet summer evenings, on the fair 
green of Ballynatrent ” (oh, cook ! cook ! !). “And 
didn’t your mother send you that very puppy Bizz 
■ — Avhen I Avas so broken-hearted that 1 thought I 
must folloAv you to England : and it’s cruel hard 
you Avere, Molly my jeAvel, — and I that earned that 
pup that your mother sent you, T may say inside my 
skin, I took such care of it ! Maybe it’s the 
English air that’s taken the sight out of your eyes, 
and the hearing out of your ears, and turned the 
tongue in your head, and the heart in your bosom, 
into coAvld stone, so that you Avon’t see or hear or 
spake to the wild bird of your OAvn mountain. 
Didn’t I train that baste into all sorts of tricks, — 
and the time you broke your leg, Avhat amusement 
had ye? Only the dog. And if I made a liigh- 
wayman of myself, and if I did lose my character, 
— oh, Molly, it was you that did it, for you Avouldn’t 
spake the word that would save me, and you know, 
that at Ballynatrent, when you turned first against 
me, no one could say a thing to my disadvantage, 
that might not be said against tAventy others, as 
Avell as myself, — and there you stand now, as stiff 
as the round toAver on the Bock of Cashel, Avithout 
a smile on your lip, or a tear in your eye, or a ‘ save 
you kindly,’ to a poor craythur, who,”- — and then 
followed a recapitulation of the same story of their 
early knoAvledge of each other, mingled Avitli pro- 
testations of regard, and the fact of his bringing 
Bizz over, a present from her mother, “ under his 
skin,” for “safety.” 
To this cook listened with forced calmness : the 
shame that she should stand before me a certified 
IrishAvoman, after all her protestations to the 
contrary, overwhelmed her : then her pride re- 
ceived a' terrible shock by such a ragged dis- 
reputable looking felloAv having been at any time 
her friend and neighbour. I withdrew a little Avay 
from the storm that I fancied Avas brewing (for I had 
never noted patience or forbearance among cook’s 
Advenes), observing in an undertone that “she had 
better speak to her friend inside, than outside the 
house, for that the tollman and his magpie were 
listening to all that passed.” But the poor woman 
Avas quite crushed. In a moment she was on her 
knees at my side, clinging to my dress, and 
struggling for words : at last she managed to 
Coo o 
say 
“ Send him aAvay, oh, mistress dear, send him 
away. I Avouldn’t let the door of your house be 
darkened Avith the likes of him : oh, you don’t 
knoAv the pisoned drop that’s in him — I’ll give 
him my quarter’s wages, ma’am, if he’ll take an 
oath to the priest not' to come near me, only don’t 
let him have the dog my poor mother sent me : it’s 
thrue he brought it, but it never Avas his, as I’d 
prove in a law court, rather than let him have her, 
though I’d die alive Avith the shame to own him for 
my countryman, or to let on before the English that 
I’m Irish, and he to the fore ! Oh, lady dear, save 
me from the liar’s shame, and don’t let him haA^e 
the dog. She’s dead iioav, my poor mother, ma’am, 
and that dog is the only thing belonging to her I 
can look at or touch. I know his wickedness ; as 
I’ll have nothing to say to him, he’d murder the dog 
before my eyes ; he tried it once, and that’s the way 
her lip was split. She took care of his shed, 
because it Avas in her charge, but she hated him, 
and Avas under no compliment to him in life, for I 
paid for her board and lodging, though it’s little I 
had to pay it Avith. Send him away, ma’am dear, 
only don’t, don’t let him have Bizz.” 
I said, “For all this I am sorry, but Avhat proof 
have I that you are telling truth iioav ?” 
She looked earnestly in my face, and the Avords 
came trembling from her lips, — “ I never told you 
but the one black lie, denying my country, and sure 
you didn’t believe me, and Avhat hurt was it to you ?” 
“Not to me, Mary, but to you ; it prevented my 
believing in you.” 
“ BehcA'ing in me ! ” she repeated, more than 
once : that was perhaps the first moment she felt 
the injury untruth does the untruthful. “ And it 
was out of my denying my country, you got to 
doubt Avhat I said ? ” 
“ Certainly.” 
“ See that ! It Avas he that made me ashamed of 
the country, and made me turn my tongue to speak 
fine English ! Maybe you Avon’t believe Avhat a 
villain he is, because I say it ; but oh, ma’am dear, 
if you’d take the stick from him, and let Bizz at him, 
you’d see Avhat she thinks of him, and she never told 
a lie in her tvhole life ! ” 
Then sloAvly rising she added, “ But believe me 
or not, if he ever enters under the roof Avhere I am, 
or touches that dog, which you sheltered, though it’s 
my dog, I’ll make a convict of myself.” After 
expressing this determination she walked into the 
house, regardless alike of the man’s -entreaties and 
reproaches. 
