Project Gutenberg's My Lady of the Chimney Corner, by Alexander Irvine

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Title: My Lady of the Chimney Corner

Author: Alexander Irvine

Release Date: March 25, 2010 [EBook #31765]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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MY LADY OF THE
CHIMNEY CORNER

BY
ALEXANDER IRVINE

AUTHOR OF "FROM THE BOTTOM UP," ETC.

NEW YORK
THE CENTURY CO.
1914

Copyright, 1913, by
THE CENTURY CO.
_Published, August, 1913_

TO
LADY GREGORY
AND
THE PLAYERS OF THE ABBEY THEATRE
DUBLIN

FOREWORD

This book is the torn manuscript of the most beautiful life I ever knew.
I have merely pieced and patched it together, and have not even changed
or disguised the names of the little group of neighbors who lived with
us, at "the bottom of the world." A. I.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I LOVE IS ENOUGH 3

II THE WOLF AND THE CARPENTER 21

III REHEARSING FOR THE SHOW 38

IV SUNDAY IN POGUE'S ENTRY 63

V HIS ARM IS NOT SHORTENED 85

VI THE APOTHEOSIS OF HUGHIE THORNTON 110

VII IN THE GLOW OF A PEAT FIRE 133

VIII THE WIND BLOWETH WHERE IT LISTETH 153

IX "BEYOND TH' MEADOWS AN' TH' CLOUDS" 171

X THE EMPTY CORNER 198

MY LADY OF THE CHIMNEY-CORNER

A STORY OF LOVE AND POVERTY IN
IRISH PEASANT LIFE

CHAPTER I

LOVE IS ENOUGH

"Anna's purty, an' she's good as well as purty, but th' beauty an'
goodness that's hers is short lived, I'm thinkin'," said old Bridget
McGrady to her neighbor Mrs. Tierney, as Mrs. Gilmore passed the door,
leading her five-year-old girl, Anna, by the hand. The old women were
sitting on the doorstep as the worshipers came down the lane from early
mass on a summer morning.

"Thrue for you, Bridget, for th' do say that th' Virgin takes all sich
childther before