our mother, too, God
rest her soul. (_He crosses himself with pious unction and_ Mary _also
does so._) It's Nora and Tom has the high spirits in them like their
father; and Billy, too,--if he is a lazy, shiftless divil--has the
fightin' Carmody blood like me. You're a Cullen like your mother's
people. They always was dreamin' their lives out. (_He lights his pipe
and shakes his head with ponderous gravity._) There's no good in too
many books, I'll tell you. It's out rompin' and playin' with your
brother and sister you ought to be at your age, not carin' a fig for
books. (_With a glance at the clock._) Is that auld fool of a doctor
stayin' the night? If he had his wits about him he'd know in a jiffy
'tis only a cold has taken Eileen, and give her the medicine. Run out
in the hall, Mary, and see if you hear him. He may have sneaked away by
the front door.

MARY (_goes out into the hall, rear, and comes back_). He's upstairs. I
heard him talking to Eileen.

CARMODY. Close the door, ye little divil! There's a freezin' draught
comin' in. (_She does so and comes back to her chair._ Carmody
_continues with a sneer._) It's mad I am to be thinkin' he'd go without
gettin' his money--the like of a doctor! (_Angrily._) Rogues and
thieves they are, the lot of them, robbin' the poor like us! I've no
use for their drugs at all. They only keep you sick to pay more visits.
I'd not have sent for this bucko if Eileen didn't scare me by faintin'.

MARY (_anxiously_). Is Eileen very sick, Papa?

CARMODY (_spitting--roughly_). If she is, it's her own fault
entirely--weakenin' her health by readin' here in the house. This'll be
a lesson for her, and for you, too. (_Irritably._) Put down that book
on the table and leave it be. I'll have no more readin' in this house,
or I'll take the strap to you!

MARY (_laying the book on the table_). It's only pictures.

CARMODY. No back talk! Pictures or not, it's all the same mopin' and
lazin' in it. (_After a pause--morosely._) It's the bad luck I've been
havin' altogether this last year since your mother died. Who's to do
the work and look after Nora and Tom and yourself, if Eileen is bad
took and has to stay in her bed? I'll have to get Mrs. Brennan come
look after the house. That means money, too, and where's it to come
from? All that I've saved from slavin' and sweatin' in the sun with a
gang of lazy Dagoes'll be up the spout in no time. (_Bitterly._) What a
fool a man is to be raisin' a raft