her down--a perilous
proceeding, for the stack was steep, and Beth, enraged at the
indignity, doubled herself up and scratched and bit and kicked the
whole way to the ground.

"Ye little divil," said Riley, setting her on her feet, "ye'll get us
all into trouble wid that blasted tongue o' yours."

"Who's afraid?" said Beth, shaking her tousled head, and standing up
to Riley with her little fists clenched.

"If the divil didn't put ye out when he gave up housekeeping, I dunno
where you come from," Riley muttered as he turned away and stumped off
stolidly.

During the night the horse died, and Beth found when she went out next
day that the carcass had been dragged down Murphy's garden and put in
the lane outside. She climbed the wall, and discovered the farrier
skinning the horse, and was much disgusted to see him using his hands
without gloves on in such an operation. Her anger of the day before
was all over now, and she was ready to be on the usual terms of
scornful intimacy with Murphy.

"Ye'll never be able to touch anything to eat again with those hands,"
she said.

"Won't I, thin!" he answered sulkily, and without looking up. He was
as inconsequent as a child that resents an injury, but can be diverted
from the recollection of it by anything interesting, only to return to
its grievance, however, the moment the interest fails. "Won't I, thin!
Just you try me wid a bit o' bread-an'-butter this instant, an' see
what I'll do wid it."

Beth, always anxious to experiment, tore indoors to get some
bread-and-butter, and never did she forget the horror with which she
watched the dirty man eat it, with unwashed hands, sitting on the
horse's carcass.

That carcass was a source of interest to her for many a long day to
come. She used to climb on the wall to see how it was getting on, till
the crows had picked the bones clean, and the weather had bleached
them white; and she would wonder how a creature once so full of life
could become a silent, senseless thing, not feeling, not caring, not
knowing, no more to itself than a stone--strange mystery; and some day
_she_ would be like that, just white bones. She held her breath and
suspended all sensation and thought, time after time, to see what it
felt like; but always immediately there began a great rushing sound in
her ears as of a terrific storm, and that, she concluded, was death
coming. When he arrived then all would be blotted out.

* * *