Then he sat by her side awaiting the arrival of Mikey with the next rake of hay. The young man sensed something was wrong. He dismounted slowly from the tractor and read the news in his father’s face. He knelt by his mother’s side and kissed her on the lips and forehead. He smoothed back the hair from her face and lifted her head so that he could rest it on the pillow of hay. Then he rose and looked at the sky.
‘Let’s get on with it,’ he said. At first Mick Henderson looked at him uncomprehendingly. Then the logic of it dawned on him.
‘What about the two?’ he asked, pointing to where the labourers were building a cock at the other end of the meadow.
‘What they don’t know won’t trouble them,’ said Mikey dismissing the question. Slowly his father rose. Already Mikey was adding to the half-made cock. Instinctively his father followed his example.
Before departing for another rake-up Mikey laid a hand on his father’s shoulder.
‘She would understand,’ he said. ‘I don’t have to tell you that. When the job is done we’ll take her indoors. Then I’ll go for a priest.
So saying he mounted the machine and in a matter of seconds was again raking the ever-decreasing wind-rows. Mick Henderson cast a glance at his dead wife and then his eyes followed his youngest son. Beyond doubt here was a man with a sound sense of priorities, a man with a true feel for the land.
THE TEAPOTS ARE OUT
AND OTHER ECCENTRIC TALES FROM IRELAND
Carroll & Graf Publishers
An Imprint of Avalon Publishing Group Inc.
245 West 17th Street
New York, NY 10011
Copyright © 1997 by John B. Keane
First Carroll & Graf edition 2004
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher, except by reviewers who may quote brief excerpts in connection with a review in a newspaper, magazine, or electronic publication; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other, without written permission from the publisher.
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eISBN : 978-0-786-74899-0
The Teapots Are Out and Other Eccentric Tales from Ireland Page 17