They were the only ones in the party that drank strong liquor that evening.
A little later, Mrs. McIntyre and the girls went up to bed and Mr. McIntyre urged Anthony to relate some more of his experiences. When Anthony got started, there was no stopping him.
He told of his childhood spent in Ireland, his home land. He spoke of the harsh laws in Ireland at that time and of his old school master. The school master was not supposed to run a school contrary to the new laws. The pupils hid behind a hedge and the master smuggled books from nooks and places where he had hidden them. Two members of the class would act as guards to warn their mates of the approach of any of the soldiers.
The laws prohibited the teaching in the native language and the soldiers were ever on the watch for those who broke this law. If a school master was found guilty, he was hanged.
“I learned my A. B. C.s”, Anthony said, “behind a hedge. There were eighteen letters in the Irish alphabet, the first alphabet which came after the hieroglyphics, the oldest book in the Milesian alphabet. The first
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musical instrument was the harp and even the violin came from Ireland. The Morris code originated from the Milesian alphabet. They had a written language five hundred years before Rome was established. At that time, English natives were stealing the skins of wild animals from each other.”
Such an exposition upon historical facts of Ireland did not seem to take well with the man of the sunflower face and the Texan nudged the former in the ribs as he said slyly, “Say are you not an Hinglishman”, and guffawed loudly. Sunflower Face took a drink from the decantor and scowled at the Texan.
“Well,” went on Anthony as if he had not noticed the remark, “this was the condition of Ireland at that date, a school behind blackthorn hedges. When it rained, we got our books wet. And then one evil day, the lookout, a boy by the name of Billie Mehan, may he never wake up, fell asleep on top of the hedge and the soldiers surrounded us. We children scurried for cover but the school master was caught and hung a month later. His name was Michael McKinley. He was sixty-eight years old and had a wife and three children. Some spy or informer had
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