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Volume 3 (1858-1859) (592 pages)
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Page: of 592
EARLY DAYS OF THE BUCKEYES. 363
to the stables, where he found Barney
rubbing down his own horse, and singing, at the top of his voice, and with a
rich Irish accent—
* Och, I was the boy for bewitchin’ ’em—
Whether good-humored or coy;
Each said, while I was beseechin’ *em,—
‘Do what ye will wid me, Joy!’ ”
“Good morning to you, Mr. Malone;
you seem as happy asa lark, and sing so
well that even a lark would envy you;
I hope you’re well this fine morning,”
said Yawkub, who, it may as well be remarked, had not seen proper to replace
the beefsteak on his eye that morning—
the swelling and discoloration having
almost disappeared during the night.
“Och, good mornin’ to yer nightcap,
as the divil said to the pope. I see yer
eye’s betther this mornin’—it’s able to
be out. Perhaps ye’d like to have the
other one painted a bit.”
“Tm not at all anxious for such a display of your skill, Barney ; and, besides,
I’ve come to pledge you my sacred honor
that I’ll never make love to Miss Leenie,
until you give me your full consent to
do 80.”
“Well, that’s sinsible, annyhow; for
if I ketch ye comin’ anny o’ yer blarney
over the poor innocint, I’ll bate ye into
smithereens, an’ put both yer good-lookin’ eyes in Yankee regimintals—dape
blue, faced wid red; what d’ye think o’
that, now?”
““My dear Mr. Malone, there is no
ground of quarrel between us, that I can
see; for I utterly renounce all pretensions to Miss Leenie, until, as I have just
said, you give me your full consent—out
of your own mouth—and, as a pledge of
my sincerity, here’s my hand.”
“Done like a gintleman,” said Barney, taking the other’s proffered hand,
and the two rivals gave and received the
grasp of friendship in a superlativelycordial manner.
“ Now, Mr. Malone,” said the Lieutenant, still holding Barney’s hand, “I wish
you to do me a favor. I perceive that
you are an accomplished boxer, which, I
am sorry to say, 1am not. If you will
give me a few lessons in the art, I will
not only be deeply obliged to you, but
will give you a ten-dollar bank-bill into
the bargain.”
“Och, thin, there’s no resistin’ ye.
Yez got a tongue in yer head that’d wile
the birds from the bushes—sayin’ nothin’ o’ the tin dollars. Faix, an’ Pll do
it, jist whiniver ye think it convaynient
like.”
“Well, then, if you have time, why
not commence now?” asked Yawkub,
putting himself in a posture of defense,
for he was slightly fearful that Barney
might open the lessons rather disagreebaly.
“‘Niver ye be unaisy,” responded Mr,
Malone; “T’li do the thing up like a
gintleman, as soon as I see the color 0”
yer money.”
Upon this hint, so unmistakable in its
import, the Lieutenant placed a ten-dollar
bill in his rival’s hand, and awaited, with
considerable interest, his further movements,
“T must first make two pair 0’ gloves ;
for divil a thing o’ the like’s to be got in
this out-o’-the-way wooden counthry; an’
Y’ll do that same in the shakin’ of a pikestaff; so rest aisy a bit.”
What the Irishman meant by “two
pair o’ gloves,’ Yawkub had not the
least notion ; but, telling Barney that he
would be ready for his first lesson in an
-hour, he sauntered into the fields to commune with his own “sweet and bitter
fancy.”
At the end of an hour, Barney had
succeeded in manufacturing a couple of
pairs of very passable boxing-gloves, by
stitching some wadding on the backs of
four common ones, and he and Yawkub,
seeking the solitude of an untenanted
stable, proceeded, the one to instruct and
the other to receive instruction, in the
e