Old Jack | Page 2

pay for liquor.
Still his affection for me did not diminish. While in his right mind he
could not bear to have me out of his sight. Every morning we might
have been seen leaving our cottage, I holding his hand as he went to his
work; yet nearly as certainly as the evening came round I had to creep
supperless to bed. All day he would keep me playing about in his sight,
except when any of his fellow-workmen, or people living near where
we happened to be, wanted a lad to run on an errand. Then I was
always glad of the job. Whenever, by happy chance, he came home
sober in an evening, he would take me between his knees, and, parting
my hair, look into my face and weep till his heart seemed ready to burst.
But these occasions grew less and less frequent. What I have said will
show that I have reason to love the memory of both my parents, in spite
of the faults my unhappy father undoubtedly possessed.
Several months had thus passed away after my mother's death, when

one afternoon my father entered our cottage where he had left me since
the morning.
"Jack, my boy," said he, taking my hand, "come along, and I will show
you what life is." Oh, had he said, "what death is," he would have
spoken the truth.
I accompanied him willingly, though I saw at a glance that he had
already been drinking. Crowds of people were going in the direction we
took. For some days past I had heard the neighbours talking of the fair.
I now knew that we were bound there. My mother had never allowed
me to go to the place, so I had no notion what it was like. I expected to
see something very grand and very beautiful--I could not tell what. I
pushed on into the crowd with my father as eagerly as any one,
thinking that we should arrive at the fair at last. I did not know that we
were already in the middle of it. I remember, however, having a
confused sight of booths, and canvas theatres, and actors in fine clothes
strutting about and spouting and trumpeting and drumming; of
rope-dancers and tumblers with painted faces; and doctors in gilded
chariots selling all sorts of wonderful remedies for every possible
complaint; and the horsemanship, with men leaping through hoops and
striding over six steeds or more at full gallop; and the gingerbread stalls,
and toy shops, and similar wonders; but what was bought and sold at
the fair of use to any one I never heard.
My father had taken me round to several of the shows I have spoken of:
when he entered a drinking-booth, and set himself down with me on his
knee, among a number of men who seemed to be drinking hard. Their
example stimulated him to drink harder than ever, and in a short time
his senses completely left him. As, however, even though the worse
liquor, he was peaceable in his disposition, instead of sallying forth as
many did in search of adventures, he laid himself down on the ground
with his head against the canvas of the tent, and told me to call him
when it was morning. Some one at the same time handed me a piece of
gingerbread, so I set myself down by his side to do as he bid me.
Those were the days of faction fights; and if people happened to have
no cause for a quarrel, they very soon found one. The tent we were in

was patronised by Orangemen, and of course was a mark for the attacks
of the opposite party. My poor father had slept an hour or so, with three
or four men near him in a similar condition, when a half-drunken body
of men came by, shillelah in hand, looking out for a row. Unhappily the
shapes of the heads of most of the sleepers were clearly developed
through the canvas. The temptation was not to be resisted--whack--
whack--whack! Down came the heavy stick of a sturdy Irishman upon
that of my father. "Get up out of that, and defend yourselves!" sung out
their assailants. Most of his companions rushed out to avenge the insult
offered them, but my father made no answer. Numbers joined from all
directions--shillelahs were flourished rapidly, and the scrimmage
became general. I ran to the front of the tent and clapped my hands, and
shouted with sympathy. Now the mass of fighting, shrieking men
swayed to one side, now to the other; now they advanced, now they
retreated, till by degrees the fight had reached a considerable distance
from the tent.
I then went back to my place by my father's side,