A STORY OF MIRANDA OPHELIA O'FARRELL,

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 2932, 30 April 1891, Page 4

A STORY OF MIRANDA OPHELIA O'FARRELL,

Cot I'f.KD With tiii; Na.mk ok i [VGKIA. • CHAPTER J. " Goon morning, Mistress Michael OTarri'll/ , said Mrs Tim Doolun, putting down the bucket from the contents uf which she had just fed the pi : "it's a grand morning entoirl'/y. , ' " It's just that,' , replied Mrs O'Farrell! '• How's Miranda Ophelia this morning, 1, said Mrs Tim. " The doctor says she is a little better, but that she must be kept to her bed for the matter of three or four weeks."' " Faith, Mrs O'Farrell, its starving the poor child he is; you tell me she: is to have nothing but milk and wator and beef tay. What's beef tay at all ? Do you make it out of beef or greens of some sort V

''No," replied Mrs Mike, "you make it out of bref; the doctor showed me how. I had to go and buy a stew-pan at the store, for we hadn't anything but the bake pan, the kittle, and the big pot to bile clothes in."

"Ye may tell me how it's done some other clay," said Mrs Tim, "for I must go and see afther the uhilder."

Mrs Tim, Jikt: most of us, would lend a much more willing oar to ordinary gossip than she. would to anything Lhat required ;i certain amount of thought to learn.

Miranda Ophelia O'Farrell was a little girl about twelve years of age wlio was lyinj; ill ina wooden shanty in ii .small colonial township. The poor girl had been in bed for about fourteen days, the typhoid fever not having quite reached its most serious and clangorous period. The doctor had taken an infinite amount of trouble to explain the nature of the disease, and had made Mrs o'Farrell promise not to give anything except fluid in the way of food. There had been several cases of typhoid fover in the neighbourhood, and the doctor had determined togivesorae lectures, or rather talks, at the workingman's social, held weekly at the hall. He had already spoken on several occasions on the necessity of sanitary measures, as regards proper drainage and water supply, advising them not to drink' water from what they called their well ; which frequently might with more propriety be termed a mud-hole than a well, and assuring them that the rain water caught from the roof of their dwelling was much more pure and wholesome. The doctor talked learnedly, wisely, and well, and, to do his hearers justice, they paid him great attention. The next morning brought the customary visit from Jlrs Tim (having first been assured that the disease was not taking, as she put it), who found Miranda Ophelia in much the same condition she was yesterday. " Mrs O'Farr'll, it's starving the poor girrul yees are. Give her some good Oirish stew with plinty of putatees in it, and that's the shtulF to fitch her round suddint; and here is some grapes and oranges that Mrs Flinn brought up from town on purpose for her—the blissin' of all the saints be on her for that same.' .

The oranges were oufc up, and, witli the "rapes, placed on a plate, Mrs Tim officiously carrying them into tlio sick <rirTs ohiimfier; when the doctor walked in unannounced, and, to Mrs Tim's great disgust, forcibly took the piate of dainties from her liuiicl, and threatened to throw up tilts uas-R if Jlrs Tim was ever found in the house again during his attendance. After much iudign.'uit expostulation on the part of Mm Tim and a, determined stand from the other side, thn doctor was at last left master of the field—or, rather, shanty—aud Mrs Tim was forbidden to outer the sick-room again. But Mrs Tim, with the characteristics of her fellow-country-men, did not know when she was beaten or what the' word defeat meant. She, after having retired in what may be considered good order, and when the doctor, whose depiirlure had been watched and waited for was considered at at a safe distance, Mrs Tim oaaergod from her shanty, aud reconnoitered tlio position, concluded she would go iu on the excuse of borrowing some tea. Mrs OTarrell having the toa-pot on the hob and being about to partake of the cup that cheers, kindly invited Mrs Tim to sit down and join her, Having disposed of the greater part of her cup of tea, and while Mrs O'-Karrell made her a small package to take with her, Mrs Tim. still smarting from her recent defeat, opened fire by saying, •'Who's this doctor at all anyway, he hasn't been about here for long, whoro does lie come from Mrs OTarrelL?"

'• Oh, Mike tells me he is very clover and lias studied in all the hospitals of Dublin, London, Cork and Scotland, besides being in France, wbero they havo just invontcd sonietliing to mako old inou young tiguiii." "Do you tnll inn that now':'" said Mrs Tim. throwing , a great dual of sympathetic energy into tho remark, it luul recently frequently occurred to her that Tim was by no moans tho ];im ho used to Ijf.) ■'Yiv." r-nul Mi-sit'l-'.-irrnll, "thny I- 1 !) mo they (a);r- a |,|| of :i. liUil what (In , ;,- call I'lijectsomotliin', T don't, know what, but it just makes an old man of 70 like he used to bo wheu ho was two-and-twouty.', " That was just the ago of Tim when lie married me, and ye tell mo they make an old man young again with a squirt P said Mrs Tim, mentally resolving to havo the experiment tried on Tim us soon as possible, "ami doos this doctor do

"No," said Mrs O'Farrell, -'ho says ho does not boliovo in it." "Faith, now, I didn't expect to got much out of that follow. He doesn't look ns if ho was up to tho times, keeping poor Miranda Ophelia on that starvation foed. You take my advice and givo her some goodsowans or stew." Eventually they made some poridfjo, but fortunately tho poor invalid could only take a little of the milk, whereat Mrs Tim became quito offended, and railod against the conceit of modern girls, who turn up their nose at good honest food As she was about to leavo tho house, she turned with tho door handle in her hand, and onquired, "Has Mr O'Fnrrell attended any of these meotings tho doctor has been givin' Mm; Tim's just full of what ho calls Hygiu." " What's that ?" said Mrs O'Farroll. "Sure," said Mrs Tim," it's one of thim shameless females that used to go about in ould ancient times without any clothes on." " Would'nt it be more befittin'," said Mrs O'Farrell, "to call her high jinks, for it's the merry times they used to have- in thim days, they tell mo." "Well," said Mrs Tim, "Tim tells me she used to be fond of washing herself (" Small blame to her, for she had'nt any clothes to wash," said Mrs O'Farrell, in parenthesis), and not only washing herself but trying to persuade others to wash and keep themselves and their houses clean and tidy. Tim is getting that grumpy and parttc ulnr there's no pleasing him now. He says that a pot or anything else should be washed and carefully put away every tirno after it has been used." "Did ye ever hear the like," said Mrs Mike ; " and he says the doctor tells them that the water you've got in your well is not fit to drink, he having looked at it through some kind of glass, and says there are millions of live things floating in it that would poison everybody in the place if they drank it." " Faith," said Mrs Doolan, " that doctor don't know what he's talking about. You take my advice and get some other doctor, for that man's just starving Miranda Ophelia.'' ri'ob'-nwlwHciJ