The Hawthorns Bloom in May Read Online Free PDF Page A

as he turned away again.
    John stood up and walked out into the sunshine.
    ‘Well, we’d better go and see what Sam does have hands for, Joe,’ said Rose, as she got up from the kitchen chair. ‘There must be something Lamb Brothers think he’s worth paying for,’ she added quietly as she followed Sam and his father out of the house.
    ‘Hayfoot, strawfoot, hayfoot, strawfoot.’
    The three adults stopped outside the door as the three boys reappeared from their manoeuvre in the nearest field. Rose took a deep breath and watched anxiously to see what would happen.
    Without a word, Sam walked out into the line of march, dropped on his hunkers in front of them and held out his hand for the billets of wood. Billy and Charley handed them over. He waited while they untied the bandoliers. Try as she would Rose could not hear what Sam said, so quiet was his tone, but she saw the two younger boys nod and make their way to the small orchard at the back of the house. The older boy looked uneasy, but made no reply to Sam’s quiet questioning. Suddenly, hetoo turned away, and went running out of the gate and up the road.
    ‘Who was the other wee boy?’ she asked, as they followed Sam into the barn.
    ‘Ach, that’s Danny. He’s one of the Hutchinson’s,’ he said, wiping a piece of cotton waste over a wooden bench so that she could sit down.
    ‘He’s a right wee lad, but the father’s desperit strong against Home Rule. No matter what subject ye’d be talkin’ about, whether it was motors, or factory work, or even the birds in the sky, he cou’d somehow bring it roun’ to Dublin and the Fenians an’ the Pope,’ he went on matter-of-factly. ‘Hasn’t a good word to say for any of them. He’s Master of the Lodge an’ he has them out drillin’ regular. That’s where the wee fella picked it up.’
    ‘What about your wee Sammy?’ Rose asked. ‘Did he not want to do what his older brothers do?’
    ‘Deed I’m sure he did, but young Hutchinson must have said he was too young. He’s away with Martha and Emily and the two wee ones up to Richhill.’
    ‘Ye’ve yerself well set up, son,’ said John, who’d been looking round him, inspecting the workbenches under the windows and the large space in the centre of the barn where a petrol-driven pump stood in pieces. ‘Ah knew ye cou’d weld, but ah didn’t know ye had weldin’ equipment. That set ye back a bit.’
    ‘Aye, it did, tho’ I got it second hand,’ Sam replied, sounding pleased. ‘But sure it’s near paid for isself already. The farmers roun’ here can’t afford new machinery, they just have to keep old stuff goin’, harrows and reapers, an’ suchlike. An’ there’s no smith near here since old Harry Pearson died over at Money. The nearest would be John Scott at Kildarton or our friends Thomas and Robert at Salter’s Grange. An’ that’s a brave step if yer in the middle of a job.’
    ‘So you’re kept busy, Sam. Do you not get a day of rest at all?’ Rose asked quietly.
    ‘Well, I take Sunday mornin’,’ he confessed sheepishly. ‘I’ve been goin’ over to the meetin’ in Richhill an’ after that I go on an’ meet a few friends down on the railway banks till dinnertime. We lie down there and talk about the news, aye, an’ put the world to rights, as the sayin’ is.’
    ‘What do you do when it’s wet?’ asked Rose promptly.
    Sam laughed, his face lighting up with the sweet smile Rose used to know so well and hadn’t seen for a long time.
    ‘Ach, then it has to be the goods shed. Tommy Buckley has the key to it if we’re bate.’
    Rose settled herself to listen as John and Sam began to talk about the pump he’d been working on. She’d listened to so many of their conversations over the years, she could follow most of what theysaid, but before they’d decided the next step in the process, a small figure came flying into the barn.
    ‘Granny, granny, yer here,’ cried Emily, scrambling up on Rose’s knee with all the