He did not like to let me go, but they said that they
would pay me well and would have me taught better than I could be at
home. He was poor, there were others at home who needed all that he
could earn, I wished to go, and at last he said I might.
"So I went to Dublin and lived in a grand house, among grand people. I
tried to do my duties well, and they were kind to me. They kept the
promise that they had made to my father. They gave me books and
allowed me time to study them, and they helped me in things that I
could not well have learned by myself, even with the books. I was
quick at study, and in the little time that I had, I learned all that
I could. Three times they took me to London with them, and I saw still
grander people and grander life.
"Those were happy days, but happier came. Your father came, Shaun. He
was a servant of the family, like myself--a coachman. But he was wiser
than I, and he talked with me and showed me that there was something
better for us than to be servants always. We saved all the money that
we could, and when we had enough we came here, where your father had
lived before, and took a little farm.
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