And now it scarcely seemed a happiness; it was half a sorrow. Then
Ellen spoke: "Oh, Mrs. O'Brien, it was always you was the good
neighbor to us! It was always you was with us in joy and in sorrow!
What'll we ever do at all when you're gone and we're left here alone,
with none to be so kind to us as you've always been?"
And Peter said: "I was thinkin' that same. The Lord go wid you and
keep you, wherever you go, but it'll be the sad day for us when you go
away."
"Peter and Ellen," said the old woman "how could you think that we'ld
do a thing like that? You may be a fool sometimes, Peter, but you're
your father's son. Do you know what your father did for us, Peter?
When my John was dying with the fever, he sat and watched with him,
and brought him the water and the whey all night, and night after
night, when I was so worn out that I could watch no longer. He might
have taken the fever himself, and he might have died with it, and he
did take it, but the Lord spared his life for a while after that,
Heaven rest his soul! And another thing that John said to me before he
died was this: 'As long as you have a bit to eat or a drop to drink or
a penny to buy, never let Tom Sullivan or any of his want more than
you want yourself.
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