CHAPTER III
MIKE MURPHY
Holding the tiny flicker of flame in the hollow of the hat, Alvin saw infancy gilt letters, pasted on the silk lining, the following:
"NOXON O"
"That's a queer name," he reflected. "I never heard anything like it."
"Do ye know ye're holding the same upside down?"
The Irish lad, panting from his exertion in running, stood grinning atAlvin's elbow. "'Spose ye turns the hat round so as to revarse thesame."
Alvin did so and then read "O NOXON."
"It's the oddest name I ever saw, for 'NOXON' reads the same upside downand backwards--Ugh!"
Seized with a sudden loathing, he sent the hat skimming a dozen feetaway. His feeling was as if he had grasped a serpent. Then he turnedand impulsively offered his hand to the Irish lad.
"Shake! You were a friend in need."
"It's mesilf that's under deep obligations to yersilf."
"How do you make that out?"
"Didn't ye give me the finest chance for a shindy that I've had since Ilift Tipperary? I haven't had so much fun since Pat Geoghaghan almostwhaled the life out of me at home."
"Who are you?"
"Mike Murphy, at your sarvice."
And the grinning lad lifted his straw hat and bowed with the grace of acrusader.
"Where do you live?"
"Up the road a wee bit, wid me father and mither."
"Are you the son of Pat Murphy?" asked the astonished Alvin.
"He has the honor, according to his own story, of being me dad."
"Why, he's father's caretaker. I remember he told me some time ago thathe had a boy seventeen years old that he had sent word to in Ireland tocome over and join him. And you are he! Why, I'm so glad I should liketo shake hands with you again."
"I'm nothing loath, but I say that hat ye threw away is more of thefashion in this part of the wurruld than in Tipperary, and if ye have noobjections I'll make a trade."
And the Irish lad walked to where the headgear lay, picked it up andpulled it on his crown.
"It's a parfect fit--as the tramp said when he bounced around the kindleddy's yard--don't I look swaat in the same?"
Alvin could not help laughing outright, for the hat was at least a sizetoo small for the proud new owner, and perched on his crown made hisappearance more comical than it had been formed by nature.
"I knew ye would be plased, as me uncle said when the docther towld himhe would be able to handle his shillaleh inside of a waak and meet hisengagement with Dennis O'Shaugnessey at Donnybrook fair. Me dad tachedme always to be honest."
To prove which Mike laid down his battered straw hat beside the road,where the seeker of the better headgear would have no trouble infinding it. "And if it's all the same, Alvin, we'll adjourn to our home,for I'm so hungry I could ate me own grandmither."
"How did you know my name?" asked the surprised Alvin.
"Arrah, now, hasn't me dad and mither been writing me since they movedinto this part of the wurruld and spaking of yersilf? It was yer tellingme that me dad was your dad's caretaker that towld the rist. Ef I hadknown it was yersilf I would have hit that spalpeen harder."
"You did well as it was. But I say, Mike, when did you arrive in Maine?"
"Only three days since. Having had directions from me dad, as soon as Igot ashore in New York I made fur the railway station, where I wint toslaap in the cars and woke up in Portland. Thar I had time to atebreakfast and ride in the train to Bath, where I meant to board thesteamboat _Gardiner_. I had half a minute to sprint down the hill to thewharf, but the time was up before I got there and the men pulled in theplank when I was twinty faat away. I'm told the Captain niver tarriesten seconds for anybody."
"That's true," replied Alvin, "for I have seen him steam away when bywaiting half a minute he would have gained five or six passengers."
"So I had to tarry for the other steamer, which lift me off atSouthport, and I walked the rist of the way to the home of me parents. Imind dad towld me the same was four or five miles, but I think it wassix hundred full. I found me parents yesterday."
"I remember now that your father said he expected you about this time,but it had slipped my mind, and having been away all day I had no chanceto learn of your coming. But I can tell you, Mike, I'm mighty glad toknow you."
"The same to yersilf," was the hearty response of the Irish lad. Infact, considering the circumstances in which the two met, to say nothingof their congenial dispositions, nothing was more natural than that theyshould form a strong liking for each other. They walked side by side,sometimes in the dusty road or over the well-marked path on the right orleft, and talking of everything that came into their minds.
"How was it you happened to be passing over this road to-night when Ifound myself in so great need of you?" asked Alvin.
"Me dad sint me this noon down to Cape Newagen to inquire for someletters he didn't ixpect, and then to keep on to Squirrel Island and buyhim a pound of 'bacca and to be sure to walk all the way and be back intime for supper, which I much fear me I sha'n't be able to do."
"How did you make out?" asked the amused Alvin.
"As well as might be ixpected," gravely replied Mike, "being there ain'tany store at Cape Newagen and I should have to walk under water for neartwo miles or swim to Squirrel Island, barring the fact that I can't swima stroke to save me life."
"What did your father mean by sending you on such a fool errand?"
Mike chuckled.
"It was a joke on me. I've tried to break him of the habit, but he can'thelp indulging in the same whin he gits the chance. He was so glad tohave me wid him that he found an excuse for whaling me afore last nightand then played this trick on me."
"Didn't your mother tell you better?"
"Arrah, but she's worse nor him; she said I would enj'y the walk and Imay say I did though I couldn't extind the same as far as they hadplanned for me. Can you suggist something I kin do, Alvin, by the whichI can git aven wid the owld folks fur the fun they've had wid me?"
"I am not able to think of anything just now."
"Ah, I have it!" broke in the Irish youth, snapping his fingers. "It hasbeen the rule all me life that whin I got into a fight I must report thewhole sarcumstances of the same to dad. If I licked the other chap, itwas all right and he or mither give me an extra pratie at dinner, but ifI was bested, then dad made himself tired using his strap over me backand legs. He's in high favor of me exercising my fists on others, butnever will agraa that I don't do a hanus wrong when I git licked. 'It'ssuch a bad habit,' he explains, that it's his dooty to whale it out ofme."
"What has your fight to-night to do with playing a joke on him?"
"Why, don't you see that I'll make him think fur a time that it wasmesilf that was knocked skyhigh, and after he's lambasted me till hecan't do so any more, and I kin hardly stand, you and me will tell himthe truth."
"Where will be the joke in that? It seems to me it will be wholly onyou."
"Don't ye observe that he and mither will feel so bad whin they find howthey have aboosed me that they'll give me two praties instid of one andthen I'll have the laugh on them."
"It takes an Irishman or Irish boy to think up such a joke as that," wasthe comment of Alvin, as the two just then came in sight of the smalllog structure in which Pat Murphy and his wife made their home, while alight twinkled beyond from the windows of the larger building, whereAlvin lived with his parents during the summer. A half mile to the southtoward Cape Newagen was the more moderate dwelling, during the sultryseason, of Chester Haynes, his chum from whom he had parted an hour ortwo previous to making the acquaintance of Mike Murphy. As they drewnear the structure, Mike stepped in front and opened the door, withAlvin at his heels. Within, sat the father calmly smoking his pipe,while his tall, muscular but pleasant-faced wife by the table in themiddle of the room with spectacles on her nose was busily sewing. Thelight was acetylene, furnished from the same source that supplied thelarge bungalow on
ly a few paces distant.
"Good evening, Pat, and the top of the evening to you, Mrs. Murphy. Yousee I have brought Mike safely home to you."
Alvin was a favorite with the couple, who warmly greeted him. The boywas fond of calling at the humble dwelling and chatting with the two.Sometimes he took a meal with them, insisting that the food was muchbetter than was provided by the professional chef in his own home. Nosurer means of reaching the heart of the honest woman could have beenthought of, and though she insisted that the lad had kissed the blarneystone, she was none the less pleased by his kind words.
"Mither, I'm that near starved," said Mike, dropping into the nearestchair, "that I should perish if I had a dozen more paces to walk."
"Yer supper has been waiting for more than an hour, and if ye'll passinto the kitchen ye may eat your fill."
Mike took a step in the direction, but was halted by his father.
"Where is the 'bacca I ordered ye to bring from Squirrel Island?"
"They're out of the kind ye smoke, dad, and that which the storekeepershowed me was that poor I wouldn't have anything to do wid the same."
"And the litters at Cape Newagen?"
"They're expicting the one from King George that ye were looking fur,but it won't be in until the next steamer."