Irish Folk Tales (35 page)

There was this man in it one time and he had three sons and he wanted to make something of them but hadn’t the money. So he sells himself to the Divil to rise money to school the three boys, and he did. He made one a priest, the other a doctor and the third one was a lawyer. The Divil give him the money to pay for their education.

But anyway, at the end of seven years the Divil showed up to claim the old man and his soul and take him and it down to Hell. He had his three sons there, or one at a time in with him. So when the Divil come the priest began to pray and beg and appeal for sparings for his father, and in the heel of the hunt he got a few years more off the Divil for his father.

When that was up and the Divil come again the doctor was there and he appealed for sparings for his father and got them. And when the Divil come a third time to claim the old fellow the lawyer was there. The lawyer says to the Divil:

“You’ve given sparings to my father twice already and I know you can’t be expected to do it again. But,” says he, “as a last request, will you give him sparings while that butt of a candle is there?”

The candle was burning on the table.

The Divil said he would; it was only a butt of a candle and wouldn’t be long in it.

At that the lawyer picks up the butt of a candle and blows it out and puts it in his pocket. And that was that! The Divil had to keep to his bargain and go without the old man, for the lawyer held on to the butt of a candle. Trust the lawyer to beat the Divil.

C
OALS ON THE DEVIL’S HEARTH

This man, he was very poor, and he was getting it very tight to live, with a wife and family.

And he sold himself to the Devil.

But the bargain was, that he’d have to go with him at the end of a number of years.

But anyway, he got very rich.

And he got his family reared.

And the way it was: when him and the Devil made the bargain, the Devil gave him a
drum
, and a pair of drumsticks.

And he told him that every time that he’d want money, for to go out and give a roll on the drum, when he wanted anything done, and he’d do it for him.

So anyway, he went be the orders of the Devil. But in the long run, he joined to get very nervous and got afraid of the journey that he had to
go
.

So he joined to fret terribly.

And the wife remarked him terribly failed, and in bad form.

He never let on to her how they came to have the
money
or anything like
that
. And she knew nothing about this bargain that he had made off the Devil.

So anyway, he wouldn’t tell her what the cause of it was. But she
still
was at him for to tell her what was troubling him.

So in the long run he told her.

So, she says, “There’s a plan to get rid of him.”

“Well,
what is it
?” says the man.
And he got terrible excited
.

“Well,” she says, “you told me there that you had a drum, that you notified him when you wanted anything.”

“Aye, I have it,” he says.

“Well,” says she, “take out the drum now, and give a roll on it, and when he comes, tell him that you want churches and chapels built.
At once!
”

So he went out and gave a roll on the drum and the Devil came along.

Your man says to him, “Well,” he says, “I want you to do a thing, but whether you’ll do it or not, I don’t know. Would you put up churches and chapels here and there through the country?”

“Ah, I will, of course,” says the Devil.

So anyway there was churches and chapels erected be night that the people couldn’t understand atall.

So, when him and the Devil was parting, the Devil says to him, “Let that be the last thing now that ever you’ll ask me
to do
.”

So he was in as bad fettle as ever when he came back to the wife.

But the buildings went
up
.

So, aw, he was getting that she didn’t know what was going to happen.

Says she, “There’s one plan yet, that ye’ll get shut of him forever.”

She says, “Get out the drum, and give a
roll
on it, a good
loud
one. When he comes, tell him that you want him to do the last thing that ever you’ll ask him to do.

“And when he asks you what it is, tell him that you want him to make all lawyers honest men.”

He out with the drum.

And he gave a rattle.

No time till the boyo appeared.

“
Well
,” he says, “
what do you want
me to do the
day
?
You told me the last time that we were talking that you’d never ask me to do more
for you.”

“Well,” he says, “this is going to be the last.”

“Well, what is it?” says the Devil.

“I want you,” he says, “for to make all lawyers honest men.”

“
Ah
” says the Devil.

“Give me that drum,” he says.

“There’s women at the back of this. If I done what you want, there’s times that I wouldn’t have a coal on me hearth.”

N
O MAN GOES BEYOND HIS DAY

A fisherman must follow the sea, and how can a man escape the day of his death? There is such and such a time marked out for a man on this earth, and, when his day is come, if he went into an ant’s hole, death would find him there. We have only our time, and, young or old, a man must go when he is called.

There was a boat going out to Inis Tuaisceart once to fish from the rocks, and when they were halfway out they found that they had left the mast behind them. So they went back for the mast.

And there was a man on the slip who was the best man on the Island at fishing from the rocks, for at every craft there is one man is better than all others, if it were only at driving nails with a hammer. They set out again, taking this man with them, and, when they came to Inis Tuaisceart, they went about the island putting one man out on a rock here and another there, till at last they were all in their places fishing.

After they had been thus for a time, the day began to rise on them, and the boat went again to pick up the men. But when they came to the rock where they had put this man out, he was not to be found.

A wave had come up out of the sea, they said, and taken him, for death wanted him and his day was come, and when they went back at the beginning of the day it was not for the mast they went, as they thought, but for the man. No man goes beyond his day.