"
"Happy are you, Mary Maloney? Let me see; you don't own a foot of land in
the world?"
"Foot of land, is it?" she cried, with a hearty Irish laugh; "oh, what a
hand ye be after joking; why I haven't a penny, let alone the land."
"Your mother is dead!"
"God rest her soul, yes," replied Mary Maloney, with a touch of genuine
pathos; "may the angels make her bed in heaven."
"Your brother is still a hard case, I suppose."
"Ah, you may well say that. It's nothing but drink, drink, drink, and
beating his poor wife, that she is, the creature."
You have to pay your little sister's board."
"Sure, the bit creature, and she's a good little girl, is Hinny, willing to
do whatever I axes her. I don't grudge the money what goes for that."
"You haven't many fashionable dresses, either, Mary Maloney."
"Fashionable, is it? Oh, yes, I put a piece of whalebone in my skirt, and
me calico gown looks as big as the great ladies. But then ye says true, I
hasn't but two gowns to me back, two shoes, to me feet, and one bonnet to
me head, barring the old hood you gave me.
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