[{"node":{"title":"Hanna146","Collections":"Part Two","Contributor":"Linen Hall Library","Coverage":"1951","Creator":"Linen Hall Library","Date":"Thursday, April 7, 2016","Format":"TIFF","Identifier":"Hanna146","Item Description":"Manuscript","Keywords":"Birth, Crossroads","Language":"English","Path":"https://www.niliteraryarchive.com/content/hanna146","Publisher":"Linen Hall Library","Relation":"Linen Hall Library","Rights":"Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA","Scanned image":{"src":"https://www.niliteraryarchive.com/sites/default/files/Hanna146_0.jpg","alt":""},"Source":"LHL Archive","Transcript":"\ufeff140\n\neconomic hold over his flock, the minister coUld not go beyond that.\n\nAnd how potent was this warning of the displeasure of God? Men\nor women determined to pursue some selfish course, hardened their\nhearts with an ancient knowledge that the world did not behave as\nthe clergy wanted it to do, or worse still, said it did. In a drought\nthe peasants might flock to church with every mark of fervour to pray\nfor rain, but they knew that when the rain did come, it would come\nvast, rolling, drenching the world from horizon to horizon and not\nseeking out, with scrupulous justice, the meadows of the pious.\n\nFor some months after the birth of the child the Echlin brothers\nkept as close to the farm as possible, but some traffic with their\nneighbours was unavoiiable, and it was these few visitors to Rathard\nwho spread the story that Sarah Gomartin was now the master as well\nas the mistress of the farm. They found that when they bought potatoes\nin the field or straw in the haggard, it was in the house they paid the\nmoney, and it was Sarah who took it.\n\n\"And arr those pachels of brothers going to put their hearth and\nbroad into the fists of that creature!\" cried the women in exasperation.\n\"Ah, fair\u2019s fair,\" pleaded the storyteller. \"Fairs, fair, She'll never\ntake a penny too much, or give ye a penny less, to my knowing. \u2019\n\nBut the women, those shapers of opinion and prejudice, would hear\nnothing in Sarah's favour, and the men for peace's sake, agreed that she\nwas a shameless bismn and worth the watching. Yet, anong themselves, as\nthey gathered at the crossroads, there could be detected a tickled humour\nat the idea of this matriarchal household set up among then, and one nan\nexpressed the opinion that if there was any truth in the old saying that\n","Type":"Text"}}]