[{"node":{"title":"Hanna250","Collections":"Part Three","Contributor":"Linen Hall Library","Coverage":"1951","Creator":"Linen Hall Library","Date":"Thursday, April 7, 2016","Format":"TIFF","Identifier":"Hanna250","Item Description":"Manuscript","Keywords":"Martha, Rathard","Language":"English","Path":"https://www.niliteraryarchive.com/content/hanna250","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/Hanna250_0.jpg","alt":""},"Source":"LHL Archive","Transcript":"\ufeff243\n\nthat stupidity and ill-reason had filched from him\nsomething that he valued. For Joe loved that slow-\nwitted kindly woman, his mother, and even at this\nmoment, while he deliberately reminded himself that\nhis life with his father was broken, it was not the\nlast stupid painful days he remembered, but all the\nhappy times they had together; at the markets, the trips\nto Belfast, and those days when the three of them had\njoined their neighbours cockle-raking on the beach at\nCastle Espie.\n\nJoe was fond of telling Martha how free he was\nof fancy, and expression that became more popular with\nhim in later life, as he grew more and more to resemble\nhis father, but here, standing in the sunken gateway,\nhalfway between his old home and Rathard, he felt with\na brief clarity that he was standing at the gate opening\nto a new phase of his life. Behind him lay the house\nwhere he was born and the summer days of childhood, in\nfront lay Rathard and the responsibilities of manhood.\n\nHe pushed the gate open, stepped through, and\nclimbed up to Rathard through the drenched fields. As\nhe neared the top of the loanen the mist fell away and\nhe entered the clear air of the hilltop. He stopped\nand looked down on the silent coiling grey sea below\nhim. Away towards his home the mist suddenly billowed\nand swirled as though it were disturbed by some creature\nfloundering beneath it. He thought again of his mother\nand his heart constricted in pain.\n\nBut he had something more urgent to think about\nnow. He had to face the Echlins and tell them that he\nhad been turned out by his father, thrown out bf his\nown home and heritage because of them. He knew that\nMartha would not be surprised, because he had already\nhinted several times of his father\u2019s opposition to their\ncourtship. In this way he had explained why he could\n","Type":"Text"}}]