Over on the Dry Side Read Online Free Page B

replied. “I like what he’s doing here.”
    â€œHe just plain fell in love with the place.…All the work that somebody else had done. He couldn’t just go off an’ leave it be.”
    â€œI know.” Chantry looked at me again. “Now, boy, tell me what you saw today.”
    â€œWhat I saw? I…” Well, I started to lie, but he was looking right straight into my eyes and smiling a little, and suddenly I didn’t want to lie to him. So I told him the whole business from the start. Leaving out the flowers.
    â€œYou think she and those men came from the same outfit?”
    â€œThere ain’t too many outfits around I know of. I think
maybe
it’s the same outfit. She bein’ a woman.…Maybe she’s got different feelings.”
    â€œThat might be the reason. And sometimes an honest person gets roped into a setup they don’t rightly know how to get clear of. What about that cabin? Anything strike you odd about it?”
    â€œYessir. I believe it was built by the same man who built this. The same kind of work.…Only that place up there is older. I think maybe he lived up there first and kept lookin’ down on this flat country and decided to come down here and settle.”
    â€œMight be right. Or maybe he just wanted two homes. One up high, one down below.” He looked at me again. “What’s your name, boy?”
    â€œDoban Kernohan. They call me Doby.”
    â€œIrish.…Well, we come of the same stock, Doby. I’m Irish, too.…Mostly Irish. My family left the old country a long time ago, and an ancestor of mine went to Newfoundland, then to the Gaspé Peninsula. From there to here, it’s a long story.”
    â€œYou got a first name, mister?”
    â€œOwen. A name that is sometimes Irish, and sometimes Welsh, they tell me. Well, there’s been a sight of changing of names, Doby, especially among the Irish.
    â€œThere was a time long ago when Irishmen were ordered by law to take an English name, and around about fourteen sixty-five, a time later, all those in four counties were to take the name of a town, a color, or a skill. Such as Sutton, Chester, Cork, or Kinsale for the town. Or the colors—any one they’d happen to choose. Or a trade, such as carpenter, smith, cook, or butler, to name just a few.
    â€œAnd some of the Irish changed their names because there was a move against us. Many in my family were killed, and when my great-grandfather escaped to England he was advised never to tell his true name, but to take another…or he’d be hunted down. So he took the name Chantry, although how he came by it I do not know, unless he happened to see and like the name, invented it, or took it from some man he admired. In any event, the name has served us well, and we, I trust, have brought it no dishonor.”
    â€œI know little Irish history,” I said.
    â€œThat’s likely, Doby, but the thing to remember is that this is your country now. It’s well to know about the land from which you came. There’s pride in a heritage, but it’s here you live. This is the land that gives you bread.
    â€œYet it’s a good thing to know the ways of the old countries, too, and there’s no shame in remembering. There’s some as would have it a disgrace to be Irish.…You’ll find places in eastern cities where they’ll hire no man with an Irish look or an Irish name. A good many of those who come here are poor when they land, and nobody knows what lays behind them.
    â€œSome are from families among the noblest on earth, and there’s many another who’s put a ‘Mac’ or an ‘O’ to his name to which he’s not entitled. But a man is what he makes himself, no matter what the blood or barony that lays behind him.”
    â€œWhat was your family name, Mr. Chantry, sir?”
    â€œWe’ll not be talking of that, Doby. Three hundred