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043 - The Jackdaw · Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry

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  Speaker 1: Section forty two of Fairy and Folk Tales of the
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  Speaker 1: Irish Peasantry. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox re
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  Speaker 1: cordings are in the public domain. For more information or
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  Speaker 1: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Fairy and Folk
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  Speaker 1: Tales of the Irish Peasantry, edited and selected by W. B. Yeats,
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  Speaker 1: Section forty two. The Jackdaw. Tom Moore was a linen
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  Speaker 1: draper in Sackville Street. His father, when he died, left
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  Speaker 1: him an affluent fortune and a shop of excellent trade.
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  Speaker 1: As he was standing at his door one day, a
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  Speaker 1: countryman came up to him with a nest of jackdaws
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  Speaker 1: and accosting him, says, master, will you buy a nest
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  Speaker 1: of dolls? No, I don't want any, Master, replied the man.
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  Speaker 1: I will sell them all cheap. You shall have the
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  Speaker 1: whole nest for ninepence. I don't want them, answered Tom Moore,
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  Speaker 1: So go about your business. As the man was walking away,
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  Speaker 1: one of the dolls popped out his head and cried,
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  Speaker 1: mack Mott. Damn it, says Tom Moore. The bird knows
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  Speaker 1: my name. All o countryman, what will you take for
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  Speaker 1: that bird? Why? You shall have him for threepence. Tom
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  Speaker 1: Moore bought him, had a cage made, and hung him
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  Speaker 1: up in the shop. The journeyman took much notice of
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  Speaker 1: the bird, and would frequently tap at the bottom of
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  Speaker 1: the cage and say who are you? Who are you?
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  Speaker 1: Tom Moore of Sackville Street. In a short time, the
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  Speaker 1: jackdaw learned these words, and if he wanted victuals or water,
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  Speaker 1: would strike his bill against the cage, turn up the
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  Speaker 1: white of his eyes, cock his head, and cried, who
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  Speaker 1: are you? Who are you? Tom Moore of Sackville Street.
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  Speaker 1: Tom Moore was fond of gaming and often lost large
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  Speaker 1: sums of money. Finding his business neglected in his absence,
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  Speaker 1: he had a small hazard table set up in one
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  Speaker 1: corner of his dining room and invited a party of
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  Speaker 1: friends to play at it. The jackdaw had by this
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  Speaker 1: time become familiar. His cage was left open and hopped
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  Speaker 1: into every part of the house. Sometimes he got into
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  Speaker 1: the dining room where the gentlemen were at play, and
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  Speaker 1: one of them, being a constant winner, the others would say,
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  Speaker 1: damn it, how he nixed them. The bird lean learned
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  Speaker 1: these words also, and adding them to the former, would
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  Speaker 1: call who are you? Who are you tom Moore of
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  Speaker 1: Sackville Street? Damn it? How he nixed them? Tom Moore,
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  Speaker 1: from repeated losses and neglect of business, failed in trade
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  Speaker 1: and became a prisoner in the fleet. He took his
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  Speaker 1: bird with him and lived on the master's side, supported
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  Speaker 1: by friends in a decent manner. They would sometimes ask
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  Speaker 1: what brought you here? When he used to lift up
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  Speaker 1: his hands and answered, bad company by God. The bird
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  Speaker 1: learned this likewise, and at the end of the former
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  Speaker 1: words would say, what brought you here? Bad company by God?
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  Speaker 1: Some of tom Moore's friends died, others went abroad, and
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  Speaker 1: by degrees he was totally deserted and removed to the
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  Speaker 1: common side of the prison, where the jail distemper soon
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  Speaker 1: attacked him. And, in the last date of life, lying
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  Speaker 1: on a straw bed, the poor bird had been for
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  Speaker 1: two days without food or water, came to his feet, and,
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  Speaker 1: striking his bill on the floor, calls out, who are
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  Speaker 1: you tom Moore of Sackville Street. Damn it? How he
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  Speaker 1: nix them? Damn it, how he nix them? What brought
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  Speaker 1: you here? Bad company by God? Bad company by God?
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  Speaker 1: Tom Moore, who had attended to the bird, was struck
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  Speaker 1: with his words, and, reflecting on himself, cried out, Good God,
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  Speaker 1: to what a situation I am reduced. My father when
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  Speaker 1: he died, left me a good fortune and an established trade.
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  Speaker 1: I have spent my fortune, ruined my business, and am
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  Speaker 1: now dying in a lowesome jail. And to complete all
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  Speaker 1: keeping that poor thing confined without support, I will endeavor
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  Speaker 1: to do one piece of justice before I die. By
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  Speaker 1: setting him at liberty. He made a struggle to crawl
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  Speaker 1: from his straw bed, opened the case, and out flew
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  Speaker 1: the bird. A flight of jackdaws from the temple were
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  Speaker 1: going over the jail, and tom Moore's bird mixed among them.
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  Speaker 1: The gardener was then laying the plats of the temple garden,
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  Speaker 1: and as often as he placed them in the day,
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  Speaker 1: the jackdaws pulled them up. By night. They got a
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  Speaker 1: gun and attempted to shoot some of them, but being
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  Speaker 1: cunning birds, they always placed one as a watch in
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  Speaker 1: the stump of a hollow tree, who, as soon as
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  Speaker 1: the gun was leveled, cried mock, and away they flew.
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  Speaker 1: The gardeners were advised to get a net, and the
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  Speaker 1: first night it was spread they caught fifteen. Tom Moore's
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  Speaker 1: bird was amongst them. One of the men took the
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  Speaker 1: net into a garret of an uninhabited house, fastens the
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  Speaker 1: door and windows, and turns the birds loose. Now, he said,
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  Speaker 1: you black rascals, I will be revenged of you. Taking
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  Speaker 1: hold of the first at hand, he twists her neck
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  Speaker 1: and throwing him down, cries, there goes one Tom Moores,
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  Speaker 1: who had hopped up to a beam at one corner
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  Speaker 1: of the room, unobserved. As the man lays hold of
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  Speaker 1: the second, calls out, damn it, how he nicks them?
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  Speaker 1: The man, alarmed, cries, sure, I heard a voice, but
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  Speaker 1: the house is uninhabited and the door is fast it
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  Speaker 1: could only be imagination. On laying hold of the third
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  Speaker 1: and twisting his neck, Tom's bird again says, damn it,
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  Speaker 1: how he nix them? The man dropped the bird in
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  Speaker 1: his hand, and turning to where the voice came from,
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  Speaker 1: seeing the other with his mouse open, cries out who
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  Speaker 1: are you, to which the bird answered Tom Moore of
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  Speaker 1: Sackville Street, Tom Moore of Sackville Street, the devil you are?
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  Speaker 1: And what brought you here? Tom Moore's bird, lifting up
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  Speaker 1: his pinions, answered bad company. By God, bad company by God.
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  Speaker 1: The fellow, frightened almost out of his wits, opened the door,
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  Speaker 1: ran downstairs and out of the house, followed by all
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  Speaker 1: the birds, who, by this means regained their liberty and
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  Speaker 1: a section forty two