@@@@@Every man, woman, and child
@@@@@Every man, woman, and child in
Ballyhara
has to get a little piece for good luckThey're waiting outsideThe
maids will take the pieces down on trays after you finish
"My grief," said Scarlett"I should have taken littler bites After
breakfast Colum accompanied her through the town for her next ritual
It was good luck for the whole year if a dark-haired person visited a
house on New Year's DayBut the tradition required that the person
enter, then be escorted out, then be escorted back in agaIn"And
don't you dare laugh," Colum ordered"Any dark-haired person is
good
luckThe head of a clan is ten times over good luck Scarlett was
staggering when it was over"Thank goodness there are still so many
empty buildings," she gasped"I'm awash with tea and foundering
from
all the cake in my stomachDid we really have to eat and drink in
every single place?" Scarlett darling, how can you call it a visit if
there's no hospitality offered and received? If you were a man, it
would have been whiskey and not tea"Cat might
have loved that February I was considered the beginning of the farm
year in IrelandAccompanied by everyone who worked and lived in
Ballyhara, Scarlett stood in the center of a big field and, after
saying a prayer for the success of the crops, sank a spade into the
earth, lifted and turned the first sodNow the year could begin
After the feast of applecake-and milk, of course, because February I
was also the feast day of Saint Brigid, Ireland's other patron saint,
who was also patron saint of the dairyWhen everyone was eating
and
talking after the ceremony, Scarlett knelt by the opened earth and
took
up a handful of the rich loam"This is for you, Pa," she murmured
"See, Katie Scarlett hasn't forgotten what you told her, that the land
of County Meath is the best in the world, better even than the land of
Georgia, of TaraI'll do my best to tend it, Pa, and love it the way
you taught meIt's O'Hara soil, and it's ours aga