‘You‘ll come home with me now, Sarah.‘
Easily enough he helped her along the front drive and down the hill, past the fancy houses and on towards the bridge. Crossing the river, his eyesa gain fell on the stout-black water flowing darkly along-and a part of him envied the Barrow‘s knowledge of her course, how easily the water followed its incorrigible way, so freely to the open sea. - P105
And then the nights came on and the frosts took hold again, and blades of cold slid under doors and cut the knees off those who still knelt to say the rosary. - P2
Furlong sold coal, turf, anthracite, slack and logs. - P2
The coal was the dirtiest work and had, in winter, to be collected monthly, off the quays. Two full days it took for the men to collect, carry, sort and weigh it all out, back at the yard. Meanwhile, the Polish and Russian boatmen were a novelty going about town in their fur caps and long, buttoned coats, with hardly a word of English. - P3
Ned, the farmhand, lived in too, and seldom was there much friction around the place or with neighbours as the land was well fenced and managed, and no money was owing. - P6
And when they returned home, both prayer books and the bible were left lying on the hallstand until the following Sunday or holy day. - P7
He‘d a head for business, was known for getting along, and could be relied upon, as he had developed good,
Protestant habits; was given to rising early and had no taste for drink. - P7
Some nights, Furlong lay there with Eileen,
going over small things like these. - P11
He imagined his girls getting big and growing up, going out into that world of men. Already he‘d seen men‘s eyes following his girls. But some part of his mind was often tense; he could not say why. - P12
It would be the easiest thing in the world to lose everything, Furlong knew. Although he did not venture far, he got around - and many an unfortunate he‘d seen around town and out the countryroads. - P12
The times were raw but Furlong felt all the more determined to carry on, to keep his head down and stay on the right side of people, and to keep providing for his girls and see them getting on and completing their education at St Margaret‘s, the only good school for girls in the town. - P14
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