come to God in the right way, me Da taught me that ye ain’t worth wastin’ no courtesy on, grown or otherwise.” Tyndall replied, “So that’s the way of it. Well, we can also be rude. McTavish come here. You’re the family artist, aren’t you?” His eldest son acknowledged the question affirmatively. “Well, we need your help with a brush and orange and black paint. Oleander, you hold his arms; Michael, you hold his legs. Brython pull his trousers down. McTavish, start painting his face orange, and we’ll figure out the rest.”
What was figured out was that after oranging up his face, the young miscreant was flipped over on his stomach, and a picture of St. Patrick chasing the snakes out of Ireland was painted on his posterior. His clothing was put in a tree and tied around a thick branch too high for him to climb. A note was attached to him explaining about the attack and that every person, including Romish Pagans was entitled to courtesy. After all we’re all Irishmen and want to be free of the English bull. Freedom would come eventually. However, violence was not the answer.
The boy’s name was Delphious Ornam, and his family not only did not accept Tyndall’s correction, but vowed revenge against the Protestant hog.
Chapter 2
Delphious told his father, mother and ten brothers about the nervy Prot family that had let him endure a cut on his leg. They were proud of their little Catholic fighter that gave the heretic a slash on the face, before they insulted him with their insults to their real faith to their God that acknowledge the Holy Father of all Christendom, and their beautiful rituals. The family all agreed that the swine had to pay. But what revenge; what would their priest and the Father, Son, and Mother Mary demand of them. They would surely have to discuss this with Fr. Wrigley and make a sound decision about it.
That Wednesday they met with the Priest. Father felt that a house that opposed throwing the Brits out of Ireland and defied the true road to God at the same time did not deserve to stand, but he could not participate because our Lord regards violence between men as not to be the mutual love Christianity preached .He also said what he did not know could not be sent to the Lord’s ears.
The Ornams had a family meeting to decide how to handle the Mikawbers. The father knew an employee of the factory where McTavish worked with his brothers, Brython and Oleander. One of his sons went to school with Michael and could detain him. The father would detain Tyndall at Avery’s Pub with a discussion about settling the differences between the two families. Likewise the three brothers could be taken out of the picture by joining their employee at another pub to celebrate the end of the workday. This left Craine alone in the house. The target date was Friday night of this week. The Ornams did not want too much time to elapse before they struck back. What stuck in Jesse Ornam’s craw was the picture of St. Patrick on his son’s arse. They’d pay for that one.
At 5:00 p.m. Jesse met Tyndall and suggested that they talk over some ales at Avery’s. Killiam engaged Michael in a friendly game of Rugby set up with two teams previously. One of the teams was short a man. He was interested in offering a gesture that the families could still be friends since no real physical harm had been done. After all, they were both still Irish, and there was more love between them than for the Brits. Tandry Obrits invited McTavish, Brython, and Oleander for a couple of cold ones and a game of darts at O’Donnell’s to separate themselves from the monotonous work day. The stage was set.
In November dusk and darkness come early. Six Ornams went to the Mikawber House with a bucket of live coals and another 3 buckets of horse feces . Delphious knocked on the door with two brothers behind him. They grabbed Craine and pinned him down, picked him up and carried him to a tree, tore off his clothes, and tied him to the tree. Delphious used a pair of tongs to hold the coals that burnt Craine’s face, arms and legs, and genitals. He told him they did not want him to suffer too much and rubbed the horse feces all over him to cool him. They smeared the second bucket all over the outside of the house and the third all over the inside.
Tyndall recognized that something phony was going on at Avery’s because Jesse never had much to say to him, and the time was too close to the time of the painting prank. McTavish had had differences with Tandry. They were also not very friendly, especially since he gave him a black eye a year ago over starting a union at the factory. Michael was suspicious of being invited to a Rugby game by a kid with whom he felt no friendship, and whose son had painted a family member orange and put one of their saints on his rear end. However, when the game was legitimate and involved both Prots and Lobsterbacks, he joined in.
The game was short lived because one of the players fell and broke his leg on a play. The Ornams thought they kept him away long enough for their family to get their business done. They bade Michael farewell and chuckled to themselves when he was out of earshot on the way home. Likewise Tyndall and the other boys left their rendezvous early because they didn’t feel comfortable with their company.
When they got home, they found Craine unconscious and smelling of horseshit, as well the inside and outside of the house. Tyndall brought his son to consciousness and asked what happened. He choked back his rage and dispatched the four boys to clean the house, while he cleaned up Craine and got the wagon ready to take him to the hospital to heal the burns. He promised a family meeting after he got back.
Once at the hospital, Dr. Bailen examined Craine and told the father that his son would have to stay in the hospital three weeks. He wanted to try a new technique called skin grafting with which they had been having successes. He diagnosed the lad with 2nd degree burns on his face and arms, and genitals.
Two days after Craine was admitted to the hospital, the Mikawbers had to get their anger out and develop a plan. McTavish was the hottest under the collar. He wanted to clean up the shotgun, steal a cannon from the armory, and blow the Ornams to smithereens. He also had a cache of dynamite that he wanted to use. Tyndall was against any killing. “We are not animals. I may be more patient than The Catholics, but I want the same freedom from the Brits that they do. Most of us Prots want the protection of England, but I’ve always fought my own battles. Besides if you take someone’s help there’s always a price to pay. I don’t feel like being pushed into that war overseas. It’s going to be one bloody, long thing, and we’ll never be the same again. I also don’t want it brought here. Let’s just insist on some simple justice.” McTavish had to admit that Da was right, but how could one teach the Ornams a lesson and not hurt them. Brython said, “We can hurt them without killing them. We can do irreparable damage to their property, enough to make them move back to Dublin, where they belong. They stunk our house up. Why can’t we burn their house down? We can do it when they’re gone.”
No one challenged Brython’s idea; all that remained was for them to implement it and come up with a logical plan. Oleander devised a scheme. The family would go visit Craine in the hospital Saturday night and stay overnight, due to the impending surgery and be available for matching skin grafts. After hours the least matched would sneak out and place dynamite in the woods adjacent to the Ornam property. He would return, and the next least matched would sneak out and put several cans of gasoline at the cache, then return. The next in line would bring wood and tinder to start a small fire near the house. Early Sunday morning, the family would wait in the woods with binoculars to observe movement and to dig a hole to bury the equipment. They’d burn the shack while the family was at church.
After hearing this plan Tyndall stated if the Brits conscripted his family, they’d win their war in a week. No one was to tell Craine about it or the Constabulary would be torturing him about it from his hospital bed. Care had to be taken to cause it to appear that the earth over the hole had been untouched. Tyndall would handle this due to his prior experience as a landscaper. That Sunday the deed was done. If Jesse Ornam complained to the authorities, he would have to explain about the damage done to the Mikawbers’ house and Craine. They had pictures of his face and arms, including the cuts and burns. No complaints were lodged with the authorities.
