Page 3 of 10 Music on the Wind —by Gardiner M. Weir “Certainly!” There was music to her voice that hinted she was not from those parts. She sounded like what we heard on the wireless. Danny wandered over but kept a wee bit off. I could tell he was wishing he were not dressed in dungarees that smelled of sheep. But what can you do when that’s your life, working with animals. The woman before us was too dainty for that kind of thing. She was a town woman. “That’s gae like it,” A big grin opened up on Danny’s face. The woman kept on adding more paint with dainty small hands all white and smooth like they had never seen a day’s work. Certainly not like the widow Martha’s or Danny’s Ma. Their hands were all red and rough. And she was a wee slip of a thing too; not much taller than I, a silk scarf neatly arranged around her neck and a fluffy pink beret on her head. The perfume of flowers surrounded her. My Uncle Danny was beginning to move around in a nervous way, shuffling his feet and stretching his neck to see the painting. The lambs were clearly forgotten. “What they call ye, hi?” “Margo!” She looked around at him with a flicker of amusement in her wide blue eyes. “And you?” “Danny. Danny McKillop. That’s my place over there. Ah got sheep.” “That’s nice. You’re a farmer then?” “Aye! Ah got eighty acres, so Ah have.” “That’s nice.” She played paint across the paper, washed her brushes in water, dipped them again in paint and went about the business of constructing the scene as if Danny were not there. I could see Danny’s mother looking our way. “Where ye from?” Danny blurted out. “Ballyaghone.” Oh, Ah thought ye might be passin' through, like, a tourist. We get them ye know. Them an' their cameras. Ye sound like ye're from across the water, so ye do." "I am. I'm really English. But I live here now." She did not look up from her work. "Oh!" "There! Finished! That didn't take long." She smiled, turning her blue eyes to Danny. "Naw, it didn't. Ye're quick, so ye are. How do ye do that?" "Practice. I'm an artist. Have you never seen an artist at work before?" Her blue eyes took in the rough look of Danny and brought a smile to her lips. "Well?" "Naw! Never! The only pictures Ah've ever seen are on the calendars me mother gets at the grocer's." Continued on Music on the Wind, page 4. Copyright © Gardiner M. Weir.January 2000 Page updated 19 Nov  2005 Background and Ireland's OWN logo by Míchealín Ní Dhochartaigh Copyright © 2005 Ireland's OWN. All Rights Reserved.