The fame of the Dromintee Pahvees spread across the world. We’ll tell you more later. A home story first.
Pahvees were travelling cloth salesmen. The ‘rag’ man, colloquially, though he was much more than that! It was a way to make a living, when all other avenues were closed. Of course, little if anything of income was declared to the Revenue.
This pahvee anyway was going great guns, confident of making a decent sale to the woman whose house he called at. She just seemed slow when it came to handing over the money. He thought she was stalling, waiting for something, like the return of her husband, for example. It was at that point that the man noticed a policeman’s jacket hanging on a peg and a helmet beside it.
‘I just remembered’, says he, ‘that I’ve another urgent job to do’.
He was quickly gathering up the clothes and blankets he’d been showing to her.
‘Ah, take your time, there,’ says she, ‘you were in no hurry a minute ago. My husband will be home in a minute and he’s the man with the money.’
‘No, I’ve got to go’, he says, making signs to leave.
But she had seen that he’d spotted the police uniform. Her attitude changed.
‘You know’, says she, ‘if my husband were here, he’d take you!’
‘Oh it’s well I believe it,’ says he.
‘When he took you, he’d take anyone!’