The story starts off with the death of Paddy Moynihan. He was found at the bottom of the ravine below the blacksmith's house. Everyone in the village was standing around him with horror look in their eyes. The sergeant looked at the body and then turned to Joe Finnerty and asked him if it was him who had witnessed the death. Joe told him that he had seen Paddy standing on the blacksmith wall. He kept repeating the same message which was "The pedlar poisoned me". Then all of a sudden he dropped everything and reached for his stomach. After that he fell off the wall into the deep ravine. The sergeant and Joe pondered the ideas of how he died until a Anthony Gill told them that he saw Paddy Moynihan walking out of the Pedlar's house a few hours earlier. He had also seen him run into Pete Maloney's shop to buy candles. The sergeant was quite confused about the incidents that happened but then decided that even though the doctor wasn't there, they should get the body of Paddy out of the ravine. They used ropes and slings to get him out because he wasn't the lightest man around. They then put him in a wheelbarrow and pushed him towards the dead man's shed.
The men then started to talk about how the Pedlar had taken Paddy to court one time over a shed. Paddy liked to pull pranks so when he saw the Pedlar's donkey attached to the door of the shed he decided to torment the donkey with turnips. The donkey yanked so hard that the whole shed came crumbling down. The men continued to talk about the incident they reached the shed. Once they got there, they decided they would go over and talk to the pedlar.
When they told him about Paddy's death, he reacted in a different way. He said he felt relieved because of the tension between them in the past. Paddy had made fun of the Pedlar when they were younger because of his height. He did things to him like yell at him and get the other children against him. Joe Finnerty was getting angry at the Pedlar because he said he was making false accusations against Paddy but the pedlar continued to tell the stories of the torture that Paddy put him through. He then began to talk about how he used the lack of courage of Paddy to get back at him.
The men then confronted him and asked if he had poisoned Paddy. He didn't fess up to it but once the Joe had said he had seen Paddy in his house he told them what had happened. The pedlar was cooking some potatoes with some bacon grease when Paddy burst into his house. He asked him where he had got the bacon but the pedlar lied and said he didn't have any. Paddy began to get more and more angry so the Pedlar told him it was candles. Paddy had died because he had eaten the candles. The pedlar began to laugh as the men walked away. He was laughing because he was now free of Paddy Moynihan and he had not caused any crime.
After knowing the outcome, did you feel sorry for Paddy or the Pedlar?
Very good 5 stars
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