The Poor Scholar

A fifteen-year-old boy hurls his spade into the storm—and declares he will never work another day on the barren hill.

On a bitter November day in Ireland, Dominick M'Evoy and his son Jemmy dig a meagre crop from Esker Dhu, while below them sheltered houses send up smoke from warm fires. Their talk turns from hunger and a lost farm to the men who profited from their ruin, in fierce, rueful humor that cannot hide the hurt. Jemmy sees one road out: Munster, where he hopes to learn Latin and become a priest, then return to lift his family from poverty. His father blesses the sudden resolve—but can a poor boy make that promise hold?

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