Little snowy white feet

Little Mary-Anne of the snowy white feet....

There was in the townland a young girl, a "colleen", by the name of Mary-Anne. Joe-Pat first saw her one evening at the side of the Crossroads observing with interest the dancing lessons. She was clearly too poor to pay the dancing master and as she stood in bare feet, her glossy black mane tumbling over a tattered red cloak. One day Joe-Pat offered to pay a sixpence for a lesson which she gently accepted. The next week however she came back to say that her family had told her not to accept money from men or strangers. She continued to come along every week to look on. Though the others took no notice of her, Joe-Pat was taken with her gracious manner. Never a word was uttered between them. One day, as autumn was approaching, she did not come. She was never seen or heard of again. Someone told Joe-Pat's mother that the familiy had moved away from their mud cabin and gone to Dublin. Strangely affected, he continued to carry the memory of her little face in his mind until years later, when a man, he made a most amazing discovery about her and her whereabouts. But more of that later.