Judy Plum

The cover of this book contains one of the two pictures of Judy (the other is on a very similar cover of this same book) that I could find.

Judy Plum: the wizened old Irish servant of the Gardiner household in Pat of Silver Bush and Mistress Pat by L. M. Montgomery. She had seemingly endless energy (at least for most of the sequence), a never-ending supply of stories, and always a word of wisdom in her Irish brogue. She is one of my very favourite characters in all of literature.

"Judy had been about the world a bit in her time. Born in Ireland she had 'worked out' in her teens . . . in a 'castle' no less, as the Silver Bush children heard with amazed eyes.", and she told stories about "little green folk" and witches and other creatures, and the children believed her for a few years. 

So, for St. Patrick's Day, in honour of leprechauns and magic and the Irish part of Judy are some snippets of the things Judy (and some others) said concerning such things as leprechauns and magic, written as L. M. Montgomery wrote them in Judy's Irish brogue:

"'Sure, a leprachaun touched her the day she was born wid a liddle green rose-thorn,' answered Judy mysteriously. 

Judy knew all about leprachauns and banshees and water-kelpies and fascinating beings like that."

"If ye don't be belaving innything what fun are ye going to get out av life?" asked Judy unanswerably. "There may niver be a witch in P. E. Island but there's minny a one in ould Ireland even yet. The grandmother av me was one."
(She later admitted the bit about her grandmother wasn't exactly true, "but she cud see things other folks cudn't.")

"Hadn't Judy herself seen fairies dancing in a ring one night when she was a girleen in Ould Ireland?"

"Now, if there was a wishing well here like there was in me home in ould Ireland sure and ye cud make it all right in the twinkle av a fairy's eye. All ye'd have to do is go to it at moonrise and ye'd get yer wish."

"I don't believe there's either witches or fairies," cried Sid, just to make her madder. It was always fun to make Judy Plum mad.

"Oh, oh, indade! Well, I knew a man in ould Ireland said the same thing. Said it as bould as brass, he did. And he met some one night, whin he was walking home from where he'd no business to be. Oh, oh, what they did to him!"

"What . . . what?" demanded Sid eagerly.

"Niver ye be minding what it was. 'Tis better for ye niver to know. He was niver the same again and he held his tongue about the Good Folk after that, belave me. Only I'm advising ye to be a bit careful what ye say out loud whin ye think ye're all alone, me bould young lad."

"Judy, did you ever really see a fairy drinking the milk? Cross your heart?"

"Oh, oh, what if I didn't? Sure the grandmother of me did. Minny's the time I've heard her tell it. A leprachaun wid the liddle ears av him wriggling as he lapped it up. And she had her leg bruk nixt day, that she had. Ye may be thankful if ye niver see any av the Grane Folk. They don't be liking it and that I'm tellin ye."

"Sid says we'd be scared to death back there," she [Pat] said. "But we won't. Not even if the wee green folks of the hills Judy talks about came to our tent door and peeped in."

"But I'm going to keep on believing in fairy rings and horseshoes over the door and witches on broomsticks. It makes life so thrilling to believe in things. If you believe in a thing it doesn't matter whether it exists or not." (-Pat)

Judy really is a dear and I enjoyed finding these little gems. I often flip through Pat of Silver Bush, just picking out Judy's stories or reading the little things she says. St. Patrick's Day was the perfect excuse to read more about my favourite Irish character!
Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Do you "know" Judy? What other Irish characters do you like?