"A Bit of a Banshee" by Tod Robbins (first published in The Forum, December 1924; reprinted in Current Opinion, February 1925; in Robbins' collection Who Wants a Green Bottle? and Other Uneasy Tales, 1926; and in Robbins' collection Freaks and Fantasies, 2018)
Shaemas O'Shea, poet extraordinaire (he once was paid a penny a word from a New York magazine), was walking along Mulberry Lane in the mad March breeze, thinking, "Well, here I am, clear out of Ireland and all, on a crooked street with the sun being murdered in front of my by the bloody look of the sky, and with never an adventure to lay hand to. A drab day behind, and a drab night to follow likely enough; and me with never a thought to guide the pencil over the white desert of paper I bought myself," when an adventure popped up in the shape of a girl , prettier than most, plump as a partridge, with eyes as ornamental as they were useful. She told Shaemas they had to hurry up to receive her mother's blessing, and drew him into a lopsided house where awaited her dying mother and a priest. The old woman -- the Widow Malone -- was a witch and she wanted her daughter Bridget married off before she died, and since Shaemas was nearby...Well a poet was better than an undertaker or Cohen, the old-clothes man, so he would have to do. Well, an adventure is an adventure and the priest married the pair, after which the old woman immediately died.
Now, Bridget was the daughter of a witch but she did not inherit her mother's powers. Instead, the only thing weird about her was that she was a bit of a banshee. when she encountered a person about to die, she would let off a banshee howl and six days later that person would die. It was a good and profitable talent to have; people were always eager to find out when a relative was about to die, none more so than Shaemas O'Shea, whose rich elderly uncle had little to do with him, and him being his closest relative and all. When Bridget got close to the uncle's house, she let out a howl, which told Shaemas all he needed to know. Shaemas went to his uncle and offered to work for him, then spent six grueling days doing hard labor for the old man before he died; the uncle was so impressed with Shaemas's industry that he made sure Shaemas was not cut of the will.
The years passed, and Shaemas was now a wealthy landowner thank=s to his late uncle's generosity. Things were going fine and Shaemas and Bridget had a very comfortable life with each other and with the uncle's property. And then one day, Bridget began to howl in front of Shaemas. At least Shaemas has six days to write his immortal poem, "The Lament of Shaemas O'Shea"...
A cute, clever, and amusing story relying on both Irish myth and stereotypes. I won't tell you how Shaemas avoided death, but will mention that there ws a sequel in 1926, "The Son of Shaemas O'Shea."
Clarence Aaron "Tod" Robbins (1888-1949) was an American writer of horror and mystery fiction. His most famous story, "Spurs," was a basis of Tod Browning's classic 1932 horror film Freaks. His novel The Unholy Three was filmed twice, once in 1925 by Tod Browning, and again in 1930 by Jack Conway, both% films starring Lon Chaney. Other noted works included the novel The Mysterious Martin: A Fiction Narrative Setting Forth the Development of Character Along Unusual Lines, ,"and such stories as "Cock-Crow Inn," "Silent, White and Beautiful," "The Toys of Fate," "The Whimpus," "Who Want a Green Bottle?," and "Wild Wullie, the Waster", some which take a sly -- and others, a visceral -- approach to horror.
