Then the little girl
asked me to play again, telling me what I should choose, and went on
in the same way managing the evening till she thought it was time to
go home. Then she stood up, thanked me in Irish, and walked out of
the door, without looking at anybody, but followed almost at once by
the whole party.
When they had gone I sat for a while on a barrel in the public-house
talking to some young men who were reading a paper in Irish. Then I
had a long evening with the scholar and two story-tellers - both old
men who had been pilots - taking down stories and poems. We were at
work for nearly six hours, and the more matter we got the more the
old men seemed to remember.
'I was to go out fishing tonight,' said the younger as he came in,
'but I promised you to come, and you're a civil man, so I wouldn't
take five pounds to break my word to you. And now' - taking up his
glass of whisky - 'here's to your good health, and may you live till
they make you a coffin out of a gooseberry bush, or till you die in
childbed.'
They drank my health and our work began.
