Blair Collection > Beside the fire

THE ALP-LUACHRA. 49
nothing of it, sat down at the fire and began warm-
ing himself.
*' Where were you ?" says the daughter to him.
*• I was asleep a while," says he, " on the fresh
grass in the field where they were making hay."
"What happened to you, then?" says she, "for you
don't look well."
" Aluirya,* musha, then," says he, " I don't know ;
but it's queer the feeling I have, I never was like it be-
fore ; but I'll be better when I get a good sleep."
He went to his bed, lay down, and fell asleep, and
never awoke until the sun was high. He rose up then
and his wife said to him: "What was on you that you
slept that long?"
" I don't know," says he.
He went down to the fire where the daughter was
making a cake for the breakfast, and she said to him :
" How are you to-day, father ; are you anything
better ? "
"I got a good sleep," said he, "but I'm not a taste
better than I was last night ; and indeed, if you'd believe
me, I think there's something inside of me running back
and forwards."
" Arrah, that can't be," says the daughter, "but it's a
cold you got and you lying out on the fresh grass ; and
if you're not better in the evening we'll send for the
doctor."
* " Oh, Mary," or " by Mary," an expression like the French " dame !"
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