Blair Collection > Beside the fire

PAUDYEEN O KELLY AND THE WEASEL 79
he, *' if you're for five hundred years in this world, it's
time for you to go to rest now,"
" I committed a great crime in my youth," said the
hag, "and now I am to be released from my sufferings
if you can pay twenty pounds for a hundred and three
score masses for me."
" Where's the money ? " says Paudyeen.
" Go and dig under a bush that's over a little well
in the corner of that field there without, and you'll get
a pot filled with gold. Pay the twenty pounds for the
masses, and yourself shall have the rest. When you'll
lift the flag off the pot, you'll see a big black dog coming
out ; but don't be afraid before him ; he is a son oi mine.
When you get the gold, buy the house in which you saw
me at first. You'll get it cheap, for it has the name of there
being a ghost in it. My son will be down in the cellar.
He'll do you no harm, but he'll be a good friend to you.
I shall be dead a month from this day, and when you get
me dead put a coal under this little hut and burn it.
Don't tell a living soul anything about me — and the luck
will be on you."
" What is your name ? " said Paudyeen.
" Maurya nee Keerwaun " (Mary Kerwan), said the
hag.
Paudyeen went home, and when the darkness of the
night came on he took with him a loy,* and went to the
bush that was in the corner of the field, and began
digging. It was not long till he found the pot, and
when he took the flag off it a big black dog leaped out,
and off and away with him, and Paudyeen's dog after
him.
Paudyeen brought home the gold, and hid it in the
* Narrow spade used all over Connacht,