J. F. Campbell Collection > Fireside stories of Ireland

l6 THE FIRESIDE STORIES OF IRELAND.
to his mother any longer, bnt go and look for service.
Well, the poor mother gave him her best blessing, and he
began to make the road short. He walked all day till
the heel of the evening, and then he took up at a farmer's
house where he got his supper and a bed. All the talk of
the family, the whole evening, was about outwitting people
in making bargains, and how every one chuckled while he
was telling how he passed off an old useless horse for a
young one, or got a good price for a regular fowler of a pig.
And the women were as bad as the men, boasting of how
they cheated customers by passing off layers of bad butter
under the good, and selling musty eggs for fresh, and I
don't know all. The very old couple laughed at the chil-
dren telling how they won pins and buttons by cheatery at
pitch and toss and such games. Jack wondered at the sort
of people he got among, but he was in no danger of falling
in love with their ways.
Well, as roguish as they appeared, they were not without
good nature. They gave him a good supper of potatoes,
milk, and butter, and the only harm I wish King George
is, that he may never have worse. They gave him a quarter
of a barley griddle-cake next day, and he continued his
quest. Late in the evening he came out on a common that
had in the middle of it a rock or a great pile of stones
overgrown with furze bushes, and, when he came up, there
was a dwelling-house, and a cow-house, and a goat's-house,
and a pig-stye all scooped out of the rock, and the cows
were going into the byre, and the goats into their house,
but the pigs were grunting and bawling before the door.
There was a comely old w^oman leaning over the half-
door, scolding the pigs for being so impatient. Jack bade
her the time of the evening, and she gave him back his
good manners, and said if he wished to rest for the night
he was Avelcome. There was nothing Jack liked better.
So he got a good supper, and an offer to give him good
wages if he stopped to mind her live stock, and the little
plot of potatoes and corn that was sown.
So he agreed to try a quarter, and never was a quarter
spent pleasanter. He looked after the puckawn and his
twelve goats, the ram and sheep, and the black cattle,