J. F. Campbell Collection > Fireside stories of Ireland

40 THE FIRESIDE STORIES OF IRELAND.
distance, and just beyond it tlie third corpse was hanging,
" Oh, niiirdher ! " said he ; " I'm beside myseK. What
Avould bring three hung men so near one another 1 I
must be mad. I'll go back and see if the others are there
still."
He tied the wether to a sapling, and back he went. But
when he was round the bend, down came the corpse, and
loosened the wether, and drove it home through the wood
to the robbers' house. You all may think how the poor
farmer felt when he could find no one dead or alive going
or comiug, nor his wether, nor the rope that fastened him.
" Oh, niisfortunate day ! " cried he, " what'll Shevaun say
to me now ? my morning gone, and the goat and wether
lost ! I must sell something to make the price of the shawl.
Well, the fat bullock is in the nearest field. She won't
see me taking it."
Well, if the robbers were not surprised when Jack came
into the bawn with the wether. " If you do auother trick
like this," said the captain, " Til resign the command to
you."
They soon saw the farmer going by again, driving a fat
bullock this time. " Who'll bring that fat bullock here,"
says Jack, " and use no violence 1" " I could'nt," says one
and " I couldn't," says another. " I'll try," says Jack, and
into the wood with him. The farmer was about the spot
where he saw the first brogue, when he heaid the bleating
of a goat off at his right in the wood.
He cocked his ears, and the next thing he heard was the
maaing of a sheep. " Blood alive !" says he, " maybe these
are my own that I lost." There was more bleating and
more maaing. " There they are as sure as a gun," says he,
and he tied his bullock to a sapling that grew in the hedge,
and into the wood with him. When he got near the place
where the cries came from, he heard them a little before him
and on he followed them. At last, when he was about half
a mile from the spot Avhere he tied the beast, the cries
stopped altogether. After searching and searching till he
was tired, he returned for his bullock ; but there wasn't the
ghost of a bullock there nor any where else that he searched.
This time, when the thieves saw Jack and his prize com-