J. F. Campbell Collection > Fireside stories of Ireland

78 THE FIRESIDE STORIES OF IRELAND.
The next day three heifers were missing, and the mas-
ter bade Jack go in search of them. " Where mil I look
for them 1 " said Shan. " Oh, every place likely and un-
likely for them aU to be in." The bodach was getting
very exact in his words. When he was coming into the
bawn at dinner-time, what work did he find Jack at but
pulling armfulls of the thatch off the roof, and peeping into
the lioles he was making ? " What are you doing there,
you rascal ?" '' Sure, I'm looking for the heifers, poor
thmgs !'' " What would bring them there V " I don't
think anything could bring them in it ; but I looked first
into the likely places, that is, the cow-houses, and the pas-
tures, and the fields next 'em, and now I'm looking in the
unlikeliest place I can think of. Maybe it's not pleasing
to you it is." " And to be sure it isn't pleasing to me,
you aggravating googein [goosecap] !" " Please sir, hand
me one pound thirteen and four pence before you sit down
to your dinner. I'm afraid it's sorrow that's on you for
hiring me at all." "May the div— oh no ; I'm not sorry.
Will you begin if you please, and put in the thatch again.
Just as if you were doing it for your mother's cabin?" "Oh,
faith I will, sir, with a heart and a half;" and by the time
the farmer came out from his dinner, Shan had the roof
better than it was before, for he made the boy give him new
straw.
Says the master when he came out, " Go, Shan, and
look for the heifers, and bring them home." " And where
will I look for 'em f " Go and search for them as if they
were your own.'^ The heifers were all in the paddock
before sunset.
:S'ext morning, says the bodach, " Jack, the path across
the bog to the pasture is very bad; the sheep does be
sinking m it every step ; go and make jt a good path with
.^tnejheep^Jeet." About an hour after he came to fEe
^(3geof the bog, and what did he find Shan at but sharpen-
ing a carving knife, and the sheep standing or grazing round.
" Is this the way you are mending the path, Shan ?" said
he. "Everything must have a beginning, master," said
Shan, " and a thing well begun is half done. I am sharpen-
ing the knife, and Til have the feet off every sheep in the