J. F. Campbell Collection > Fireside stories of Ireland

120 THE FIRESIDE STORIES OP IRELAND.
ghost of the cheese was there. He rode up the hill, and
looked in the dykes for his cheese, but, 'deed, he returned
home hungry and dry, and he had neither the cheese nor
the value of it.
Well, they were blaming him, sure enough, till he began
to think he hadn't done a very wise thing after all. "And
what would you do if you were in my place V said he co
one of his brothers. ' ' Well, I think I'd go and buy anotb er
cheese thq. same size and roll it down, and ride after it and
see where it would go." " That's not a bad thought," says
another, " but if it happened to me I think I'd sit at the
market-cross till I'd hear the bell-man crying out where it
was to be got, for it's very likely some honest person found
it." " But," says the last, " I think I'd pay Browzy [the
once bellman of Enniscorthy] a thirteen to cry it, and offer
half of it for reward. For didn't yez all often hear, " Half
a loaf is better than no bread V
!N"ext market day another of the brothers went to sell
another cheese, and he determined he'd be very cunning if
any mischance happened him. Well, just at the very same
place he dropped his cheese too. It didn't roll, for it came
down in a car-track. This second wise man pulled out his
sword, and made a prod at it to lift it up, but it was too
short, and if it was long enough itself, it was too blunt at
the end. So he rode into the town, and bought a long
sword with a sharp point at the cutler's, and rode back
again.
His cheese wasn't there, nor half way down the hill, nor
at the bottom of the hill. He recollected what was said at
home, and sat at the market cross till sunset to see if the
honest finder would cry it. Then he paid his thirteen to
the bellman, offering half the cheese to the finder for re-
ward. But the poor man had the dark night round him
coming home, and no great welcome when he got there, for
he had neither the cheese nor its value no more than his
brother.
The four brothers cared for no one's company but their
own, and they all lived together. But a neighbour who
had a few marriageable daughters said so much about what
a shame it was for none of them to have a wife, that a