2o6 DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 



walls spoke of failures; but, in the main, we were 

 among a happy people that seemingly multiplied 

 apace. Labourers of both sexes were busy making 

 hay, or carr^'ing it, and had happy faces at their work ; 

 while colleens with huge bundles of it upon their 

 heads, bundles that had hanging wisps that fell below 

 their knees, showed us their laughing eyes from peep- 

 holes in their burdens. Men and women in age much 

 beyond the allotted span were here capable of work 

 and worked, while barefooted little lads and lasses, 

 well fed and with rosy cheeks, tossed hay and capered 

 joyously. 



Riding on a car over roads somewhat rough, high 

 •ap above the sea, and free from sheltering hedges, 

 had given us appetites that called for some attention, 

 so we asked for a halt where we could get milk to take 

 with our lunch. We drew up in front of a superior 

 cabin that was much longer and had more windows 

 than most of those we had passed, and, as we did so, 

 the door was opened by a woman much above the 

 average height, of middle age, and with a pleasant 

 face. I asked if she would be so kind as to give us 

 some milk. To this she smihngly replied, 'If yer 

 honours vnU. plaise come inside and take saites it's 

 milk in plenty you shall have/ 



Irish cabins are not infrequently in the joint occu- 

 pancy of a mmierous family and animals in great 

 variety, but the one we entered had for its only 

 occupants the woman and two children that shyly 

 peeped at us. As we entered, she made a show of 

 dusting chairs for us, and then disappeared, returning 

 with a glass jug of milk which she placed upon a plain 

 deal table just the colour of the milk that by its tinge 

 of yellow showed the cream was there. Having thanked 

 her, I expressed a hope that the fine weather we were 

 ha\ing was good for the harvest, and, in reply to this, 

 she said, 'That is so. Shure the good man and the 

 bhoys are about the hay now.* 



