36 WHAT I HAVE SEEN WHILE FISHING 



playfully with substantial sticks, would pass us at 

 a swinging pace, to be followed by maidens, 

 numerous and varied, who, with feet freed from 

 leatherdom, were making strides that would soon 

 bring them to a sight of the town, where a halt is 

 called, boots and shoes put on, and the little tiddy- 

 vatings done that will enable them to enter Killy- 

 begs itself in all the glory of the much-thought-of, 

 pretty and becoming outfits, the colours of which 

 blend so charmingly with the bloom on their cheeks, 

 enhanced, no doubt, by thoughts of the fair. The 

 long line of wayfarers ended in the late and lonely 

 individuals whose slow gait was generally accounted 

 for by the burdens which they bore. Strange, 

 indeed, and yet of set purpose, was the lateness 

 in the coming of two, whose means of transit and 

 the lightness of their load justified no such tardiness. 

 On turning a sharp bend in the road we came 

 face to face with an elderly couple, whose satis- 

 fied looks and speech betokened a confidence that 

 Killybegs Fair, or, at any rate, its most important 

 part, had to await their coming. I inquired of 

 the man if it was his handsome wife that he would 

 sell, and, if so, whom could he hope to find with 

 wealth enough to pay her price. My words were 

 taken in earnest, and there was almost a look of 

 kill in the old man's face as he drew himself up, as 

 a singer does in preparation for his highest note : 



" Sorr, divil a man lives on this earth that shall 

 buy a kiss of her." 



