MEMORIES OF THE COUNTRY PEOPLE 95 



" Go back wesht till ye meet Naylan's public, 

 turn esht be the clump of trees, and wesht agen 

 at the third next cross-roads and make sthraight 

 on for the station." Then as an afterthought, 

 ** Ye will meet three cross-roads afterwards but 

 keep straight on." 



When you do meet the three cross-roads stretch- 

 ing greyly through the lonely stony country 

 none of them go straight on — and probably after 

 a mile jog through the dusk someone will tell you 

 blandly that " ye are asthray an' if ye do not hurry 

 on the thrain will be gone or ye, unless God'd 

 send she'd be delayed." 



Some people say that the Irish people are cruel 

 to animals. If they are it is without thought 

 that dumb beasts feel pain. 



I have seen a man who had beaten a poor little 

 donkey along unmercifully, tend a sick puppy aU 

 night, or rush off to cut a blackbird out of the 

 strawberry nets, tenderly, for fear he would ruffle 

 a feather. 



But the donkey was made to be beaten. It is a 

 beast of burden. Horses are meant to endure ; 

 they are " schamers " if they give up. 



Mr. Kough at Kilkenny, met a man coming 

 into the town, beating a thin donkey cruelly. 

 Mr. Kough was walking with a priest who promptly 

 stopped to remonstrate. 



" Shame, Martin Casey," he said, " beating 

 the poor beast like that ; don't you know it was 



