SOME IRISH CUSTOMS 219 



" A fine cannisther of a girl," I heard a farmer 

 say of a big girl who came to hunt here. The same 

 lady whom I heard objected to for wearing a man's 

 spur and only ticklin' the poor horse on one side. 



I heard my groom describing a thoroughly plea- 

 sant party to one of his friends. 



" The grandest and quietest ever you saw," he 

 said, "great atin' an' drinkin' an' not so much as 

 a * you lie ' passed for the evenin'." 



A curious belated romance, if romance there 

 ever can be among the peasantry, happened here 

 near Lough Gur and the ending was due to the 

 agent. 



Tom Doolan then had been promised to a MolUe 

 Dayly, everything was arranged, but Tom wanted 

 his old mother to live with them, and MoUie could 

 not move without hers, so they quarrelled and 

 parted. 



Neither married — Tom grew old and grey and 

 Mollie old and fat. The mothers died and the 

 old cabins were pulled down, and the one-time 

 lovers found themselves installed in two labourers' 

 cottages opposite each other. 



Tom shuffled out each morning to work ; he 

 was weary and rheumatic, his clothes patched. 

 An old cousin of his late mother housekeeping 

 for him, and robbing him. 



Mollie had saved money and only went out twice 

 a day to milk. 



They would pass each other on the road scorn- 



