Page:Beside the Fire - Douglas Hyde.djvu/111

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THE ALP-LUACHRA
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nothing of it, sat down at the fire and began warming himself.

"Where were you?" says the daughter to him.

"I was asleep a while," says he, "on the fresh grass in the field where they were making hay."

"What happened to you, then?" says she, "for you don't look well."

"Muirya,[1] musha, then," says he, "I don't know; but it's queer the feeling I have. I never was like it before; but I'll be better when I get a good sleep."

He went to his bed, lay down, and fell asleep, and never awoke until the sun was high. He rose up then and his wife said to him: "What was on you that you slept that long?"

"I don't know," says he.

He went down to the fire where the daughter was making a cake for the breakfast, and she said to him:

"How are you to-day, father; are you anything better?"

"I got a good sleep," said he, "but I'm not a taste better than I was last night; and indeed, if you'd believe me, I think there's something inside of me running back and forwards."

"Arrah, that can't be," says the daughter, "but it's a cold you got and you lying out on the fresh grass; and if you're not better in the evening we'll send for the doctor."

  1. "Oh, Mary," or "by Mary," an expression like the French "dame!"

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