that led to it was like a running river. I picked my way from one large stone to another. I crawled along through deep mud beside the wall. Norah Kate, barefooted and therefore indifferent, splashed gaily beside me. Boots and trousers are a curse! If we had any sense we should wear kilts, as our remote ancestors did, and protect the soles of our feet with sandals.
The yard outside the house was incredibly filthy. The manure heap and the pigsty had—if the expression can be used of them—overflowed their banks. The thatch of the house was sodden and stained green in great patches. I expected to see worse desolation inside.
I was mistaken. Mrs. Cassidy met me at the door. She was bright-eyed and alert. She wore a clean apron. A bright turf fire burned on the hearth. There were sprigs of holly on the shelves of the dresser.
"You've had news of Sonny!" I said.
"Well, now, you're a wonderful man, so you are!" said Mrs. Cassidy. "How did you know that, when it's no more than an hour ago that the letter came?"
"It wasn't hard to guess," I said. "A merry Christmas to you, Mrs. Cassidy!"
"I was sitting by the side of the fire," she said, "after himself and the two little girleens had their breakfast ate, the same as I'd sat many's the day—God forgive me! I see now that I oughtn't ever
