head. There was a fine big broad plot of moss at the top of the mountain, as dry as a feather-bed, and so soft that one would sink to the knees in it. He flung himself down on that plot, on his face, and I don't suppose there was another man on the dry land of Ireland that day so crushed and broken in mind as he.
After a while he raised his head and looked westward along the side of the mountain. He saw a woman coming from the west. He thought at first that she was some one of the neighbours who was going by the short cut over the mountain. Very soon he observed that she was making straight for the place where he was. He jumped up. Soon he recognized her. It was the barefooted woman!
"The peace of God be with you, Shiana!" said she
"I need that," said he, "if ever any man needed it."
"Look!" said she, opening one of her hands.
"That is the shilling that you gave me for the Saviour's sake."
"I remember it," said he. "Many is the shilling that has passed through my hands since then, and they are a poor consolation to me to-day. I should have more peace in my life if I had never seen them."
"Many is the good thing you have done with them, which you would not have done if you had never seen them," said she.
"Perhaps some evil has been done which would not have been done if I had never seen them," said he.
"The good is greater than the evil," said she.
