"Wait a moment, men," said Shiana. "Perhaps it might happen that I should be away from home to-morrow, and that I should not be back here in time to give you the week's wages. It is as well for you to take the money now. I do not think there is any danger of your not doing the work honestly." And he handed them the money.
As soon as they were gone, he went off up the hill. There was a cliff on the northern side of the hill; it used to be called the Ravens' Cliff. He went and sat on the top of that cliff. He was looking down upon the broken rocks that were at the bottom of the cliff below, and he was thinking in his mind what a shattering a man's bones would get if he were flung down. He left that place, and he went along the hill westward until he was on the top of another hill that was on the western side of the glen. The Dogs' Rock was the name of that hill. He went into a cave in that hill. "Diarmuid's Bed" was the name of the cave. There was another cave over against that one, called "Grania's Bed." He remained in the cave for a good while, thinking of all the beautiful Fenian stories he had ever heard, about Diarmuid and Grania, and Finn and the Fiana, and all their doings.
When it was nightfall he returned to the moss-plot and lay down in it. The weather was dry and the sky was clear. The moss was fine and dry and warm because the sun had been shining on the plot all day. The plot faced south, so that there was shelter in it from any breath of wind that there was from the north. He was lying on the moss-plot listening to the whispering and breathing of the gentle wind through the heather round him, while
