Page:The Land of Wonders - O Conaire.pdf/20

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14
THE LAND OF WONDERS

attention to them, however, but looked out for the cabin-boy. When he caught sight of her he winked at her. Her mind was relieved.

At last they were safe. They had passed the roadstead and the lighthouse; the big white sails were hoisted and they were sailing out of Galway Bay before a good wind. The wind was north-east and soon they passed the Black Head and early in the night they sped past the Aran Islands and sailed south under white canvas and by the light of a new moon.

And so, my friends, that is how the Brideog left Galway Harbour on Friday, the 13th of November, in the year 1851.


IV.

When the Captain had seen to everything and given his orders he went asleep. Not so his wife. When she saw that he was asleep, she got up and dashed up the companion-way with the same eager haste as in the morning when she was going to the draper's. She was longing to see the two pets. She did not stop until she reached the ship-boy's cabin. The boy was there, and her little children were there too, fast asleep, with the Burla's little arms around his sister's neck.

She took up the Burla and Maire Bán, carried them to the captain's cabin, and put them into