"So whin the babby was born they sent afther an owld struckawn av a widdy that set up for a wise woman, that knew no more o’ doctherin’ than a pig av Paradise, but they thought she could kape away the fairies, that’s a job that takes no ind av knowledge in thim that thries it. But the poor owld woman did the best she knew how, an’ so, God be good to her, she wasn’t to be blamed fur that, but it’s the likes av her that do shame thim that’s larned in such things, fur they make people think all wise wimmin as ignerant as hersilf. So she made the sign o’ the crass on the babby’s face wid ashes, an’ towld thim to bite aff its nails and not cut thim till nine weeks, an’ held a burnin’ candle afore its eyes, so it ’ud do the deeds av light an’ not av darkness, an’ mixed sugar an’ salt an’ oil, an’ give it to her, that her life ’ud be swate an’ long presarved an’ go smooth, but the owld widdy forgot wan thing. She didn’t put a lucky shamrock, that ’s got four leaves, in a gospel an’ tie it ’round the babby’s neck wid a t’read pulled out av her gown, an’ not mindin’ this, all the rest was no good at all. No more did she tell the mother not to take her eyes aff the child till the ninth day; afther that the fairies cud n’t take it. "So the nurse tuk the babby in the next room an’ laid it on the bed, an’ wint away for a minnit, but thinkin’ she heard it cry, back she come an’ there was the babby, bedclothes an’ all just goin’ through the flure, bein’ dhrawn be the fairies. The nurse scraiched an’ caught the clothes an’ the maid helped her, so that the two o’ thim pulled wid all their mights an’ got the bedclothes up agin, but while the child was out o’ sight, the fairies changed it an’ put a fairy child in its place, but the nurse didn’t know phat the fairies done, no more did the owld struckawn, that shows she was an ignerant woman entirely. But the fairies tuk Eva away undher the lake where they trated her beautiful. Every night they gev her a dance, wid the loveliest music that was iver heard, wid big drums an’ little drums, an’ fiddles an’ pipes an’ thrumpets, fur such a band the good people do have when they give a dance. "So she grew an’ the quane said she should have a husband among the fairies, but she fell in love wid an owld Leprechawn, an’ the quane, to sarcumvint her, let her walk on the shore o’ the lake where she met Darby O’Hoolighan an’ loved him an’ married him be the quane’s consint. The quane towld her to tell him if he shtruck her three blows widout a razon, she’d lave him an’ come back to the fairies. The quane gev her a power av riches, shape an’ pigs widout number an’ more oxen than ye cud count in a week. So she an’ Darby lived together as happy as two doves, an’ she hadn’t as much care as a blind piper’s dog, morebetoken, they had two boys, good lookin’ like their mother an’ shtrong as their father. [Illustration: Eva calling the Cattle]