"'Tis you and I will buy a great dog to keep us company, and we'll go travelling together up north to listen to the waves beating around the Giant's Causeway, Molly darling," her father told her. But Danny had to give a month's warning to Farmer Flynn, and before the time was up, a letter had reached them from Tonroe. It said that Cousin Bee, Uncle Barney's daughter who had married a Donovan, would be glad to have Mary Ellen bide with her for a while, at her home in Roscommon County. "So you and the doggie must travel alone to the North," whispered Mary Ellen to her father. And that was the way of it. CHAPTER VIII COUSIN BEE'S FARM IN TONROE It was an April morning at Cousin Bee's little farm-house in Tonroe. The kettle was bubbling cheerfully over the burning peat in the fireplace; the cement floor of the kitchen was spotlessly clean; and Patrick, Bee's husband, was making the children feel quite at home as he talked with them about Donegal and laughed heartily over their little stories. Danny, Kathleen and Mary Ellen had arrived at the station with the two grandmothers the night before, and nothing would do but they must all leave the train together. "Sure, we've room and to spare for a strong lad like you," Patrick had told Danny; and Bee had said, "'Twould be a shame for Mary Ellen and Kathleen to be separated so sudden-like." So Uncle Barney took the two grandmothers home with him to Killaraght, while Danny and Kathleen went with Mary Ellen to visit Cousin Bee before going on with their journey,—Kathleen to Kilkenny, and Danny to Queenstown, where he was to take the steamer for America. [Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, New York COUSIN BEE'S FARMHOUSE IN TONROE Notice the thatched roof and the broad chimneys. _Page 47_] Their first morning in Tonroe opened bright and cheery, outside as well as in, and Kathleen was so excited over all the new sights that she could hardly wait to eat her breakfast. Of course everything had to be described to Mary Ellen, and Patrick's hearty laugh filled the kitchen when Kathleen told her sister that the village looked as if a giant had taken a great creel filled with houses, and dropped them from a high ladder to the plain below. "Kathleen never saw so many houses together before, till she went to Letterkenny yesterday to take the train away from Donegal," Danny explained. "Then she'll like to ride over to Boyle with Bee on market days," said Patrick kindly; "there's houses a-plenty there. But the plains of Boyle will look flat enough to her after the mountains of her own county." "Oh, Mary Ellen, come here!" cried Kathleen, who had gone to the back door for another look at the village. "There's a church steeple far away beyond a hilleen, and there's the fine National School building that Grandma Barry used to tell us about. It's on the little hill, and I can see it every time I look out at the door. But the mountains are far away. There's not one to be seen near by."