"There are 'Kils,' too," said Mary Ellen. "Kathleen found them in our
old geography, and Father made a little verse about them. He says that
'Kil' means church, and that St. Patrick built some of the churches. I
don't remember the verse, though. Do you, Kathleen?"
"That I do," said her sister, and she sang to an odd little tune:
"Of 'Killys' and 'Kils' there are many.
There's Kildare and Kilmaine and Kilkenny,
Killybegs, Kullashee,
Killimore, Killyleagh,
Kilworth and Kilcock and Kilkelly."
"Good enough," said Patrick, clapping his hands and laughing so
heartily that everyone else laughed.
"There are dozens of 'ballys,' too," said Mary Ellen, when the laughter
was over. "Kathleen made a list of them, and Father said they would
make a whole string of verses, but he didn't get time for it yet.
'Bally means town,' he said."
"Did the chiefs ever have any sports besides hunting?" asked Danny,
who was fond of sports and had tried many a running race with the boys
at Farmer Flynn's.
"To be sure," Patrick replied. "Over in Leinster they held a great fair
once in every three years, and they had games and chariot races and
horse races. People went to the fair from miles around, and the harpers
and story-tellers always planned their wanderings so as to be there for
the three days."
"It must have been something like market day," said Kathleen, who could
not forget the crowd she saw at the Letterkenny market.
"There was marketing, too," said Patrick. "It wouldn't be Ireland
without marketing. There was selling and buying of horses, sheep, and
pigs, and all sorts of hand-made gold and bronze ornaments. The country
was famous for her hand-crafts then; and she will be so again some day,
praise be!"
"There couldn't have been such pig markets as the one we saw
yesterday," said Danny, laughing at the thought of the hundreds of
squealing pigs in the Letterkenny streets.
"I don't know about that," said Bee. "It took them two years to get
ready for the Leinster fairs, and we go to market in Boyle twice a
week."
"I should be on my way there now, instead of sitting here talking as
if I'd nothing to do," said Patrick. "I want to see Tim Keefe about
buying the heifer come Saturday. Have you any eggs to send, Bridget
mavourneen? And will you go with me, Danny, my boy?"
Danny went out to help Patrick harness the mule, Mary Ellen held the
creel while Kathleen counted out five score of eggs, and Bee packed ten
pounds of beautiful, golden butter into the market basket.
"There, Patrick avic," she said, as she followed him to the barn and
put the basket into the trap, "bring me back a good bit of silver for
my work, and a ribbon apiece for the children. I'll have them watching
for you when you come home."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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