"They do say that the fairies haunt Lough Gara," her cousin answered.
"At night, when there's no one to see them, they gallop round and round
the lake, winding their hunting horns and following the fairy hounds
just as the ladies and gentlemen do at the meets on the big estate at
French Park."
Just then the boat touched the shore of the little island and there was
no more time to talk of fairies. Pretty Mary Hever and her brother John
were waiting for them under the trees, and every one was ready to help
in the merry fun of setting out the lunch.
The girls plaited wreaths of flowers and oak leaves, and crowned Bee
and Mary Ellen; John Hever found a spring of clear water and filled
the cups; and Bee set out the sandwiches and cheese and some of her
delicious cookies which were the best in all Tonroe.
"There'll be just time enough for the lunch before we go to Kingsland
for the sports," Patrick said, as he sat down on the grass between
Kathleen and Mary Ellen and began to help them to cookies the very
first thing.
"Be off with your joking," said Bee. "We can't hurry the picnic like
that. Half the fun of the lunch is the blarney that goes with it."
"Faith, John Hever will do the eating while we take care of the
blarney," replied her husband, laughing at the boy's first mouthful.
"Tell us about Donegal," Hannah Kelley said to Kathleen.
"There's nothing to tell," replied Kathleen. "There are just purple
mountains and rocky hills and bogs, and Mary Ellen and I had no one to
play with at all."
"You should see the great cliffs over at Horn Head," said Danny
proudly. "That's something to tell about! When there has been a storm,
the waves pound against them and the spray dashes up so that it is a
grand sight."
"I'm thinking it was up there that the giant used to step from cliff to
cliff when he was walking round the island to be sure everything was
all right for the night," said Bee, who seemed to know stories of all
the giants and fairies.
John Hever looked down at his own short legs with a sigh. "Sure, he
must have been a big giant," he said, "to walk around all Ireland every
night of his life."
"That he was," replied Patrick with a laugh. "Were you thinking you'd
catch up with him on his next round?"
"I was not," answered John, "but I'll soon be beating you in a race to
Dublin town."
"It's ten years and more since I played that game with fifty other boys
and girls; and that, too, around the policeman's legs in the streets
of Cork!" exclaimed Patrick. "But come on then, and we'll see how it
seems to go doubling among these tree-trunks."
He seized Bee's hand and they began singing "How many miles to Dublin
Town?" just as Kathleen and Mary Ellen had sung it so often in far
Donegal. But now there were many to join in the game, and one after
another the children caught hold of hands and ran in and out among the
trees, singing and shouting.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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