When Patrick thought they had had enough of the game he led them all down to the boat and pushed off for the sports at the Kingsland shore. Never before, Kathleen thought, had so many things happened in one day. There were bicycle-races, hurdle-races, foot-races, sack-races and a tug-of-war. There was leaping, and jumping, and running, and it seemed as if Danny was in everything. Such shouting and cheering she had never even dreamed of! And when Danny won the long-distance run, she found herself jumping up and down and shouting as loudly as any one. "I could have won that first dash, too, if Tim Keefe hadn't stolen the start," said Danny wrathfully, as he brought up his prize to show to his cousins. "The prize for that race was a mirror, anyway," said Patrick consolingly, "and you've little use for one now. But as for Tim Keefe, with his old pipe in his mouth, he needs it to see himself for a spalpeen." After the fun was all over they went home together across the fields, filling their arms with great branches of the pink and white hawthorn blossoms; but at the boreen they had to start running, for a sudden shower fell to drive them into the house the quicker. Just as the children were going off to bed that night, Kathleen went softly up to Bee and put her arm shyly around her cousin's plump waist. "It's thankful I am to you and Patrick for the happy day," she whispered. Bee gave her a good hug and a hearty kiss as she answered, "'Tis you and little Mary Ellen that make all the days happy for me." CHAPTER X A BANK OF TURF "Mary Ellen, dear, did you ever think it would be so fine to live out of Donegal?" "No," answered the little sister, "I've been thinking of the market ever since Saturday; and yesterday was the walk to Lough Gara again, and to-day is the sheep-shearing. Belike by Friday they will begin to cut the turf. It is better than Donegal, even if Father is not with us." "Oh, Mary Ellen, I doubt they'll begin cutting out peat on a Friday. It will bring them bad luck." "Perhaps they will begin on Thursday, then," suggested her sister. "Is there any ill luck in that day?" It was a beautiful morning toward the end of May, and the two little girls were watching the shearing of the sheep at Uncle Barney's farm. More than a hundred bleating sheep and lambs were collected near the house, where they were guarded by a trained shepherd dog and watched over by Kathleen. "Kathleen is the colleen that's good at everything," Patrick said one day after the picnic at Lough Gara. "She'll milk a cow as well as ever her great-grandmother Connell did. She's got the firm hand for it, and the sweet voice." "She can bake as fine a loaf of bread as I can, and that is saying a good deal, too," said Bee proudly.