"I'll see what kind of a shepherd lass she will make, come shearing-time," said Uncle Barney, who had come over from Killaraght to get Danny to help him. "We'll need some one to keep the sheep from straying away after they have been washed." So Kathleen was watching the sheep for her uncle, and talking over the Saturday market with her sister. "Sure, I thought Bee's little pig would squeal himself black in the face before she got him sold," said Mary Ellen. "I mind Bee did better with her little pig than Patrick did with his big heifer," Kathleen replied with a laugh. "Why?" asked Mary Ellen. "Hasn't Patrick been trying to sell his heifer to Tim Keefe ever since we came to Tonroe?" Kathleen answered. "Faith, he only finished the bargain last Saturday; and it was Uncle Barney that brought it about then, else they'd still be a-higgling." "What's this you are saying?" asked Patrick, who was selecting another sheep to shear. "We're saying that Bee makes a better bargain than you," Kathleen told him. "How's that?" he asked. "She got half as much for her pig as you did for the heifer, and the heifer was costing her feed all the four weeks you were making the bargain." Patrick threw back his head with a great laugh. "Here's the child for you," he called to Uncle Barney. "She says I was feeding the heifer for Tim Keefe for four weeks and getting nothing for it." "Tim Keefe is a young spalpeen," said Uncle Barney. "I'd give a pound myself to see somebody get the better of him. It is what nobody ever did yet," and he smiled down into Kathleen's gray eyes. He forgot his words the next minute, but Kathleen remembered them, even after the sheep-shearing was over and the turf-cutting had begun in the bog. Bog-land is found in almost every part of Ireland; but much of it is dangerous for travel, and all of it has to be drained before the peat can be cut. Causeways lead to the parts that are drained, but there are many deep pools of swampy water in the bogs, which are filled with tufts of spongy moss and slimy tree trunks. [Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, New York CUTTING BRICKS OF PEAT AND STACKING THEM UP TO DRY _Page 67_] The turf is cut out in blocks by a man who uses a long-handled spade. He tosses the blocks to his helper who stands waiting for them, and who carries them to a barrow or creel. When the barrow is filled it is wheeled away to higher ground where the blocks of turf are stacked up and dried in the sun and wind. Kathleen begged to be Danny's helper, and on the morning when he began cutting in the bog she stood beside him. As fast as he filled her arms with the peat she trudged sturdily away and stacked it up to dry, just as Patrick had taught her. As she stood waiting for her twentieth load she asked, "How long will it take for this turf to be dry enough to carry home and stack under the shed?"