There was a rich farmer’s daughter lived near the town of Ross; She courted a Highland soldier, his name was Johnny Hart; Says the mother to her daughter, “I’ll go distracted mad If you marry that Highland soldier dressed up in Highland plaid.” _Sergeant:_ Stop that noise. (_Man wraps up his ballads and shuffles towards the steps_) _Sergeant:_ Where are you going? _Man:_ Sure you told me to be going, and I am going. _Sergeant:_ Don’t be a fool. I didn’t tell you to go that way; I told you to go back to the town. _Man:_ Back to the town, is it? _Sergeant:_ (_Taking him by the shoulder and shoving him before him._) Here, I’ll show you the way. Be off with you. What are you stopping for? _Man:_ (_Who has been keeping his eye on the notice, points to it._) I think I know what you’re waiting for, sergeant. _Sergeant:_ What’s that to you? _Man:_ And I know well the man you’re waiting for—I know him well—I’ll be going. (_He shuffles on._) _Sergeant:_ You know him? Come back here. What sort is he? _Man:_ Come back is it, sergeant? Do you want to have me killed? _Sergeant:_ Why do you say that? _Man:_ Never mind. I’m going. I wouldn’t be in your shoes if the reward was ten times as much. (_Goes on off stage to left_). Not if it was ten times as much. _Sergeant:_ (_Rushing after him._) Come back here, come back. (_Drags him back._) What sort is he? Where did you see him? _Man:_ I saw him in my own place, in the County Clare. I tell you you wouldn’t like to be looking at him. You’d be afraid to be in the one place with him. There isn’t a weapon he doesn’t know the use of, and as to strength, his muscles are as hard as that board (_slaps barrel_). _Sergeant:_ Is he as bad as that? _Man:_ He is then. _Sergeant:_ Do you tell me so? _Man:_ There was a poor man in our place, a sergeant from Ballyvaughan.—It was with a lump of stone he did it. _Sergeant:_ I never heard of that. _Man:_ And you wouldn’t, sergeant. It’s not everything that happens gets into the papers. And there was a policeman in plain clothes, too.... It is in Limerick he was.... It was after the time of the attack on the police barrack at Kilmallock.... Moonlight ... just like this ... waterside.... Nothing was known for certain. _Sergeant:_ Do you say so? It’s a terrible county to belong to. _Man:_ That’s so, indeed! You might be standing there, looking out that way, thinking you saw him coming up this side of the quay (_points_), and he might be coming up this other side (_points_), and he’d be on you before you knew where you were. _Sergeant:_ It’s a whole troop of police they ought to put here to stop a man like that. _Man:_ But if you’d like me to stop with you, I could be looking down this side. I could be sitting up here on this barrel. _Sergeant:_ And you know him well, too? _Man:_ I’d know him a mile off, sergeant. _Sergeant:_ But you wouldn’t want to share the reward?