_Nally:_ It was Mr. Nestor gave them to me. _Mrs. Broderick:_ Do you hear what he says, Joseph Nestor? What call have you to be giving a present of my bird? _Nestor:_ And wasn’t I after buying it from you? _Mrs. Broderick:_ If you were it was not for yourself you bought it, but for the poor man in South Africa you bought it, and you defrauding him now, giving it away to a man has no claim to it at all. Well, now, isn’t it hard for any man to find a person he can trust? _Nestor:_ Didn’t you hear me saying I bought it for no person at all? _Mrs. Broderick:_ Give it up now, Tommy Nally, or I’ll have you in gaol on the head of it. _Nally:_ Oh, you wouldn’t do such a thing, ma’am, I am sure! _Mrs. Broderick:_ Indeed and I will, and have you on the treadmill for a thief. _Nally:_ Oh, oh, oh, look now, Mr. Nestor, the way you have made me a thief and to be lodged in the gaol! _Nestor:_ I wish to God you were lodged in it, and we would have less annoyance in this place! _Nally:_ Oh, that is a terrible thing for you to be saying! Sure the poorhouse itself is better than the gaol! The nuns preparing you for heaven and the Mass every morning of your life.... _Nestor:_ If you go on with your talk and your arguments it’s to gaol you will surely go. _Nally:_ Milk of a Wednesday and a Friday, the potatoes steamed very good.... It’s the skins of the potatoes they were telling me you do have to be eating in the gaol. It is what I am thinking, Mr. Nestor, that bird will lie heavy on you at the last! _Nestor:_ (_Seizing cage and letting the bird out of the door._) Bad cess and a bad end to it, and that I may never see it or hear of it again! _Mrs. Broderick:_ Look what he is after doing! Get it back for me! Give it here into my hands I say! Why wouldn’t I sell it secondly to the buyer and he to be coming to the door? It is in my own pocket I will keep the price of it that time! _Nally:_ It would have been as good you to have left it with me as to be sending itself and the worth of it up into the skies! _Mrs. Broderick:_ (_Taking Nestor’s arm._) Get it back for me I tell you! There it is above in the ash tree, and it flapping its wings on a bough! _Nestor:_ Give me the cage, if that will content you, and I will strive to entice it to come in. _Cooney:_ (_Coming in._) Everyone running this way and that way. It is for birds they are looking sure enough. Why now would they go through such hardship if there was not a demand in some place? _Nestor:_ (_Pushing him away._) Let me go now before that bird will quit the branch where it is. _Cooney:_ (_Seizing hold of him._) Is it striving to catch a bird for yourself you are now? _Nestor:_ Let me pass if you please. I have nothing to say to you at all. _Cooney:_ Laying down to me they were worth nothing! I knew well you had made up some plan! The grand adviser is it! It is to yourself you gave good advice that time!