_Mike McInerney:_ Who in the world wide is asking you to eat them? You’re as tricky as a fish in the full tide! _Michael Miskell:_ Tricky is it! Oh, my curse and the curse of the four and twenty men upon you! _Mike McInerney:_ That the worm may chew you from skin to marrow bone! (_Seizes his pillow._) _Michael Miskell:_ (_Seizing his own pillow._) I’ll leave my death on you, you scheming vagabone! _Mike McInerney:_ By cripes! I’ll pull out your pin feathers! (_Throwing pillow._) _Michael Miskell:_ (_Throwing pillow._) You tyrant! You big bully you! _Mike McInerney:_ (_Throwing pillow and seizing mug._) Take this so, you stobbing ruffian you! (_They throw all within their reach at one another, mugs, prayer books, pipes, etc._) _Curtain_ THE TRAVELLING MAN PERSONS _A Mother._ _A Child._ _A Travelling Man._ THE TRAVELLING MAN A MIRACLE PLAY _Scene: A cottage kitchen. A woman setting out a bowl and jug and board on the table for bread-making._ _Child:_ What is it you are going to make, mother? _Mother:_ I am going to make a grand cake with white flour. Seeds I will put in it. Maybe I’ll make a little cake for yourself too. You can be baking it in the little pot while the big one will be baking in the big pot. _Child:_ It is a pity daddy to be away at the fair on a Samhain night. _Mother:_ I must make my feast all the same, for Samhain night is more to me than to any other one. It was on this night seven years I first came into this house. _Child:_ You will be taking down those plates from the dresser so, those plates with flowers on them, and be putting them on the table. _Mother:_ I will. I will set out the house to-day, and bring down the best delf, and put whatever thing is best on the table, because of the great thing that happened me seven years ago. _Child:_ What great thing was that? _Mother:_ I was after being driven out of the house where I was a serving girl.... _Child:_ Where was that house? Tell me about it. _Mother:_ (_Sitting down and pointing southward._) It is over there I was living, in a farmer’s house up on Slieve Echtge, near to Slieve na n-Or, the Golden Mountain. _Child:_ The Golden Mountain! That must be a grand place. _Mother:_ Not very grand indeed, but bare and cold enough at that time of the year. Anyway, I was driven out a Samhain day like this, because of some things that were said against me. _Child:_ What did you do then? _Mother:_ What had I to do but to go walking the bare bog road through the rough hills where there was no shelter to find, and the sharp wind going through me, and the red mud heavy on my shoes. I came to Kilbecanty.... _Child:_ I know Kilbecanty. That is where the woman in the shop gave me sweets out of a bottle.