_Mother:_ Did ever anyone see the like of that! A common beggar, a travelling man off the roads, to be holding the child! To be leaving his ragged arms about him as if he was of his own sort! Get out of that, whoever you are, and quit this house or I’ll call to some that will make you quit it. _Child:_ Do not send him out! He is not a bad man; he is a good man; he was playing horses with me. He has grand songs. _Mother:_ Let him get away out of this now, himself and his share of songs. Look at the way he has your bib destroyed that I was after washing in the morning! _Child:_ He was holding me on the horse. We were riding, I might have fallen. He held me. _Mother:_ I give you my word you are done now with riding horses. Let him go on his road. I have no time to be cleaning the place after the like of him. _Child:_ He is tired. Let him stop here till evening. _Travelling Man:_ Let me rest here for a while, I have been travelling a long way. _Mother:_ Where did you come from to-day? _Travelling Man:_ I came over Slieve Echtge from Slieve na n-Or. I had no house to stop in. I walked the long bog road, the wind was going through me, there was no shelter to be got, the red mud of the road was heavy on my feet. I got no welcome in the villages, and so I came on to this place, to the rising of the river at Ballylee. _Mother:_ It is best for you to go on to the town. It is not far for you to go. We will maybe have company coming in here. (_She pours out flour into a bowl and begins mixing._) _Travelling Man:_ Will you give me a bit of that dough to bring with me? I have gone a long time fasting. _Mother:_ It is not often in the year I make bread like this. There are a few cold potatoes on the dresser, are they not good enough for you? There is many a one would be glad to get them. _Travelling Man:_ Whatever you will give me, I will take it. _Mother:_ (_Going to the dresser for the potatoes and looking at the shelves._) What in the earthly world has happened all the delf? Where are the jugs gone and the plates? They were all in it when I went out a while ago. _Child:_ (_Hanging his head._) We were making a garden with them. We were making that garden there in the corner. _Mother:_ Is that what you were doing after I bidding you to sit still and to keep yourself quiet? It is to tie you in the chair I will another time! My grand jugs! (_She picks them up and wipes them._) My plates that I bought the first time I ever went marketing into Gort. The best in the shop they were. (_One slips from her hand and breaks._) Look at that now, look what you are after doing. (_She gives a slap at the child._) _Travelling Man:_ Do not blame the child. It was I myself took them down from the dresser.