Stories of Red HanrahanYeats, W. B. (William Butler)
General
Stories of Red Hanrahan
Yeats, W. B. (William Butler)
Ireland -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
And all in a minute a hare made a leap out from between his hands, and
whether it was one of the cards that took that shape, or whether it was
made out of nothing in the palms of his hands, nobody knew, but there
it was running on the floor of the barn, as quick as any hare that ever
lived.
Some looked at the hare, but more kept their eyes on the old man, and
while they were looking at him a hound made a leap out between his
hands, the same way as the hare did, and after that another hound and
another, till there was a whole pack of them following the hare round
and round the barn.
The players were all standing up now, with their backs to the boards,
shrinking from the hounds, and nearly deafened with the noise of their
yelping, but as quick as the hounds were they could not overtake the
hare, but it went round, till at the last it seemed as if a blast of
wind burst open the barn door, and the hare doubled and made a leap over
the boards where the men had been playing, and went out of the door and
away through the night, and the hounds over the boards and through the
door after it.
Then the old man called out, 'Follow the hounds, follow the hounds, and
it is a great hunt you will see to-night,' and he went out after them.
But used as the men were to go hunting after hares, and ready as they
were for any sport, they were in dread to go out into the night, and
it was only Hanrahan that rose up and that said, 'I will follow, I will
follow on.'
'You had best stop here, Hanrahan,' the young man that was nearest him
said, 'for you might be going into some great danger.' But Hanrahan
said, 'I will see fair play, I will see fair play,' and he went
stumbling out of the door like a man in a dream, and the door shut after
him as he went.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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