When I went by Kilcluan where the bells used to be ringing at the break of every day, I could hear nothing but the people snoring in their houses. When I went by Tubbervanach, where the young men used to be climbing the hill to the blessed well, they were sitting at the crossroads playing cards. When I went by Carrigoras, where the friars used to be fasting and serving the poor, I saw them drinking wine and obeying their wives. And when I asked what misfortune had brought all these changes, they said it was no misfortune, but it was the wisdom they had learned from your teaching. WISE MAN. Run round to the kitchen, and my wife will give you something to eat. FOOL. That is foolish advice for a wise man to give. WISE MAN. Why, Fool? FOOL. What is eaten is gone. I want pennies for my bag. I must buy bacon in the shops, and nuts in the market, and strong drink for the time when the sun is weak. And I want snares to catch the rabbits and the squirrels and the hares, and a pot to cook them in. WISE MAN. Go away. I have other things to think of now than giving you pennies. FOOL. Give me a penny and I will bring you luck. Bresal the Fisherman lets me sleep among the nets in his loft in the winter-time because he says I bring him luck; and in the summer-time the wild creatures let me sleep near their nests and their holes. It is lucky even to look at me or to touch me, but it is much more lucky to give me a penny. [_Holds out his hand._] If I wasn’t lucky, I’d starve. WISE MAN. What have you got the shears for? FOOL. I won’t tell you. If I told you, you would drive them away. WISE MAN. Whom would I drive away? FOOL. I won’t tell you. WISE MAN. Not if I give you a penny? FOOL. No. WISE MAN. Not if I give you two pennies? FOOL. You will be very lucky if you give me two pennies, but I won’t tell you! WISE MAN. Three pennies? FOOL. Four, and I will tell you! WISE MAN. Very well, four. But I will not call you Teig the Fool any longer. FOOL. Let me come close to you where nobody will hear me. But first you must promise you will not drive them away. [_WISE MAN nods._] Every day men go out dressed in black and spread great black nets over the hills, great black nets. WISE MAN. Why do they do that? FOOL. That they may catch the feet of the angels. But every morning, just before the dawn, I go out and cut the nets with my shears, and the angels fly away. WISE MAN. Ah, now I know that you are Teig the Fool. You have told me that I am wise, and I have never seen an angel. FOOL. I have seen plenty of angels. WISE MAN. Do you bring luck to the angels too? FOOL. Oh, no, no! No one could do that. But they are always there if one looks about one; they are like the blades of grass. WISE MAN. When do you see them? FOOL. When one gets quiet, then something wakes up inside one, something happy and quiet like the stars—not like the seven that move, but like the fixed stars. [_He points upward._ WISE MAN.