BRIDGET. It is not her friends you have to go and welcome, Michael; it is the girl coming into the house you have to welcome. You have plenty to do, it is food and drink you have to bring to the house. The woman that is coming home is not coming with empty hands; you would not have an empty house before her. [_To the_ OLD WOMAN.] Maybe you don't know, ma'am, that my son is going to be married to-morrow. OLD WOMAN. It is not a man going to his marriage that I look to for help. PETER [_to_ BRIDGET]. Who is she, do you think, at all? BRIDGET. You did not tell us your name yet, ma'am. OLD WOMAN. Some call me the Poor Old Woman, and there are some that call me Cathleen, the daughter of Houlihan. PETER. I think I knew someone of that name once. Who was it, I wonder? It must have been someone I knew when I was a boy. No, no, I remember, I heard it in a song. OLD WOMAN [_who is standing in the doorway_]. They are wondering that there were songs made for me; there have been many songs made for me. I heard one on the wind this morning. [_She sings._] Do not make a great keening When the graves have been dug to-morrow. Do not call the white-scarfed riders To the burying that shall be to-morrow. Do not spread food to call strangers To the wakes that shall be to-morrow; Do not give money for prayers For the dead that shall die to-morrow ... they will have no need of prayers, they will have no need of prayers. MICHAEL. I do not know what that song means, but tell me something I can do for you. PETER. Come over to me, Michael. MICHAEL. Hush, father, listen to her. OLD WOMAN. It is a hard service they take that help me. Many that are red-cheeked now will be pale-cheeked; many that have been free to walk the hills and the bogs and the rushes will be sent to walk hard streets in far countries; many a good plan will be broken; many that have gathered money will not stay to spend it; many a child will be born, and there will be no father at its christening to give it a name. They that had red cheeks will have pale cheeks for my sake; and for all that, they will think they are well paid. [_She goes out; her voice is heard outside singing._] They shall be remembered for ever, They shall be alive for ever, They shall be speaking for ever, The people shall hear them for ever. BRIDGET [_to_ PETER]. Look at him, Peter; he has the look of a man that has got the touch. [_Raising her voice._] Look here, Michael, at the wedding-clothes. Such grand clothes as these are. You have a right to fit them on now; it would be a pity to-morrow if they did not fit. The boys would be laughing at you. Take them, Michael, and go into the room and fit them on. [_She puts them on his arm._] MICHAEL. What wedding are you talking of? What clothes will I be wearing to-morrow? BRIDGET. These are the clothes you are going to wear when you marry Delia Cahel to-morrow. MICHAEL. I had forgotten that.