i hope i haven t been keeping your reverence waiting for i had to stop to listen to mrs m and she telling me that that was is gone to america after shutting the door on her husband last night because he was drunk what s this you re telling me m hale if your reverence will listen to me i m listening to you t i always listening to you go on with your story at last all the facts seemed clear and he said i made up this marriage so that she t go away with pat well we ve been saved that said ned s marriage was bad enough but this is worse tis no marriage at all ah your reverence you mustn t be taking it to heart for if the marriage didn t turn out all right it was the drink ah the drink � the drink said the priest and he declared that the and the were the ruin of ireland that s true for yon at the same time we t forget they have pot up many a fine church a cloud came into the priest s face for his brother was a and had promised a large now what are you going to give me to make the walls safe i don t want you all to be killed while i am away there s no fear of that your reverence a church never fell down on anyone even so if it falls down when nobody s in it where are the people to hear mass ah won t they be going down to hear mass at father s if you don t wish to give anything say so your reverence ain t i we don t want to hear about that window and began to fear she would have to give him a few pounds to quiet him but fortunately pat came up the road and turning from the priest said i hear you were dancing with � she that went away to america this morning have you heard that i have your reverence she passed me on the road this morning and you weren t thinking you might stop her stop her said pat t she be asking me to sin with her if i did and now your mother writes to me pat to ask if i will get s daughter for you i see your reverence has private business with pat ill be going said now m hale don t jou be going but pretended not to hear him will i be running after her said pat and bringing her back no let her go if she doesn t want to help to make the walls safe i m not going to go on my knees to her you ll have to walk to father s to hear mass have yon heard mother say what she s going to give towards the new church pat i think she said your reverence she was going to send you ten pounds that s very good of her and this proof that a public and religious spirit was not yet dead in his parish softened the priest s temper and thinking to please him and perhaps escape a scolding pat began to calculate how much had saved she must be worth i m thinking close on one hundred pounds to day as the priest did not answer he said i wouldn t be surprised if she was worth another fifty hardly as much as that said the priest hadn t her aunt the house we re living in before mother came to and it full of all the summer it s true her aunt kept her working for nothing but when she died she left her one hundred pounds and she s been making money ever since her poultry you re thinking of said the priest they re the best in the county and the thought of s accident crossed his mind � how one day when carrying an heavy tray she had slipped on the stairs and for two years afterwards was on her back saying she d never do a hand s turn but be looking out of the window ever afterwards yet it was while looking out of the window that the thought of poultry had been put into her mind seeing the fowls in the yard she had said to herself now if it be the will of t ood for me to get about again see what i can do with chickens and if i do well with them i ll do something for him afterwards it was herself that had dropped these words to the priest and he remembered her as she them � the pathetic eyes of the is perhaps too strong a word but her shoulders were higher than shoulders usually are she was jerked forward from the waist and by her side hung the long thin arms of the it was god s will she said that i should mend � � before my accident there wasn t a girl in the village that could keep ahead of me when we went a light came into her we used to run all over the hills was all she said but she stood at lost in of the country underneath the hills the plain lost in blue and on either side the blue sea foam over the rocks of i was the only one of the girls that could keep up with the boys but after her accident she was no good for anything except fowls the priest threw his eye over pat and wondered if he d ever be able to make a steady fellow of him now that was out of the country she was better in america and by her flight made in a measure for her conduct towards peter we ll go to mrs m i shall want to 