to me there is a poultry lecture at the to night do yon think you could bring your sister with you we did use to keep a great many at home and had the feeding of them and now she s turned them and she wants to live in town and she even tells pat she would not marry a farmer however much he was worth but if you tell her that pat will be at the lecture will she come yes your reverence if she believes me then do as i bid you said the priest you can tell her that pat will be there chap ii after leaving the priest ned crossed over the road to avoid the public house and went for a walk on the hills it was about � ye when he turned towards the village on his way there he met his father and ned told him that he had been to see the priest and that he was going to take mary to the lecture they re quarrelling at home michael was very tired and he thought it was pretty hard to come home after a long day s work to find his wife and daughter quarrelling i am sorry your dinner isn t ready father said but it won t be long now i ll cut the bacon i met ned on the road her father answered it s sorry i am that he has gone to fetch mary he s going to take her to the lecture on poultry keeping at the ah he has been to the priest has he said and her mother asked her why she said that and the began again ned was the there was generally quiet in the cabin when he was there and he dropped in as michael was finishing his dinner bringing with him mary a small fair girl who everybody said would keep his cabin tidy his mother and sisters were broad shouldered women with blue black hair and red cheeks and it was said that he had said he would like to bring a little fair hair in the we ve just looked in for a minute said mary ned said that perhaps you d be coming with us all the boys in the village will be there to night said ned you had better come with us and pretending he wanted to get a coal of fire to light his pipe ned whispered to as he passed her pat will be there she looked at the striped � he had brought back from the s � she had once been to a � but ned said that a storm was � blowing and she had better leave the behind the rain beat in their faces and the wind came sweeping down the mountain and made them sometimes the road went straight on sometimes it turned suddenly and went after walking for a mile they came to the a number of men were waiting outside and one of the boys told them that the priest had said they were to keep a for the and ned said that he had better stay with them that his lantern would be useful to show her the way the women had collected into one comer and the priest was walking up and down a long smoky room his hands thrust into the pockets of his overcoat now he stopped in his walk to two children who were trying to light a fire in a grate don t be tired go on blowing he said yon are the child i have seen this long while ned came in and blew out his lantern but the lady he had mistaken for the was a lady who had come to live in the neighbourhood lately and the priest said you must be very much interested in poultry ma am to come out on such a night as this the lady stood shaking her now then run to your mother and get the lady a chair and when the child came back with the chair and the lady was seated by the fire he said i m thinking there will be no here to night and that it would be kind of you if you were to give the lecture yourself you have read some books about poultry i am sure well a but oh that doesn t matter said the priest i m sure the book you have read is full of instruction he walked up the room towards a group of men and told them they must cease talking and coming back to the young woman he said we shall be much obliged if you will say a few words about poultry just say what you have in your mind about the different the young woman again protested but the priest said you will do it very nicely and he spoke like one who is not accustomed to being we will give the five minutes more is there no farmer s wife who could speak the young lady asked in a fluttering voice she d know much more than i i see m hale there she has done very well with her poultry i say she has said the priest but the people would pay no attention to her she is one of themselves it would be no amusement to them to hear her the young lady asked if she might have five minutes to a few notes the priest said he would wait a few minutes but it did not matter much what she said but couldn t dance or sing said the young lady dancing and singing said the priest no and the young lady hurriedly a few notes about fowls for fowls for regular feed f warm houses and something about a of matter she had not half finished when the priest said now will you stand over there near the whom shall 