Page:A Mainsail Haul - Masefield - 1913.djvu/164

152 "Now at last, the ship which brought Andy MacDonnell came round the Point yonder, and Andy got ashore, and then the ship rowed away. Then Carr went up to him and asked why he was turning the ship away again. 'Isn't that the ship you sailed in?' he said. 'Isn't that your own ship?' 'It is not,' says Andy. 'My own ship's in Scotland. The King took a fancy to her.' So then Carr asked him what had become of all the men who had gone with him abroad. And he answered that the King had taken a fancy to them, and that they were all with the King in Scotland, every man jack of them down to Johnny O'Hara, the piper's boy. So Carr wondered a little at that, but said nothing; and they all went up to the castle to the feast.

"But there was a queer thing that was noticed. There was a little lad of the MacLearnon's running about bare foot among the horses. He was a little wee lad, the nicest little lad you would be seeing. So when Andy MacDonnell was coming to the castle from the shore, this little McLearnon looks at him; and he was near him; and he said to his mother, 'His Honour's ears is pointed.'