Page:Beside the Fire - Douglas Hyde.djvu/153

Rh "It is true for you," said Paudyeen. "She told me that she hadn't but a month to be on the world, and the month was up yesterday."

On the morning of the next day Paudyeen went to the hut and he found the hag dead. He put a coal under the hut and burned it. He came home and told the little man that the hut was burnt. The little man gave him a purse and said to him; "This purse will never be empty as long as you are alive. Now, you will never see me more; but have a loving remembrance of the weasel. She was the beginning and the prime cause of your riches." Then he went away and Paudyeen never saw him again.

Paudyeen O'Kelly and his wife lived for years after this in the large house, and when he died he left great wealth behind him, and a large family to spend it.

There now is the story for you, from the first word to the last, as I heard it from my grandmother.

In the olden time there was once a man named William O'Rooney, living near Clare-Galway. He was a farmer. One day the landlord came to him and said: "I have three years' rent on you, and unless you have it for me within a week I'll throw you out on the side of the road."

"I'm going to Galway with a load of wheat to-morrow," said Leeam (William), "and when I get the price of it I'll pay you."

Next morning he put a load of wheat on the cart, and was going to Galway with it. When he was gone a