Page:Darby O'Gill and the Good People by Herminie Templeton Kavanagh (1903).djvu/182

Rh you, my rayspected people,” he says, “a pleasanter afthernoon I seldom spint, and be ready to get your reward.”

With thim words he vanished. Their surprise at his disappearance was no sooner over than the Mulligans began hunting vessels in which to put the goold the fairy was going to give them.

Ann Mulligan was dragging in from outside an empty tub when shamefaced Judy Casey passed in, carrying little Patsy Mulligan. Behind her slunk Barney, her husband, houlding the green cloak and the silver-topped noggin.

“I had him for one day, Ann Mulligan,” says Judy, handing little Patsy to his mother, “and though it breaks my poor, withered heart to give him up, he’s yours by right, and here he is.”

Whilst she was speaking those words the ruler of the fairies sprung over the threshold and laid a white bundle on the table. The household crowded up close around.

Without a word the fairy dhrew the cover from the white bundle, an’ there, like a sweet, pink rose, lay sleepin’ on its white pillow the purtiest baby you ever set your two livin’ eyes on. Rh