Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 28, 1917.djvu/247

 Collectanea.

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over the ditch, and slaps down the stone, and there it is till this day, and the weight of that stone is about two ton. So that's the way it got the name of the Mile Stone. — Told by John SuGRUE, a native of Kerry.

The Child that came back.

There was a woman lived near us in Frure, outside Kilkee. Well, 'twas the will of God she had a child, an' a finer boy there wasn't in the parish, until he was about a year ould, but after that he began to pine away. Well, he lived to be about 3 years, and from the time he began to pine, the mother often woke at night and found him out of bed. Well, when he began to talk, the speech he made use of was quare and bad. He used to go up to the loft to where the gran'mother used to sleep, and sthale [steal] the dudeen [pipe] from under her head. She often wandered, why the pipe would always be imty [empty] in mornin', until one night she woke, and there was the buachal [boy], goin down the ladder, and the pipe stuck in his gob.

She tould the mother next mornin' about id, and the father put down a big fire that night. " Come now," says he to the lad, " in there you go ov you don't tell me where my son is." Begor, he swore and cursed, that he was his son, but the husband couth hould [caught hold] of him and was putting him in, when he says : " Let me go, and you will have your son in the mornin." They thought not to sleep that night, but they did ; but when the mother woke, she was surprised to find alongside her a fine boy, and the picture of the father, I have it from people that see him. — Told by Ellen Murrinan, Frure.

Tii'enty Years with the Good People.

I had a gran'uncle, he was a shoemaker; he was only about 3 or 4 months married. I'm up to fourscore now. Well, God rest all their souls, for they are all gone, I hope to a better world ! Well, sir, he says to his wife, and a purty girl she was, as I hear um say, — the fortune wasn't very big but 'twould buy him a good bit of leather, and I might tell you, 'twas all brogues that