Page:Shiana - Peadar Ua Laoghaire.djvu/234

220 and her own clothes, and to lock the door after him, as they would not be going home at all.

"What is coming over you, mother? "said Michael, "or why will we not be going home? Surely there isn't any other claim on the place? Cormac could not be coming now to demand possession from us. I think he has got something else to mind now."

"There is not, my boy," said she, "any claim on the place, nor any person coming to demand possession from us." And she told him the arrangement Sive had made.

Michael looked about him. "And does this house belong to us now?" said he.

"It does, my boy," said she, "provided that we take good care of Dermot."

"It is a fine big roomy house," said he. "Little I thought that I and my mother would come to live in it! What a change in the world!"

"Go along now, my boy," said she, "and look after the people, and don't let anyone be neglected, and let nobody be thirsty or hungry during the night. They will be all dancing directly, and the dancing will make them thirsty. Look after them, Michael, and let them have the drink and the food before they have time to ask for it."

"Very good, mother," said he.