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72 as you'll have a crooked leg," said Sive, and she was not speaking but screaming and hopping, with her hair flying about her head.

She went into the house. Michael thought his mother would come out to him. Instead of that, it was Sive who returned, and she had a jug in her hand. She flung the contents of the jug at his face. Luckily for him, he jumped aside. The water that was in the jug flew across the road, with boiling steam coming out of it.

"You villain!" said he, "so, did you mean to murder me?"

"Cut off my ear," said she "but if you had got that you wouldn't come here again to look for your mother, the little sneak!"

At that moment out came Dermot, with his striped night-cap on his head. He took Michael by the shoulder.

"Michael," said he, "you are making some mistake. Your mother is not here, and hasn't been, for I don't know how long."

"Do you tell me so?" said Michael.

"Certainly I do," said Dermot. "Isn't she at home?"

"She wasn't at home when I left home," said Michael.

"Was she at home last night?" said Dermot.

"You are right, indeed," said Michael. "Perhaps she was, and that I left her at home behind me."

Michael was well acquainted with Dermot and his habit of questioning, but he was not going to escape him so easily.

"Stop, Michael" said Dermot. "Don't pretend that you are a fool, because you are not. What put