Page:The Aran Islands, parts III and IV (Synge).djvu/46

 lanterns, and then he took me back to his office—a mere shed of planks and corrugated iron, put up for the contractor of some work which is in progress on the pier.

When we reached the light I saw that his head was rolled up in an extraordinary collection of mufflers to keep him from the cold, and that his face was much older than when I saw him before, though still full of intelligence.

He began to tell how he had gone to see a relative of mine in Dublin when he first left the island as a cabin-boy, between forty and fifty years ago.

He told his story with the usual detail:

We saw a man walking about on the quay in Dublin, and looking at us without saying a word. Then he came down to the yacht.

'Are you the men from Aran?' said he.

'We are,' said we.

'You're to come with me so,' said he.

'Why?' said we.

Then he told us it was Mr. Synge had sent him, and we went with him. Mr. Synge brought us into his kitchen and gave the men a glass of whisky all round, and a half-glass to me because I was a boy—though at that time and to this day I can drink as much as two men and not be the worse of it. We were some time in