Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 3 1885.djvu/270

262 to put me out in a room apart by myself. I will promise thee there will be a handsome dinner ready for thee. As an end to the affair we will elope without their knowing. Unless thou come I will never again look back at thee." "I vow to thee, darling, I tell thee no lie, that thou art my choice of the women of Munster. I will certainly visit thee about one o'clock, and we will bound along the road in order to be off."

When John and his master got up next morning they went to work. When they came in at nine o'clock for breakfast they found the mistress extremely ill with indisposition in her head and in her back, tumbling about from side to side. The master asked her "What is the matter with thee, love of my heart?" "I have fever, kind husband. Put me without delay into the special room out of sight of the children."

John and his master were at work that day; and, as they were coming home, John fell in the furrow. He got up again, and fell another time. The master lifted him up, for he could not stand by himself. "What is the matter with thee?" said the master. "I have fever," said he. "Put me in the room outside; I will not go into the kitchen for fear of the children." The master put him into the room presently. John turned the key in the lock, and threw himself on the bed. The master went into the kitchen. He found the mistress in the full heat of fever. "I fear," said the master, "we have a bad matter in hand; John is very ill with it." "Where is he? "He is in the room ousideoutside [sic]." "By my own soul! he shall not be there," said the mistress. She rose up on her feet, and went out as far as the door. She cried out to John, but John was just at his last gasp. She spent some time screaming at John, but there was no good in it. She was obliged to go in again. She spent that night weeping, and thinking about the landlord coming without her being ready for him.

So it was till midnight, when the landlord arrived and knocked at the door. John rose up and raised the door. (Note.—The kind of door referred to has a horizontal division. The upper part is made to slide up and down like a window when the lower part is bolted.) He told the landlord to put in first the boot of gold and the boot of silver.