Page:West Irish folk-tales and romances - William Larminie.djvu/138



There was a master, and he went to look for a servant boy. He fell in with Jack. He

hired him. He took him home. On the morning of the morrow the master was leaving home. Jack asked him what he should do that day.

“Go threshing in the barn,” said the master.

“Shall I thresh anything but what is there?”

“Do not,” said the master. “If you thresh all that's there, thresh no more.”

“What'll I go to do then?” said Jack.

“Don't do a turn till night.”

The master went away then, and Jack went to the barn and began threshing. The chaff began flying about, and he slashed through the barn, and there was not a grain of it left in an hour by the watch. Jack cleared the barn. He shook the straw. He cleaned up the barn. He went into the house and sat down by the Rh