_A sea-strand beside a village in Iar-Connacht. A house on the
right-hand side. The sound of a bell comes east, very clearly. The
door of the house is opened. An aged man, old Matthias, comes out on
the door-flag and stands for a spell looking down the road. He sits
then on a chair that is outside the door, his two hands gripping a
stick, his head bent, and he listening attentively to the sound of the
bell. The bell stops ringing. Daragh, Padraic and Coilin come up from
the sea and they putting on their share of clothes after bathing._
DARAGH (_stretching his finger towards the sea_). The flowers are white
in the fisherman’s garden.
PADRAIC. They are, _muise_.
COILIN. Where are they?
DARAGH. See them out on the sea.
COILIN. Those are not white flowers. Those are white horses.
DARAGH. They’re like white flowers.
COILIN. No; Old Matthias says those are the white horses that go
galloping across the sea from the Other Country.
PADRAIC. I heard Iosagan saying they were flowers.
COILIN. What way would flowers grow on the sea?
PADRAIC. And what way would horses travel on the sea?
COILIN. Easy, if they were fairy horses would be in them.
PADRAIC. And wouldn’t flowers grow on the sea as easy, if they were
fairy flowers would be in them? Isn’t it often you saw the water-lilies
on Loch Ellery? And couldn’t they grow on the sea as well as on the
lake?
COILIN. I don’t know if they could.
PADRAIC. They could, _muise_.
DARAGH. The sea was fine to-day, lad.
COILIN. It was, but it was devilish cold.
PADRAIC. Why wouldn’t you be cold when you’d only go into your knees?
COILIN. By my word, I was afraid the waves would knock me down if I’d go
in any further. They were terrible big.
DARAGH. That’s what I like, lad. Do you mind yon terrible big one that
came over our heads?
PADRAIC. Aye, and Coilin screaming out he was drowned.
COILIN. It went down my throat; it did that, and it nearly smothered me.
PADRAIC. Sure, you had your mouth open, and you shouting. It would be a
queer story if it didn’t go down your throat.
COILIN. Yon one gave me enough. I kept out of their way after that.
DARAGH. Have the other lads on them yet?
PADRAIC. Aye. Here they are.
COILIN. Look at Feichin’s hair!
_Feichin, Eoghan and Cuimin come up from the sea and they drying their
hair._
CUIMIN. What’ll we play to-day?
COILIN. “Blind Man’s Buff!”
PADRAIC. Ara, shut up, yourself and your “Blind Man’s Buff.”
COILIN. “High Gates,” then!
PADRAIC. No. We’re tired of those “High Gates.”
DARAGH. “Hide and Seek!”
FEICHIN. Away!
EOGHAN. “Fox and Chickens!”
COILIN. No. We’ll play “_Lúrabóg Lárabóg_.”
PADRAIC. I’ll make a _lúrabóg_ of you!
COILIN. You do be always at me, Padraic. (_Padraic catches hold of
him._) Listen to me, will you?
CUIMIN. Ara, listen to him, Padraic.