When Eileen got back with the jug, she found Larry still sitting beside
the road. He was talking with a freckled-faced boy, and Colleen's head
was still in the thistles.
"The top of the morning to you, Dennis Maguire," Eileen called to the
freckled boy when she saw him. "And does it take the two of you to
watch one donkey at his breakfast? Come along and let's play in the
bog!"
"But however shall we leave Colleen? She might run away on us," said
Larry.
"She's tethered by hunger fast enough," said Eileen. "Ropes would not
drag her away. But you could throw her halter over a stone, to be
sure."
Larry slipped the halter over a stone, they set the milk-jug in a safe
place, and the three children ran off into the bog.
The bogland was brown and dark. Tufts of coarse grass grew here and
there, and patches of yellow gorse. There were many puddles, and
sometimes there were deep holes, where the turf had been cut out.
Mr McQueen was a thrifty man, and got his supply of turf early in the
season. He would cut it out in long black blocks, like thick mud, and
leave it in the sun to dry. When it was quite dry he would carry it
home on Colleen's back, pile it in a high turf-stack near the kitchen
door, and it would burn in the fireplace all winter.
The children were barefooted, so they played in the puddles as much as
ever they liked.
By and by Eileen said, "Let's play we are Deirdre and the sons of
Usnach."
"And who were they, indeed?" said Dennis.
"It was Grannie told us about them," said Eileen, "and sure it's the
sorrowfullest story in Ireland."
"Then let's not be playing it," said Dennis.
"But there's Kings in it, and lots of fighting!"
"Well, then, it might not be so bad, at all. Tell the rest of it,"
Dennis answered.
"Well, then," Eileen began, "there once was a high King of Emain, and
his name was Conchubar [pronounced _Connor_]. And one time when he was
hunting out in the fields, he heard a small little cry, crying. And he
followed the sound of it, and what should he find, but a little baby
girl, lying alone in the field!"
"Well, listen to that now," said Dennis.
"He did so," Eileen went on; "and he loved the child and took her to his
castle, and had her brought up fine and careful, intending for to marry
her when she should be grown up. And he hid her away, with only an old
woman to take care of her, in a beautiful house far in the mountain, for
he was afraid she'd be stolen away from him.
"And she had silver dishes and golden cups, and everything fine and
elegant, and she the most beautiful creature you ever laid your two eyes
on."
"Sure, I don't see much fighting in the tale, at all," said Dennis.
"Whist now, and I'll come to it," Eileen answered.
"One day when Deirdre had grown to be a fine big girl, she looks out of
the window, and she sees Naisi [pronounced _Naysha_] going along by with
his two brothers, the three of them together, they having been hunting
in the mountain. And the minute she slaps her eyes on Naisi, `There,'
says she, `is the grandest man in the width of the world, and I'll be
wife to no man but him,' says she.
"So she calls in the sons of Usnach, though the old woman is scared to
have her, and she tells Naisi she's going to marry him.
"And Naisi says, says he, `I'll never be one to refuse a lady, but
there'll be murder the day Conchubar finds it out!' says he.
"So they went away that same night, and the old woman fair distraught
with fear. Soon along comes Conchubar to see Deirdre, for to marry her.
And he had many men with him. When he finds Deirdre gone, `It's that
Naisi,' says he, `that stole her away.' And he cursed him. And all his
men and himself went out for to chase Naisi and his two brothers. But
they never caught up with them at all for ten years, and Naisi and
Deirdre living all the time as happy as two birds in the springtime."
"No fighting at all yet," said Dennis, "and ten years gone by. Musha,
indeed, 'tis not much of a tale at all."
"There was fighting enough when the years were up," Eileen said. "The
men of Conchubar pursued them up hill and down dale, and when they
finally caught them, there was fighting that made the ground red with
the blood spilled.
"And when Naisi and his brothers were all caught together, and Conchubar
was after killing them, sure, didn't Deirdre put an end to herself
entirely, and the four of them were buried together in one grave."
"But however will we play it at all?" said Larry.
"Listen, now," said Eileen. "I'll be Deirdre, of course. You can just
be Naisi, Larry, and Dennis can be Conchubar, and he after us, and we
running as fast as ever we can, to get away from him. You must give us
a start, Dennis."