This suggestion caught the crowd's fancy.

"Barney it is!" "Rory and Barney!" they yelled.

"Me!" cried Barney, seeking to escape through the crowd. "I have never
done anything but carry pins and braces at a raising all my life."

There was a loud laugh of scorn, for no man in all the crowd had
Barney's reputation for agility, nerve and quickness.

"Carry pins, is it?" said Tom. "Ye can carry yer head level, me boy. So
at it ye go, an' ye'll bate Rory fer me, so ye will."

"Well then," cried Barney, "I will, if you give me first choice, and
I'll take Tom here."

"Hooray!" yelled Tom, "I'm wid ye." So it was agreed, and in a few
minutes the sides were chosen, little Ben Fallows falling to Rory as
last choice.

"We'll give ye Ben," said Tom, whose nerve was coming back to him. "We
don't want to hog on ye too much."

"Never you mind, Ben," said Rory, as the little Englishman strutted to
his place among Rory's men. "You'll earn your supper to-day with the
best of them."

"If I cawn't hearn it I can heat it, by Jove!" cried Ben, to the huge
delight of the crowd.