finished, and there he was, sucking in his lips, and saying it was
the finest drink ever he tasted, and that it was rising to his head
already, though he'd hardly a drop of it swallowed. Faith, in the
end I had to laugh to hear the talk he was making.'

A little later I wished them good evening and started again on my
walk, as I had two mountains to cross.






At a Wicklow Fair

The Place and the People





A YEAR or two ago I wished to visit a fair in County Wicklow, and as
the buying and selling in these fairs are got through very early in
the morning I started soon after dawn to walk the ten or twelve
miles that led to Aughrim, where the fair was to be held. When I
came out into the air the cold was intense, though it was a morning
of August, and the dew was so heavy that bushes and meadows of
mountain grass seemed to have lost their greenness in silvery grey.
In the glens I went through white mists were twisting and feathering
themselves into extraordinary shapes, and showing blue hills behind