f he did not
like to refuse the boy, and he gave him some, hoping that the big boy
would not laugh at him again. And they became friends, and very soon he
was friends with them all, and they had many talks clustered in the
corner, the children holding on to the palings, and Ulick hiding behind
the hollyhocks ready to warn them.

"It's all right, she's gone to the village," Ulick said, one day the
big boy asked him to come with them, they were going to spear eels in
the brook, and he was emboldened to get over the fence and to follow
across the meadow, through the hazels, and very soon it seemed to him
that they had wandered to the world's end. At last they came to the
brook and the big boy turned up his trousers, and Ulick saw him lifting
the stones with his left hand and plunging a fork into the water with
his right. When he brought up a struggling eel at the end of the fork
Ulick clapped his hands and laughed, and he had never been so happy in
his life before.

After a time there were no more stones to raise, and sitting on the
bank they began to tell stories. His companions asked him when his
father was coming back from the wars, and he told them how his father
used to take him for walks up the canal, and how they used to meet a
man who had a tame rat in his pocket. Suddenly the boys and girls
started up, crying "Here's the farmer," and they ran wildly across the
fields. However, they got to the high road long before the farmer could
catch them, and his escape enchanted Ulick. Then the children went
their different ways, the big boy staying with Ulick, who thought he
must offer him some gooseberries. So they crossed the fence together
and crouched under the bushes, and ate the gooseberries till they
wearied of them. Afterwards they went to look at the bees, and while
looking at the insects crawling in and out of their little door, Ulick
caught sight of his mother, and she coming towards them. Ulick cried
out, but the big boy was caught before he could reach the fence, and
Ulick saw that, big as the boy was, he could not save himself from a
slapping. He kicked out, and then blubbered, and at last got away. In a
moment it would be Ulick's turn, and he feared she would beat him more
than she had beaten the boy--for she hated him, whereas she was only
vexed with the boy--she would give him bread and water--he had often
had a beating and bread and water for a lesser wickedness than the
bringing of one of the village boy