you it will be a black day for you when
you do. But, in the meantime, you perceive that the wind's on the door,
and as Finn himself is far from home, maybe you'd be civil enough to
turn the house, for it's always what Finn does when he's here."

This was a startler, even to Far Rua; but he got up, however, and after
pulling the middle finger of his right hand until it cracked three
times, he went outside, and getting his arms about the house, completely
turned it as she had wished. When Finn saw this he felt a certain
description of moisture, which shall be nameless, oozing out through
every pore of his skin; but Oonagh, depending upon her woman's wit, felt
not a whit daunted.

"Arrah, then," said she, "as you're so civil, maybe you'd do another
obliging turn for us, as Finn's not here to do it himself. You see,
after this long stretch of dry weather that we've had, we feel very
badly off for want of water. Now, Finn says there's a fine spring well
somewhere under the rocks behind the hill there below, and it was his
intention to pull them asunder; but having heard of you he left the
place in such a fury that he never thought of it. Now, if you try to
find it, troth, I'd feel it a kindness."

She then brought Far Rua down to see the place, which was then all one
solid rock; and after looking at it for some time, he cracked his right
middle finger nine times, and, stooping down, tore a cleft about four
hundred feet deep and a quarter of a mile in length, which has since
been christened by the name of Lumford's Glen. This feat nearly threw
Oonagh herself off her guard; but what won't a woman's sagacity and
presence of mind accomplish?

"You'll now come in," said she, "and eat a bit of such humble fare as we
can give. Finn, even though you and he were enemies, would scorn not to
treat you kindly in his own house; and, indeed, if I didn't do it even
in his absence, he would not be pleased with me."

She accordingly brought him in, and placing half a dozen of the cakes we
spoke of before him, together with a can or two of butter, a side of
boiled bacon, and a stack of cabbage, she desired him to help
himself--for this, be it known, was long before the invention of
potatoes. Far Rua, who, by the way, was a glutton as well as a hero, put
one of the cakes in his mouth to take a huge whack out of it, when both
Finn and Oonagh were stunned with a noise that resembled something
between a growl and a yell. "Blood and fury!" h