e?" he asked, putting one into Far Rua's hand. The latter
squeezed and squeezed the stone, but to no purpose; he might pull the
rocks of Lumford's Glen asunder, and flatten a thunderbolt, but to
squeeze water out of a white stone was beyond his strength. Finn eyed
him with great contempt as he kept straining and squeezing and squeezing
and straining till he got black in the face with the efforts.

"Ah, you're a poor creature," said Finn. "You a giant! Give me the stone
here, and when I'll show what Finn's little son can do you may then
judge of what my daddy himself is."

Finn then took the stone, and then, slyly exchanging it for the curds,
he squeezed the latter until the whey, as clear as water, oozed out in a
little shower from his hand.

"I'll now go in," said he, "to my cradle; for I scorn to lose my time
with anyone that's not able to eat my daddy's bread, or squeeze water
out of a stone. Bedad, you had better be off out of this before he comes
back, for if he catches you, it's in flummery he'd have you in two
minutes."

Far Rua, seeing what he had seen, was of the same opinion himself; his
knees knocked together with the terror of Finn's return, and he
accordingly hastened in to bid Oonagh farewell, and to assure her that,
from that day out, he never wished to hear of, much less to see, her
husband. "I admit fairly that I'm not a match for him," said he, "strong
as I am. Tell him I will avoid him as I would the plague, and that I
will make myself scarce in this part of the country while I live."

Finn, in the meantime, had gone into the cradle, where he lay very
quietly, his heart in his mouth with delight that Far Rua was about to
take his departure without discovering the tricks that been played off
on him.

"It's well for you," said Oonagh, "that he doesn't happen to be here,
for it's nothing but hawk's meat he'd make of you."

"I know that," said Far Rua, "divel a thing else he'd make of me; but,
before I go, will you let me feel what kind of teeth they are that can
eat griddle-cakes like _that_?" and he pointed to it as he spoke.

"With all the pleasure in life," says she; "only as they're far back in
his head you must put your finger a good way in."

Far Rua was surprised to find so powerful a set of grinders in one so
young; but he was still much more so on finding, when he took his hand
from Finn's mouth, that he had left the very finger upon which his whole
strength depended behind him. He gav