a pig's
sty. And you say: 'Is this me that minds the golden women of the
islands, and they with red flowers in their hair? Is this me that fought
side by side with good shipmates in Callao? Am I listening to the
chatter of these mild people, me that's heard grand stories in the
forecastle of how this man was marooned in the Bahamas, and that man was
married to a Maori queen, by God? Me, the hero that dowsed skysails, and
they cracking like guns. Is this lousy room a place for me that's used
to a ship as clean as a cat from stem to stern?' And you stand up
bravely, and you look the man of the public house square in the shifty
eyes, and you say: 'Listen, bastard! Do you ken e'er a master wants a
sailing man? A sailor as knows his trade, crafty in trouble, and a
wildcat in danger, and as peaceful as a hare in the long grass?' And
you're off again on the old trade and the old road, where the next port
is the best port, and the morrow is a braver day.... So it's so long,
decent wee fellow! I'm off on it again. It's a dog's life, that's what
it is, the life of a sailing man. But you couldn't change. I suppose
it's the salt in the blood."

"You're off, honest man?"

"Aye, I'm off, wee fellow. And thank you kindly for what you told me,
and for telling me especially the old woman looked so peaceful and her
with the pennies on her eyes."

"But aren't you going up to see the house?"

"I don't think I will, wee lad. I've had a picture in my mind for forty
years of the big house was in it, and the coolth of the well. And maybe
it isn't so at all. I'd rather not know the difference. I'll keep my
picture."

"But the house is yours," wee Shane urged him. "You're not going to
leave it as it is. Aren't you going to sell it and take the money?"

"Och, to hell with that! I've no time," said the sailing man, and he
limped painfully back down the road.

Section 8

His Uncle Robin had gone off to discuss with some Belfast crony the
strange things he used to discuss, like the origin of the Round Tower of
Ireland or the cryptic dialect of the Gaelic masons or whether the Scots
came to Scotland from Ireland or to Ireland from Scotland, all very
important for a member of the Royal Irish Academy. And his mother had
gone off shopping to buy linen for the house at Cushendhu, poplin for
dresses, delft from Holland for the kitchen and glass from Waterford for
the sideboard in the dining-room. And because he was to go to the
boarding-schoo