ll, oh, well. Would you like to come around with me and see the
ships?"

"I'd like fine to see the ships."

"You'll see all manner of ships here. Square-riggers, fore-and-afters,
hermaphrodites. You'll see Indiamen and packets from Boston. You'll see
ships that do be going to Germany, and some for the Mediterranean ports.
You'll see a whaler that's put in for repairs. You'll see fighting
ships. You'll see fishers of the Dogger Banks, and boats that go to
Newfoundland, where the cod do feed. All manner of sloops and schooners,
barkantines and brigs, but the bonniest of them all lies off
Carrickfergus."

"And who's she, Raghery man?"

"The _Antrim Maid_ is her nomination."

"And do you sail her?"

"I sail in her, laddie. Sail and sail in her. Mine from truck to keelson
she is, and I'm master of her. Father and mother and brother to her, and
husband, too. I'm proud of her." The Rathliner laughed. "You may
notice."

"And why for shouldn't you be? She must be the grand boat surely, man
who sailed with my Uncle Alan."

Section 9

"Raghery man, you who've sailed the high seas and the low seas, did you
ever put into an island that has great coolth to it and great sunshine,
a town quiet as a mouse, a strip of sand like silver, the waves turning
with a curl and chime?"

"Where did you hear tell of that island, wee laddie? Was it in the books
you do be reading at school?"

"I saw it, and it dancing in the sun. From Slievenambanderg I saw it,
and it over the waters of Moyle."

The Rathliner sat on a mooring bitt on the quay and filled his pipe.

"I ken that island," he said. "I ken it well."

"And what name is on it, Raghery man?"

"The name that's on it is Fiddlers' Green."

"Were you ever there, Raghery man?" There was a sinking in wee Shane's
heart.

"I was never there, laddie, never there. Oftentimes I thought I'd
raised it, but it was never there, wee laddie, never there. There's men
as says they've been there, but I could hardly believe them, though
there's queer things past belief on the sea. There's a sea called
Sargasso, and if I told you half the things about it, you'd think me
daft. And there's the ghost of ships at sea, and that's past thinking.
And there's the great serpent, that I've seen with my own eyes....

"Aye, Fiddlers' Green! Where is it, and how do you get there? The
sailormen would give all their years to know."

"Why for do they call it Fiddlers' Green?"

"It's Fiddlers' Green,