vanach where the young men used to
be climbing the hill to the blessed well, they were sitting at the
crossroads playing cards. When I went by Carrigoras, where the friars
used to be fasting and serving the poor, I saw them drinking wine and
obeying their wives. And when I asked what misfortune had brought all
these changes, they said it was no misfortune, but it was the wisdom
they had learned from your teaching.

WISE M. Run round to the kitchen, and my wife will give you something
to eat.

FOOL. That is foolish advice for a wise man to give.

WISE M. Why, Fool?

FOOL. What is eaten is gone. I want pennies for my bag. I must buy
bacon in the shops, and nuts in the market, and strong drink for the
time when the sun is weak. And I want snares to catch the rabbits and
the squirrels and the hares, and a pot to cook them in.

WISE M. Go away. I have other things to think of now than giving you
pennies.

FOOL. Give me a penny and I will bring you luck. Bresal the Fisherman
lets me sleep among the nets in his loft in the winter-time because he
says I bring him luck; and in the summer-time the wild creatures let me
sleep near their nests and their holes. It is lucky even to look at me
or to touch me, but it is much more lucky to give me a penny. [_Holds
out his hand._] If I wasn't lucky, I'd starve.

WISE M. What have you got the shears for?

FOOL. I won't tell you. If I told you, you would drive them away.

WISE M. Whom would I drive away?

FOOL. I won't tell you.

WISE M. Not if I give you a penny?

FOOL. No.

WISE M. Not if I give you two pennies?

FOOL. You will be very lucky if you give me two pennies, but I won't
tell you!

WISE M. Three pennies?

FOOL. Four, and I will tell you!

WISE M. Very well, four. But I will not call you Teigue the Fool any
longer.

FOOL. Let me come close to you where nobody will hear me. But first you
must promise you will not drive them away. [WISE M. _nods._] Every day
men go out dressed in black and spread great black nets over the hills,
great black nets.

WISE M. Why do they do that?

FOOL. That they may catch the feet of the angels. But every morning,
just before the dawn, I go out and cut the nets with my shears, and the
angels fly away.

WISE M. Ah, now I know that you are Teigue the Fool. You have told me
that I am wise, and I have never seen an angel.

FOOL. I have seen plenty of angels.

WISE M. Do you bring luck to the angels too?

FOOL. Oh, no, n