f the
pockets, etc., puts the clothes on the dresser._]

PETER [_getting up and taking the bag in his hand and turning out the
money_]. Yes, I made the bargain well for you, Michael. Old John Cahel
would sooner have kept a share of this awhile longer. "Let me keep the
half of it till the first boy is born," says he. "You will not," says
I. "Whether there is or is not a boy, the whole hundred pounds must be
in Michael's hands before he brings your daughter in the house." The
wife spoke to him then, and he gave in at the end.

BRIDGET. You seem well pleased to be handling the money, Peter.

PETER. Indeed, I wish I had had the luck to get a hundred pounds, or
twenty pounds itself, with the wife I married.

BRIDGET. Well, if I didn't bring much I didn't get much. What had you
the day I married you but a flock of hens and you feeding them, and a
few lambs and you driving them to the market at Ballina? [_She is vexed
and bangs a jug on the dresser._] If I brought no fortune, I worked it
out in my bones, laying down the baby, Michael that is standing there
now, on a stook of straw, while I dug the potatoes, and never asking
big dresses or anything but to be working.

PETER. That is true, indeed. [_He pats her arm._]

BRIDGET. Leave me alone now till I ready the house for the woman that
is to come into it.

PETER. You are the best woman in Ireland, but money is good, too. [_He
begins handling the money again and sits down._] I never thought to see
so much money within my four walls. We can do great things now we have
it. We can take the ten acres of land we have a chance of since Jamsie
Dempsey died, and stock it. We will go to the fair of Ballina to buy
the stock. Did Delia ask any of the money for her own use, Michael?

MICHAEL. She did not, indeed. She did not seem to take much notice of
it, or to look at it at all.

BRIDGET. That's no wonder. Why would she look at it when she had
yourself to look at, a fine, strong young man? It is proud she must be
to get you, a good steady boy that will make use of the money, and not
be running through it or spending it on drink like another.

PETER. It's likely Michael himself was not thinking much of the fortune
either, but of what sort the girl was to look at.

MICHAEL [_coming over towards the table_]. Well, you would like a nice
comely girl to be beside you, and to go walking with you. The fortune
only lasts for a while, but the woman will be there always.