thered the head av him, but in he wint an' tumbled
in bed an' was shnorin' like a horse in two minnits, for he was a
bach'ler, God bless him, an' had no wife to gosther him an' ax him where
he'd been, an' phat he'd been at, an' make him tell a hunderd lies about
not gettin' home afore. So it came on to thunder an' lighten like as all
the avil daymons in the univarse were fightin' wid cannons in the shky,
an' by an' by there was a clap loud enough to shplit yer skull an' Barney
woke up.

"'Tattheration to me,' says he to himself, 'it's goin' for to rain an' me
hay on the ground. Phat 'll I do?' says he.

"So he rowled over on the bed an' looked out av a crack for to see if it
was ralely rainin'. An' there was the biggest crowd he iver seen av little
men an' wimmin. They'd built a row o' fires from the cow-house to the bog
an' were comin' in a shtring like the cows goin' home, aitch wan wid his
two arrums full o' hay. Some were in the cow-house, resayvin' the hay;
some were in the field, rakin' the hay together; an' some were shtandin'
wid their hands in their pockets beways they were the bosses, tellin' the
rest for to make haste. An' so they did, for every wan run like he was
afther goin' for the docther, an' brought a load an' hurried back for
more.

"Barney looked through the crack at thim a crossin' himself ivery minnit
wid admiration for the shpeed they had. 'God be good to me,' says he to
himself, ''tis not ivery gossoon in Leitrim that's got haymakers like
thim,' only he never spake a word out loud, for he knewn very well the
good people 'ud n't like it. So they brought in all the hay an' put it in
the house an' thin let the fires go out an' made another big fire in front
o' the dure, an' begun to dance round it wid the swatest music Barney iver
heard.

"Now be this time he'd got up an' feelin' aisey in his mind about the hay,
begun to be very merry. He looked on through the dure at thim dancin', an'
by an' by they brought out a jug wid little tumblers and begun to drink
summat that they poured out o' the jug. If Barney had the sense av a
herrin', he'd a kept shtill an' let thim dhrink their fill widout openin'
the big mouth av him, bein' that he was as full as a goose himself an'
naded no more; but when he seen the jug an' the tumblers an' the fairies
drinkin' away wid all their mights, he got mad an' bellered out like a
bull, 'Arra-a-a-h now, ye little attomies, is it dhrinkin' ye are, an'
never givin' a sup