egun to
cry. He axed her phat ailed her an' she towld him he'd shtruck her the
first av the three blows. So he was mighty sorry an' said he'd be careful,
but it wasn't more than a year afther, when he was taichin' wan o' the
boys to use a shtick, that she got behind him an' got hit wid the
shillaly. That was the second blow, an' made her lose her timper, an' they
had a rale quarl. So he got mad, sayin' that nayther o' thim blows ought
to be counted, bein' they both come be accident. So he flung the shtick
agin the wall, 'Divil take the shtick,' says he, an' went out quick, an'
the shtick fell back from the wall an' hit her an the head. 'That's the
third,' says she, an' she kissed her sons an' walked out. Thin she called
the cows in the field an' they left grazin' an' folly'd her; she called
the oxen in the shtalls an' they quit atin' an' come out; an' she shpoke
to the calf that was hangin' in the yard, that they'd killed that mornin'
an' it got down an' come along. The lamb that was killed the day afore, it
come; an' the pigs that were salted an' thim hangin' up to dhry, they
come, all afther her in a shtring. Thin she called to her things in the
house, an' the chairs walked out, an' the tables, an' the chist av
drawers, an' the boxes, all o' thim put out legs like bastes an' come
along, wid the pots an' pans, an' gridiron, an' buckets, an' noggins, an'
kish, lavin' the house as bare as a 'victed tinant's, an' all afther her
to the lake, where they wint undher an' disappared, an' haven't been seen
be man or mortial to this blessed day.

"Now, there's thim that says the shtory aint thrue, fur, says they, how
'ud a woman do such a thrick as go aff that a way an' take ivery thing she
had, just bekase av her husband hittin' her be accident thim three times.
But thim that says it forgits that she was a young wan, aven if she did
have thim boys I was afther tellin' ye av, an' faith, it's no lie I'm
sayin', that it's not in the power av the angels o' God to be knowin' phat
a young wan 'ull be doin'. Afther they get owld, an' do be losin' their
taythe, an' their beauty goes, thin they're sober an' get over thim
notions; but it takes a dale av time to make an owld wan out av a young
wan.

"But she didn't forget the boys she'd left, an' wanst in a while she'd
come to the aidge av the lake whin they were clost be the bank an' spake
wid thim, fur aven, if she was half a fairy, she'd the mother's heart that
the good God put in her