y man, so you belong to Kerry, surely.'

I told him I was born and bred in Dublin, and that I had travelled
in many places in Ireland and beyond it.

'That's easy said,' he answered, 'but I'd take an oath you were
never beyond Kerry to this day.'

Then he asked sharply: 'What do you do?'

I answered something about my wanderings in Europe, and suddenly he
sat up, as if a new thought had come to him.

'Maybe you're a wealthy man?' he said. I smiled complacently.

'And about thirty-five?'

I nodded.

'And not married?'

'No.'

'Well then,' he said, 'you're a damn lucky fellow to be travelling
the world with no one to impede you.'

Then he went on to discuss the expenses of travelling.

'You'll likely be paying twenty pounds for this trip,' he said,
'with getting your lodging and buying your tickets, till you're back
in the city of Dublin?'

I told him my expenses were not so heavy.

'Maybe you don't drink so,' said his wife, who was near us, 'and
that way your living wouldn't be so costly at all.'

An interruption was made by a stop at a small station and the
entrance of a ragged ballad-singer, who sang a long ballad about the
sorrows of mothers who see all their children going away from them
to America.

Further on, when the carriage was much emptier, a middle-aged man
got in, and we began discussing the fishing season, Aran fishing,
hookers, nobbies, and mackerel. I could see, while we were talking,
that he, in his turn, was examining me with curiosity. At last he
seemed satisfied.

'Begob,' he said, 'I see what you are; you're a fish-dealer.'

It turned out that he was the skipper of a trawler, and we had a
long talk, the two of us and a local man who was going to Dingle
also.

'There was one time a Frenchman below,' said the skipper, 'who got
married here and settled down and worked with the rest of us. One
day we were outside in the trawler, and there was a French boat
anchored a bit of a way off. "Come on," says Charley--that was his
name--"and see can we get some brandy from that boat beyond." "How
would we get brandy," says I, "when we've no fish, or meat, or
cabbages or a thing at all to offer them?" He went down below then
to see what he could get. At that time there were four men only
working the trawler, and in the heavy season there were eight. Well,
up he comes again and eight plates under his arm. "There are eight
plates," says he, "and four will do us; so we'll take out the other