Darragh?" said
Jane sternly.

"Well, what if I am?" said Honeybird. "Sure, I'm on'y a wee child, an
know no better."

"Ye know the commandments an' 'Thou shall not steal' as well as I do,"
said Jane.

"I forget them sometimes," said Honeybird; "besides, too, I niver stole
it. It as near as ninepence walked up into my pinny."

"Where was it?" Mick asked.

"It was out walkin' on the road all by its lone," said Honeybird, "an'
if I hadn't 'a' tuk it mebby somebuddy else would."

"Then ye niver seen no bad man with a baldy head at all?" Mick asked.

"No, I didn't," Honeybird confessed; "but I might 'a' seen him all the
same."

"Luk here, me girl," said Jane, "you've just got to walk that bantam
hen back to Father Ryan."

"I will not," said Honeybird.

"Then we'll tell Lull."

Honeybird began to cry. "If ye do I'll run away, an' niver, niver come
home any more," she said. Jane was dumfounded.

"Ye can't go on bein' a thief, Honeybird," she said at last. "We on'y
want to make ye good."

"Then ye'll not make me good," said Honeybird. "If ye tell anybuddy
I'll be as bad as bad as the divil, so I just will."

"Well, if ye don't give up the bantam Almighty God'll let ye know,"
said Jane.

"I'm not a bit feared a' Him," Honeybird replied. Say what they would
they could not move her. Mick reasoned and Jane reasoned, but it was
all to no purpose. Honeybird was determined to stick to her sin. In
the end she got the better of them, for to put an end to her threats
they had to promise not to tell. Later in the day Andy also discovered
the bantam hen, and told Lull.

"I wouldn't 'a' believed there was that much veeciousness in the wean,"
he said. Andy was cross--he had been to the police barracks, and told
Sergeant M'Gee to look out for Honeybird's bad man.

"God luk to yer wit, man," said Lull. "Sure, childer's always tryin'
their han' at some divilment or other."

"She'd be the better af a good batin'," said Andy.

"It'd be the quare wan would lift han' to a chile like thon," said
Lull. "I don't hould with batin's, anyway. Just take yer hurry, an'
ye'll see what'll happen."

What did happen was that Honeybird brought an old hymn-book into the
kitchen that evening, and sat by the fire singing hymns. "I am Jesus'
little lamb," she was singing in a shrill voice when the others came
into supper.

"Then ye're the quare black wan," said Jane.

Several days passed, and Honeybird showed no sign o