Page:Plays in Prose and Verse (1922).djvu/136

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120
ON BAILE'S STRAND

fowl out of my hands after I have stolen it and plucked it, and you put it into the big pot at the fire there, and I can go out and run races with the witches at the edge of the waves and get an appetite, and when I've got it, there’s the hen waiting inside for me, done to the turn.

blind man [who is feeling about with his stick]. Done to the turn.

fool [putting his arm round blind man's neck]. Come now, I'll have a leg and you'll have a leg, and we’ll draw lots for the wish-bone, I'll be praising you, I'll be praising you while we're eating it, for your good plans and for your good cooking. There’s nobody in the world like you, Blind Man. Come, come. Wait a minute. I shouldn’t have closed the door. There are some that look for me, and I wouldn’t like them not to find me. Don’t tell it to anybody, Blind Man. There are some that follow me. Boann herself out of the river and Fand out of the deep sea. Witches they are, and they come by in the wind, and they cry, ‘Give a kiss, Fool, give a kiss,’ that’s what they cry. That’s wide enough. All the witches can come in now. I wouldn’t have them beat at the door and say: ‘Where is the Fool? Why has he put a lock on the door?’ Maybe they'll hear the bubbling of the pot and come in and sit on the ground. But we