You have plenty to do, it is food and drink you have to bring to the house. The woman that is coming home is not coming with empty hands; you would not have an empty house before her. [To the old woman] Maybe you don’t know, ma'am, that my son is going to be married to-morrow.
old woman It is not a man going to his marriage that I look to for help.
peter [to bridget]. Who is she, do you think, at all?
bridget. You did not tell us your name yet, ma’am.
old woman. Some call me the Poor Old Woman, and there are some that call me Cathleen, the daughter of Houlihan.
peter. I think I knew some one of that name, once. Who was it, I wonder? It must have been some one I knew when I was a boy. No, no; I remember, I heard it in a song.
old woman [who is standing in the doorway]. They are wondering that there were songs made for me; there have been many songs made for me. I heard one on the wind this morning.
[Sings.]
Do not make a great keening
When the graves have been dug to-morrow.
Do not call the white-scarfed riders
To the burying that shall be to-morrow.
