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"Mrs James," put in Emmeline, "said there were She said she liked to see children b'lieve in fairies She was talking to another lady, who'd got a red feather in her bonnet, and a furShe said the world was getting too--so or another, an' then the other lady said it was, and asked Mrs Jaiving Day They didn't say anything more about fairies, but Mrs James--"

"Whether you b'lave in them or not," said Paddy, "there they are An' maybe they're poppin' out of the wood behint us now, an' listenin' to us talkin'; though I'h down in Connaught they were as thick as blackberries in the ould days

O musha! musha! The ould days, the ould days! ill I be seein' thiain? Now, you may b'lave me or b'lave me not, but h Patrick one night before Christoose, plucked an' claned an' all, in the other, which same he'd won in a lottery, when, hearin' a tchune no louder than the buzzin' of a bee, over a furze-bush he peeps, and there, round a big white stone, the Good People were dancing in a ring hand in hand, an' kickin' their heels, an' the eyes of thelowin' like the eyes of er than the joint of your thupipes Wid that he let wan yell an' drops the goose an' e an' ditch, boundin' like a buck kangaroo, an' the face on hih the door, where as all sittin' round the fire burnin' chestnuts to see who'd be married the first

"`An' what in the name of the saints is the mather wid yiz?' says me mother

"`I've sane the Good People,' says he, `up on the field beyant,' says he; `and they've got the goose,' says he, `but, begorra, I've saved the bottle,' he says `Dhraw the cork and give ue's like a brick-kil' "An' e come to prize the cork out of the bottle, there was nothin' in it; an' ent next one But there was the stone, sure enough, and the ues of the chap that'd played the bagpipes and who'd be doubtin' there were fairies after that?"