Hanrahan was walking the roads oime near Kinvara at the fall of day, and he heard the sound of a fiddle from a house a little way off the roadside. He turned up the path to it, for he never had the habit of passing by any place where there was music or dang ood pany, without going in. The man of the house was standing at the door, and when Hanrahan came near he knew him and he said: A wele before you, Hanrahan, you have been lost to us this long time. But the woman of the house came to the door and she said to her husband: I would be as well pleased for Hanrahan not to e in to?night, for he has no good name now among the priests, or with women that mind themselves, and I wouldnt wonder from his walk if he has a drop of drink taken. But the man said, I will urn away Hanrahan of the poets from my door, and with that he bade him enter.
There were a good many neighbathered in the house, and some of them remembered Hanrahan; but some of the little lads that were in the ers had only heard of him, and they stood up to have a view of him, and one of them said: Is not that Hanrahan that had the school, and that was brought away by Them? But his mother put her hand over his mouth and bade him be quiet, and not be saying things like that. For Hanrahan is apt to grow wicked, she said, if he hears talk of that story, or if anyone goes questioning him. One or another called out then, asking him for a song, but the man of the house said it was no time to ask him for a song, before he had rested himself; and he gave him whiskey in a glass, and Hanrahan thanked him and wished him good health and drank it off.
The fiddler was tuning his fiddle for another dance, and the man of the house said to the youhey would all know what dang was like when they saw Hanrahan dance, for the like of it had never been seen since he was there before. Hanrahan said he would not dance, he had better use for his feet now, travelling as he was through the five provinces of Ireland. Just as he said that, there came in at the half?door Oona, the daughter of the house, having a few bits of bog deal from ara in her arms for the fire. She threw them on the hearth and the flame rose up, and showed her to be very ely and smiling, and two or three of the young men rose up and asked for a dance. But Hanrahan crossed the floor and brushed the others away, and said it was with him she must dance, after the long road he had travelled before he came to her. And it is likely he said some soft word in her ear, for she said nothing against it, and stood out with him, and there were little blushes in her cheeks. Then other couples stood up, but when the dance was going to begin, Hanrahan ced to look down, aook notice of his boots that were worn and broken, and the ragged grey socks showing through them; and he said angrily it was a bad floor, and the musio great things, a down in the dark place beside the hearth. But if he did, the girl sat down there with him.
The dang went on, and when that dance was over another was called for, and no oook muotice of Oona and Red Hanrahan for a while, in the er where they were. But the mrew to be uneasy, and she called to Oona to e and help her to set the table in the inner room. But Oona that had never refused her before, said she would e soon, but not yet, for she was listening to whatever he was saying in her ear. The mrew yet more uneasy then, and she would e hem, a on to be stirring the fire or sweeping the hearth, and she would