Legendary fictions of the Irish Celts

Household Stories. 4
people, however, and his
was ready to beat him.
mother was so vexed that she
There was so Uttle respect for Jack's gumption in the
whole village after this, that he wasn't let go to market
for a fortnight.
of young fowl.
Then his mother trusted him with a pair
" Now don't be too eager to snap at the
first offer you'll get ; wait for the second any way, and
above all things keep your wits about you." Jack got to
the market safe. " How do you sell them fowl, honest
boy"?" My mother bid me ax three shillings for 'em,
but sure herself said I wouldn't get it." " She never said
a truer word. Will you have eighteen pence % " " In
throth an' I won't ; she ordhered me to wait for a second
offer." " And very wisely she acted ; here is a shilling."
" Well now, I think it would be wiser to take the eighteen
pence, but it is better for me at any rate to go by her
bidding, and then she can't blame me."
Jack was in disgrace for three weeks after making that
bargain ; and some of the neighbours went so far as to
say that Jack's mother didn't show much more wit than
Jack himself."
She had to send him, however, next market day to
sell a young sheep, and says she to him, " Jack, I'll have
your life if you don't get the highest penny in the market
for that baste."
" Oh, won't I !
" says Jack. Well, when
he was standing in the market, up comes a jobber, and
asks him what he'd take for the sheep. " My mother
won't be satisfied," says Jack, " if I don't bring her home
the highest penny in the market." Will a guinea note
do you % " says the other. " Is it the highest penny in
the market % " says Jack. " No, but here's the highest
penny in the market," says a sleeveen that was listenin',
getting up on a high ladder that was restin' again' the
market house : " here's the highest penny, and the sheep
is mine."
Well, if the poor mother wasn't heart-scalded this
time it's no matter. She said she'd never lose more than
a shilling a turn by him again while she lived ; but she
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