Sure, thinks I, he must have gone home to rowl up his head, for I don't throw me stick for nothin'.
Well, by this time the moon was up and I could see a little, and I detarmined to make one more effort to reach Dennis's.
I went on cautiously for awhile, an' thin I heard a bell. "Sure," sez I, "I'm comin' to a settlement now, for I hear the church bell." I kept on toward the sound till I came to an ould cow wid a bell on. She started to run, but I was too quick for her, and got her by the tail and hung on, thinkin' that maybe she would take me out of the woods. On we wint, like an ould country steeple chase, till, sure enough, we came out to a clearin' and a house in sight wid a light in it. So leavin' the ould cow puffin and blowin' in a shed, I wint to the house, and as luck would have it, whose should it be but Dennis's?
He gave me a raal Irish, welcome, and introduced me to his two daughters— as purty a pair of girls as iver ye clapped an eye on. But whin I tould him me adventure in the woods, and about the fellow who made fun of me, they all laughed and roared, and Dennis said it was an owl.
"An ould what," sez I.
"Why, an owl, a bird," sez he.
"Do you tell me now!" sez I. "Sure it's a quare country and a quare bird."
And thin they all laughed again, till at last I laughed myself, that hearty like, and dropped right into a chair between the two purty girls, and the ould chap winked at me and roared again.
Dennis is me father-in-law now, and he often yet delights to tell our children about their daddy's adventure wid the owl.
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