It was an April morning at Cousin Bee’s little farm-house in Tonroe. The kettle was bubbling cheerfully over the burning peat in the fireplace; the cement floor of the kitchen was spotlessly clean; and Patrick, Bee’s husband, was making the children feel quite at home as he talked with them about Donegal and laughed heartily over their little stories.
Danny, Kathleen and Mary Ellen had arrived at the station with the two grandmothers the night before, and nothing would do but they must all leave the train together.
“Sure, we’ve room and to spare for a strong lad like you,” Patrick had told Danny; and Bee had said, “’Twould be a shame for Mary Ellen and Kathleen to be separated so sudden-like.”
So Uncle Barney took the two grandmothers home with him to Killaraght, while Danny and Kathleen went with Mary Ellen to visit Cousin Bee before going on with their journey,—Kathleen to Kilkenny, and Danny to Queenstown, where he was to take the steamer for America.
Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, New York
Cousin Bee’s Farmhouse in Tonroe
Notice the thatched roof and the broad chimneys.
Their first morning in Tonroe opened bright and cheery, outside as well as in, and Kathleen was so excited over all the new sights that she could hardly wait to eat her breakfast. Of course everything had to be described to Mary Ellen, and Patrick’s hearty laugh filled the kitchen when Kathleen told her sister that the village looked as if a giant had taken a great creel filled with houses, and dropped them from a high ladder to the plain below.