In fact, she made herself so useful that Uncle Barney, over in Killaraght, nodded his head when he heard of it, and Grandmother Connell said in the old Gaelic, which looks in print as if it might be fairy speech, “Kathleen always had good sense and handy ways.”
And now it was May-day at last, and the little family had been busy all the morning getting ready for the picnic.
“Come, children,” called Bee from the house door, “here are Norah Higgins and Hannah Kelley waiting for us, and Patrick and Danny have gone on ahead for the boat.”
Then off they all went down the lane, between the hedges of pink hawthorn, purple lilac and gleaming golden gorse, across the fields, and along the green bank of the river.
A neighbor who was driving his family down to the lake in a jaunting-car stopped to ask them why they weren’t riding themselves, but Bee said she thought it was far more pleasant to walk, and they trudged along, talking and laughing merrily.
Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, New York
“A NEIGHBOR WAS DRIVING HIS FAMILY DOWN TO THE LAKE IN A JAUNTING-CAR.”
The jaunting-car has side seats, with a “well” between them for parcels.