“I wouldn’t neglect that,” said Meehawl.
“Did you cut down a thorn bush recently?”
“I’d sooner cut my eye out,” said Meehawl, “and go about as wall-eyed as Lorcan O’Nualain’s ass: I would that. Did you ever see his ass, sir? It—”
“I did not,” said the Philosopher. “Did you kill a robin redbreast?”
“Never,” said Meehawl. “By the pipers,” he added, “that old skinny cat of mine caught a bird on the roof yesterday.”
“Hah!” cried the Philosopher, moving, if it were possible, even closer to his client, “now we have it. It is the Leprecauns of Gort na Cloca Mora took your washboard. Go to the Gort at once. There is a hole under a tree in the southeast of the field. Try what you will find in that hole.”
“I’ll do that,” said Meehawl. “Did you ever—”
“I did not,” said the Philosopher.
So Meehawl MacMurrachu went away and did as he had been bidden, and underneath the tree of Gort na Cloca Mora he found a little crock of gold.
“There’s a power of washboards in that,” said he.