"I'll hould ye Sergeant M'Gee'll keep a luk out for thon boy," said Jane. They were up in the loft getting hay for Rufus.
"Wasn't she the quare brave wee thing to tell the man to drap the priest's hen?" said Mick. Jane lifted a bundle of hay.
"She's an awful good wee child, anyway," she answered. "What's that scrapin' in the corner?" she added.
She stepped over the hay to look.
"What is it?" said Mick. Jane did not answer. He repeated his question, and Jane turned a bewildered face.
"Come here an' see," she said. In the corner, where a place had been cleared for the purpose, a bantam hen was tethered by a string to a nail in the floor!
"God help us," said Mick, "but why an' iver did he hide it here?"
"He!" said Jane, "don't you see the manin' af it? She's stole it herself, an' tould us all them lies on purpose."
Mick could hardly be brought to believe this.
"Did ye iver hear tell a' such badness?" said Jane.