Larry bounded out of bed, and such a scurrying around as there was to get ready! Mrs McQueen was already blowing the fire on the hearth in the kitchen into a blaze, and the kettle was on to boil. The Twins wet their hair and their Mother parted it and then they combed it down tight on the sides of their heads. But no matter how much they wet their hair, the wind always blew it about their ears again in a very little while. They put on their best clothes, and then they were ready for breakfast.
Mr McQueen was up long before the Twins. He had harnessed Colleen and had loaded the pig into the cart somehow, and tied her securely. This must have been hard work, for Diddy had made up her mind she wasn’t going to the Fair.
Mr McQueen had found room, too, for some crocks of butter, and several dozen eggs carefully packed in straw.
When breakfast was over, Mrs McQueen brought a stick with notches cut in it and gave it to Mr McQueen.
She explained what each notch meant. “There’s one notch, and a big one, for selling the pig,” she said, “and mind you see that the Twins get a good price for the creature. And here’s another for selling the butter and eggs. And this is a pound of tea
for Grannie Malone. She’s been out of tea this week past, and she with no one to send. And this notch is for Mrs Maguire’s side of bacon that you’re to be after bringing her with her egg money, which is wrapped in a piece of paper in your inside pocket, and by the same token don’t you be losing it.
“And for myself, there’s so many things I’m needing, that I’ve put all these small notches close together. There’s yarn for stockings for the Twins, and some thread for myself, to make crochet, that might turn me a penny in my odd moments, and a bit of flour, and some yellow meal. Now remember that you forget nothing of it all!” Mr McQueen shook his head sadly. “Faith, there’s little pleasure in going to the Fair with so many things on my mind,” he said.
The sun was just peeping over the distant hills, when Colleen started up the road, pulling the cart with Diddy in it, squealing “like a dozen of herself” Mrs McQueen said. Mr McQueen led the donkey, and Larry and Eileen followed on foot. They had on shoes and stockings, and Eileen had on a clean apron and a bright little shawl, so they looked quite gay.
They walked miles and miles, beside bogs, and over hills, along country roads bordered by hedgerows or by stone walls. At last they saw the towers of the Castle which belonged to the Earl of Elsmore. It was on top of a high hill.