“It would be a great help.”
“We could keep Norah at school for another year.”
“We could.”
“And then send her to the convent like a lady.”
“Just.”
“When are you going to put the curragh out again?”
“Maybe this very night,” answered the husband. “It is now Michaelmas a week past. There were blue lights seen out beyond the bar last night, and a sea-gull dropped from the sky and fell dead on the rocks of Dooey. The same happened ten years ago, and at that time there was a big catch out by Arranmore.”
“Then you had better go out to-night, for there is not much money in the tea-pot this minute.”
“The byre cost a big penny,” said James Ryan, and he spoke as if regretting something.
“It did that, and the house does not look half as well with the cattle gone from it.” So saying the woman turned over some live turf on the pile of potatoes that was toasting beside the fire, and rising emptied part of the contents of a jug of milk into a bowl. “It is a wonder that Norah is not in,” she remarked. “She should be back from school over an hour ago.”