"O musha, mother," says Jack, "why do you ax me that question? sure you know I wouldn't have your curse and Damer's estate along with it."
"Well, then, Jack," says she, "here's the whole lot of 'em, with my thousand blessings along with them." So she stood on the yard fence and blessed him as far as her eyes could see him.
Well, he went along and along till he was tired, and ne'er a farmer's house he went into wanted a boy At last his road led by the side of a bog, and there was a poor ass up to his shoulders near a big bunch of grass he was striving to come at.
"Ah, then, Jack asthore," says he, "help me out or I'll be drowned."
"Never say't twice," says Jack, and he pitched in big stones and sods into the slob, till the ass got good ground under him.
"Thank you, Jack," says he, when he was out on the hard road; "I'll do as much for you another time. Where are you going?"
"Faith, I'm going to seek my fortune till harvest comes in, God bless it!"
"And if you like," says the ass, "I'll go along with you; who knows what luck we may have!"
"With all my heart; it's getting late, let us be jogging."
Well, they were going through a village, and a whole army of gossoons were hunting a poor dog with a kettle tied to his tail. He ran up to Jack for protection, and the ass let such a roar out of him, that the little thieves took to their heels as if the ould boy was after them.