All the people at his own home thought that he must have left the country, and they rejoiced greatly when they saw him come back. Everyone began asking him where he had been, but he would not tell anyone except his father.
He was a changed man from that day. He never drank too much; he never lost his money over cards; and especially he would not take the world and be out late by himself of a dark night.
He was not a fortnight at home until he married Mary, the girl he had been in love with; and it's at their wedding the sport was, and it's he was the happy man from that day forward, and it's all I wish that we may be as happy as he was.
Glossary.—Rann, a stanza; kailee (céilidhe), a visit in the evening; wirra (a mhuire), "Oh, Mary!" an exclamation like the French dame; rib, a single hair (in Irish, ribe); a lock (glac), a bundle or wisp, or a little share of anything; kippeen (cipín), a rod or twig; boreen (bóithrín) a lane; bodach, a clown; soorawn (suarán), vertigo. Avic (a Mhic) = son, or rather, Oh, son. Mic is the vocative of Mac.
Footnote
[4] None of Mr. Hyde's stories here given have been published before. They will be printed in the original Irish in his forthcoming Leabhar Sgeulaigheachta (Gill, Dublin).