“Go threshing in the barn,” said the master.
“Shall I thresh anything but what is there?”
“Do not,” said the master. “If you thresh all that’s there, thresh no more.”
“What’ll I go to do then?” said Jack.
“Don’t do a turn till night.”
The master went away then, and Jack went to the barn and began threshing. The chaff began flying about, and he slashed through the barn, and there was not a grain of it left in an hour by the watch. Jack cleared the barn. He shook the straw. He cleaned up the barn. He went into the house and sat down by the fire. The mistress bade him bring in a basket of turf. He said he would not. “You won’t be there,” said the mistress, “unless you do some work.”
“I won’t do one turn till night.”
“Musha, you won’t be there,” said the mistress.
The two quarrelled. She put him out of the house. He went out and stayed about the place till night.
When Jack went out a neighbour came in. The mistress got dinner for him. When he was going, she went with him part of the way. They came to an old lime-kiln. They went into it. He kissed the mistress. Jack was watching them always. “If I knew,” said she, “where you would be working to-morrow, I would bring you your dinner.”