Aloysius. That's just it. If he did cure her, they say the two best of her husband's bullocks died of the blackwater the next day, and he was no way thankful to us after that.
Colman. Did you try the houses along the bog road?
Aloysius. I did, and the children coming back from school called out after me and asked who was it did away with the widow Cloran's cow.
Colman. The widow Cloran's cow?
Aloysius. That was the cow that died after grazing in the ruins here.
Colman. If it did, it was because of an old boot it picked up and ate, and that never belonged to us.
Aloysius. I wish we had something ourselves to eat. They should be sitting down to their dinner in the monastery now. They will be having a good dinner to-day to carry them over the fast to-morrow.
Colman. I am thinking sometimes, Brother Paul should give more thought to us than he does. It is all very well for him, he is so taken up with his thoughts and his visions he doesn't know if he is full or fasting.
Aloysius. He has such holy thoughts and visions no one would like to trouble him. He ought not to be in the world at all, or to do the world's work.
Colman. So long as he is in the world, he must give some thought to it. There must be something wrong in the way he is doing things now. I thought he would have had half Ireland with him by this time with his great preaching, but someway when he preaches to the people, they don't seem to mind him much.