wiped the mud from their feet before they got up on their horses.  A little later the clown came out, to the great delight of the people.  He was followed by some gymnasts, and then the horse-people came out again in different dress and make-up, and went through their old turns once more.  After that there was prolonged fooling between the clown and the chief horseman, who made many mediaeval jokes, that reminded me of little circuses on the outer boulevards of Paris, and at last the horseman sang a song which won great applause: 

Here’s to the man who kisses his wife,
And kisses his wife alone;
For there’s many a man kissed another man’s wife
When he thought he kissed his own. 
Here’s to the man who rocks his child,
And rocks his child alone;
For there’s many a man rocked another man’s child
When he thought he rocked his own.

About ten o’clock there seemed to be a lull in the storm, so I went out into the open air with two young men who were going the road I had to travel.  The rain had stopped for a moment, but a high wind was blowing as we made our way to a public-house to get a few biscuits and a glass of beer before we started.  A sleepy barmaid, who was lolling behind the counter with a novel, pricked up her ears when she heard us talking of our journey.

‘Surely you are not going to Ballydavid,’ she said, ’at such an hour of a night like this.’

We told her we were going to a place which was further away.

‘Well,’ she said, ’I wouldn’t go to that place to-night if you had a coach-and-four to drive me in, and gave me twenty pounds into the bargain!  How at all will you get on in the darkness when the roads will be running with water, and you’ll be likely to slip down every place into some drain or ditch?’

When we went out, and began to make our way down the steep hill through the town, the night seemed darker than ever after the glare of the bar.  Before we had gone many yards a woman’s voice called out sharply from under the wall:  ‘Mind the horse.’  I looked up and saw the black outline of a horse’s head standing right above me.  It was not plain in such darkness how we should get to the end of our ten-mile journey; but one of the young men borrowed a lantern from a chandler in the bottom of the town, and we made our way over the bridge and up the hill, going slowly and painfully with just light enough, when we kept close together, to avoid the sloughs of water and piles of stones on the roadway.  By the time we reached the top of the ridge and began to work down carefully towards Smerwick, the rain stopped, and we reached the village without any mishap.