‘Well, good night so,’ he said, ’and may you have a good sleep your first night in this island.’

Then he put out the candle and we settled to sleep.  In a few minutes I could hear that he was in his dreams, and just as my own ideas were beginning to wander the house door opened, and the son of the place, a young man of about twenty, came in and walked into our room, close to my bed, with another candle in his hand.  I lay with my eyes closed, and the young man did not seem pleased with my presence, though he looked at me with curiosity.  When he was satisfied he went back to the kitchen and took a drink of whisky and said his prayers; then, after loitering about for some time and playing with a little mongrel greyhound that seemed to adore him, he took off his clothes, clambered over his father, and stretched out on the inner side of the bed.

I awoke in the morning about six o’clock, and not long afterwards the host awoke also, and asked how I did.  Then he wanted to know if I ever drank whisky; and when he heard that I did so, he began calling for one of his daughters at the top of his voice.  In a few moments the younger girl came in, her eyes closing with sleep, and, at the host’s bidding, got the whisky bottle, some water, and a green wine-glass out of the kitchen.  She came first to my bedside and gave me a dram, then she did the same for her father and brother, handed us our pipes and tobacco, and went back to the kitchen.

There were to be sports at noon in Ballyferriter, and when we had talked for a while I asked the host if he would think well of my going over to see them.  ‘I would not,’ he said ’you’d do better to stay quiet in this place where you are; the men will be all drunk coming back, fighting and kicking in the canoes, and a man the like of you, who aren’t used to us, would be frightened.  Then, if you went, the people would be taking you into one public-house, and then into another, till you’d maybe get drunk yourself, and that wouldn’t be a nice thing for a gentleman.  Stay where you are in this island and you’ll be safest so.’

When the son got up later and began going in and out of the kitchen, some of the neighbours, who had already come in, stared at me with curiosity as I lay in my bed; then I got up myself and went into the kitchen.  The little hostess set about getting my breakfast, but before it was ready she partly rinsed the dough out of a pan where she had been kneading bread, poured some water into it, and put it on a chair near the door.  Then she hunted about the edges of the rafters till she found a piece of soap, which she put on the back of a chair with the towel, and told me I might wash my face.  I did so as well as I was able, in the middle of the people, and dried myself with the towel, which was the one used by the whole family.