'
'I will go to her indeed,' said Hanrahan.
'And she bade you make no delay, for if she has not a man in the
house before the month is out, it is likely the little bit of land
will be given to another.'
When Hanrahan heard that, he rose up from the bench he had sat down
on. 'I will make no delay indeed,' he said, 'there is a full moon,
and if I get as far as Gilchreist to-night, I will reach to her
before the setting of the sun to-morrow.'
When the others heard that, they began to laugh at him for being in
such haste to go to his sweetheart, and one asked him if he would
leave his school in the old lime-kiln, where he was giving the
children such good learning. But he said the children would be glad
enough in the morning to find the place empty, and no one to keep
them at their task; and as for his school he could set it up again in
any place, having as he had his little inkpot hanging from his neck
by a chain, and his big Virgil and his primer in the skirt of his
coat.
Some of them asked him to drink a glass before he went, and a young
man caught hold of his coat, and said he must not leave them without
singing the song he had made in praise of Venus and of Mary Lavelle.
He drank a glass of whiskey, but he said he would not stop but would
set out on his journey.
'There's time enough, Red Hanrahan,' said the man of the house. 'It
will be time enough for you to give up sport when you are after your
marriage, and it might be a long time before we will see you again.
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