School: Ballyloghane, Caisleán Nua Thiar (roll number 8783)

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1. An Old Story

   

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   Once upon a time, a poor boy set out from home to make his fortune. On his way he met a farmer who hired him for thirty pounds until the cuckoo's sing, but if he would not do what the farmer asked him to do, he would get a beating and be sent home without any money.
   Next morning the first job the farmer gave him to do, was to harness the horses and go to the garden and plough as much as the dog could walk over in a day. He went off with the dog following him. He could not stop ploughing until the dog would stop walking. The dog kept running around until the boy was getting tired. Then he took the quin and struck the the dog. The dog lay down on the garden.
   Then the boy went to the farmer and the farmer asked him where was the dog, and he said he laid down on the garden. The following day he sent him up on the house to fix a slate. When he was above the farmer's wife said she would go out and go up on a tree and say cuckoo.
   When she would do so he could call in the boy and pay him and send him home. She did so and when the farmer heard the word cuckoo he ran out and called the boy and gave him his thirty pounds. The boy went off with

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Folktales index

   AT1000: Bargain Not to Become Angry

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Mary Healy

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Ballyine, Co. Limerick