School: Castlepollard Boys (roll number 5513)
- Location:
- Castlepollard, Co. Westmeath
- Teacher: William Coghlan
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0721, Page 082
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- XML School: Castlepollard Boys
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- XML “An Old Story”
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- Once upon a time, there was a widow and she had one son. They were very poor and they had only a cow. One morning they got up and they had no food. The widow told the boy to bring the cow to the fair and sell him and he did so. On his way to the fair he met a small red man. The man said, "How much for the cow" and the boy said, "Ten pounds". Then the boy said, "I am a poor boy and I need it". The man said "I will give ou this bottle in exchange". The man then said, "When you want anything you can say "Bottle, bottle do your duty and three men will jump out of it". "Whatever you want they will give it to you". Then the boy said, "If I wanted money would they give it to me" and the man said they would. The boy got the bottle and went home.
When he got home he said, "Bottle, bottle do your duty". Then the men jumped out of the bottle. The boy asked for money and he got it. The boy lived rich and happy for a couple of months. Then the neighbours around him got jealous of him and planned to take the bottle. One night a couple of men went in to the house. The boy went down stairs(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Seamus Finnegan
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Castlepollard, Co. Westmeath
