I objected that the

boys were too small and so we walked on, the ragged troop

screaming after us: "Swaddlers! Swaddlers!" thinking that we were

Protestants because Mahony, who was dark-complexioned, wore

the silver badge of a cricket club in his cap. When we came to the

Smoothing Iron we arranged a siege; but it was a failure because

you must have at least three. We revenged ourselves on Leo Dillon

by saying what a funk he was and guessing how many he would

get at three o'clock from Mr. Ryan.


We came then near the river. We spent a long time walking about

the noisy streets flanked by high stone walls, watching the working

of cranes and engines and often being shouted at for our

immobility by the drivers of groaning carts. It was noon when we

reached the quays and as all the labourers seemed to be eating

their lunches, we bought two big currant buns and sat down to eat

them on some metal piping beside the river. We pleased ourselves

with the spectacle of Dublin's commerce--the barges signalled

from far away by their curls of woolly smoke, the brown fishing

fleet beyond Ringsend, the big white sailingvessel which was

being discharged on the opposite quay. Mahony said it would be

right skit to run away to sea on one of those big ships and even I,

looking at the high masts, saw, or imagined, the geography which

had been scantily dosed to me at school gradually taking substance

under my eyes. School and home seemed to recede from us and

their influences upon us seemed to wane.


We crossed the Liffey in the ferryboat, paying our toll to be

transported in the company of two labourers and a little Jew with a

bag. We were serious to the point of solemnity, but once during the

short voyage our eyes met and we laughed. When we landed we

watched the discharging of the graceful threemaster which we had

observed from the other quay. Some bystander said that she was a

Norwegian vessel. I went to the stern and tried to decipher the

legend upon it but, failing to do so, I came back and examined the

foreign sailors to see had any of them green eyes for I had some

confused notion.... The sailors' eyes were blue and grey and even

black. The only sailor whose eyes could have been called green

was a tall man who amused the crowd on the quay by calling out

cheerfully every time the planks fell:


"All right! All right!"


When we were tired of this sight we wandered slowly into

Ringsend. The day had grown sultry, and in the windows of the

grocers' shops musty biscuits lay bleaching. We bought some

biscuits and chocolate which we ate sedulously as we wandered

through the squalid streets where the families of the fishermen

live. We could find no dairy and so we went into a huckster's shop

and bought a bottle of raspberry lemonade each. Refreshed by this,

Mahony chased a cat down a lane, but the cat escaped into a wide

field. We both felt rather tired and when we reached the field we

made at once for a sloping bank over the ridge of which we could

see the Dodder.


It was too late and we were too tired to carry out our project of

visiting the Pigeon House. We had to be home before four o'clock

lest our adventure should be discovered. Mahony looked

regretfully at his catapult and I had to suggest going home by train

before he regained any cheerfulness. The sun went in behind some

clouds and left us to our jaded thoughts and the crumbs of our

provisions.


There was nobody but ourselves in the field. When we had lain on

the bank for some time without speaking I saw a man approaching

from the far end of the field. I watched him lazily as I chewed one

of those green stems on which girls tell fortunes. He came along

by the bank slowly. He walked with one hand upon his hip and in

the other hand he held a stick with which he tapped the turf lightly.

He was shabbily dressed in a suit of greenish-black and wore what

we used to call a jerry hat with a high crown. He seemed to be

fairly old for his moustache was ashen-grey. When he passed at

our feet he glanced up at us quickly and then continued his way.

We followed him with our eyes and saw that when he had gone on

for perhaps fifty paces he turned about and began to retrace his

steps. He walked towards us very slowly, always tapping the

ground with his stick, so slowly that I thought he was looking for

something in the grass.


He stopped when he came level with us and bade us goodday.