Christy (dolefully). I had it in my mind it was a different word and a bigger.

Pegeen There’s a queer lad. Were you never slapped in school, young fellow, that you don’t know the name of your deed?

Christy (bashfully). I’m slow at learning, a middling scholar only.

Michael If you’re a dunce itself, you’d have a right to know that larceny’s robbing and stealing. Is it for the like of that you’re wanting?

Christy (with a flash of family pride). And I the son of a strong farmer (with a sudden qualm), God rest his soul, could have bought up the whole of your old house a while since, from the butt of his tailpocket, and not have missed the weight of it gone.

Michael (impressed). If it’s not stealing, it’s maybe something big.

Christy (flattered). Aye; it’s maybe something big.

Jimmy He’s a wicked-looking young fellow. Maybe he followed after a young woman on a lonesome night.

Christy (shocked). Oh, the saints forbid, mister; I was all times a decent lad.

Philly (turning on Jimmy). You’re a silly man, Jimmy Farrell. He said his father was a farmer a while since, and there’s himself now in a poor state. Maybe the land was grabbed from him, and he did what any decent man would do.

Michael (to Christy, mysteriously). Was it bailiffs?

Christy The divil a one.

Michael Agents?

Christy The divil a one.

Michael Landlords?

Christy (peevishly). Ah, not at all, I’m saying. You’d see the like of them stories on any little paper of a Munster town. But I’m not calling to mind any person, gentle, simple, judge or jury, did the like of me.

They all draw nearer with delighted curiosity.

Philly Well, that lad’s a puzzle-the-world.

Jimmy He’d beat Dan Davies’ circus, or the holy missioners making sermons on the villainy of man. Try him again, Philly.

Philly Did you strike golden guineas out of solder, young fellow, or shilling coins itself?

Christy I did not, mister, not sixpence nor a farthing coin.

Jimmy Did you marry three wives maybe? I’m told there’s a sprinkling have done that among the holy Luthers of the preaching north.

Christy (shyly). I never married with one, let alone with a couple or three.