For three hours the rain poured in torrents. The children watched it from the schoolroom window splashing up on the path, and beating down the fuchsia bushes in the border.

But by dinner-time it had cleared up, and the sky looked clean and blue, as though it had just been washed. When dinner was over they set off to the village, expecting to hear that Jimmie had been struck by lightning, or, as Fly thought would be more proper, killed by a thunderbolt.

Mrs M'Rea was standing at her door, with a ring of neighbours round her. As they came up the street they heard her say: "There's the childer, an' they were the kin' friends to her when she was alive."

"Good-mornin', Mrs M'Rea," said Jane; "has Jimmie been kilt?"

"Is it kilt," said Mrs M'Rea; "'deed an' it's no more than he desarves--but we don't all get what we desarve in this world, glory be to G.o.d! Troth, no; it's marriet he is, an' comin' home the night in style on a ker, all the way from Ballynahinch."

"We thought Almighty G.o.d'd 'a' kilt him with a thunderbolt," said Fly.

"Do ye hear that?" said old Mrs Clay. "The very childer's turned agin him--an' small wonder, the ould ruffan; it's the quare woman would have him."

"By all accounts she is that," said Gordie O'Rorke, joining the group; "they say she's six fut in her stockin's an' as blackavised as the ould boy himself."

"We'll be givin' her the fine welcome the night," said his granny; "she'll be thinkin' she's got to her long home."

"They say she's got the gran' clothes," said Gordie, "an' a silk dress an'a gowld watch an' chain; mebby that's what tuk his fancy."

"If she doesn't luk out he'll be eatin' it," said Patsy. There was a roar of laughter.

"There's none knows better than yous what he could ate," said Mrs M'Rea. "Any bite or sup I tuk the woman I sat and seen it in her afore I come away."

"He's stepped over his brogues this time," said Gordie, "for me uncle up in Ballynahinch is well acquainted with the woman, an' he sez she's a heeler, an' no mistake."

"Well, well," said ould Mrs Glover, "I'm sayin' she'll not have her sorras to seek."

"No; nor Jimmie either," said Mrs M'Rea. "But there, where's the good a' talkin'? It's the lamentable thing entirely; but they're marriet now, an' G.o.d help both a' them."

"'Deed yis; they're marriet," said Mrs O'Rorke, "an we'll not be forgettin' it the night. It's tar bar'ls we'll be burnin'--they'll be expectin' it, to be sure--an' a torchlight procession out to meet them forby."

"Troth, then, they'll get more than they're expectin'," said Gordie.

"What time did ye say they'd be comin' back the night, Mrs M'Rea?" Mick asked.

"Ye know we'd like' to come to the welcome," said Jane.

"Och, it'd be late for the likes a' yous," answered Mrs M'Rea. "It'll be past ten, won't it, Gordie."

"Nearer eleven that ten," said Gordie. "You lave it to us, Miss Jane; niver fear but they'll get the right good welcome."

Going home they were all very quiet. No one spoke till they came to the gates. Then Patsy said: "Lull'll niver let us out at that time a'

night."

"We'll just have to dodge her," said Jane; "it'd be the wicked an' the wrong thing to let ould Jimmie off."

"It'll be the quare fun," said Patsy, dancing round.

"It won't be fun, Patsy; it'll be vengeance," said Jane severely.

"Ye'll take me with ye, won't ye?" Honeybird begged.

"'Deed, we'll take the sowl," said Mick; "but ye'll be powerful tired."

"What do I care about that?" she said. "I just want to hit that bad ould man."

Lull was surprised to see them go to bed so quietly that night. "Ye niver know the minds a' childer," they heard her say as they left their mother's room after they had said good-night. "I made sure they'd be wantin' to the village to see Jimmie Burke come home." Honeybird sn.i.g.g.e.red, but Fly nipped her into silence.

The convent bell was ringing for Compline when Lull tucked them into bed, but before the schoolroom clock struck ten they were on their way to the village. When they got to Jimmie's cottage the crowd was so great that they could see nothing.

"We'll have no han' in the welcome at all," said Mick.

"An' it's that pitch dark we'll niver see them," said Patsy.

"We'd better be goin' back a bit along the road, an give them the first welcome," Jane said. "Come on, quick," she added, "an' we can stan' on the wall, an' paste them with mud as they come by."

"Hould on a minute," said Mick. "I've got a plan: we'll stick my lantern on the wall, an' shout out they're home; they'll be that drunk they'll niver know the differs; that'll make them stop, an' we'll get a good shot at them."

"Troth, we'll do better than that," said Patsy, with a chuckle.

"They'll be blind drunk, I'm tellin' ye, an' it's into the ould pond we'll be welcomin' them. Yous three can stan' on the wall out a' the wet, an' me an' Mike'll a.s.sist the man an' his wife to step off the car."

The pond was at the side of the road, not more than a hundred yards from the village, and the wall ran right through the middle of it. The children climbed on the wall, and crept along on their hands and knees till they came to the deepest part. The water was up to the the top of the wall, so they had to sit with their legs doubled up to keep them out of the wet.

Soon they heard the wheels of the car coming along the road.

"Now, mind ye all screech at onst," said Patsy as he dropped off the wall. "Auch! but the water's cowld."

The car came nearer. Jane held up the lantern. "Hurrah, hurrah!" they shouted; "here ye are at last. Hurrah!"

"This way, this way," Mick shouted; "drive up to the man's own dour."

A stone from Patsy smashed the lamp on the car.

"Begorra, I can't see where I'm goin'," said the driver.

"Ye're all right," Mick shouted; "there's the lamp in the man's windy."

"Home, shweet home," said Jimmie; "no plache like home."

"Hurrah, hurrah!" they shouted as the horse splashed into the pond.

"Jump off, Mister Burke, there's a bit of a puddle by the step," said Mick.

"Home, shweet home, me darlinsh," said Jimmie; "lemme shisht ye off kersh."

"Come on, we'll help the wife off," said Mick.

But Jimmie had taken his wife's arm, and as he jumped she jumped too.