the steersman said:--

"There is only one lock more between this and our last stopping-place.
Keep a look-out for your mother's cottage."

He promised he would, and he beguiled them all the evening with
pretended discoveries. That cabin was his mother's cabin. No, it was
further on, he remembered those willow-trees. Ulick's object was to get
as far away from his home as possible; to get as near the Shannon as he
could.

"There's not a mile between us and the Shannon now," said the
steersman. "I believe you've been telling us a lot of lies, my young
man."

Ulick said his mother lived just outside the town, they would see the
house when they passed through the last lock, and he planned to escape
that night, and about an hour before the dawn he got up, and, glancing
at the sleeping men, he stepped ashore and ran until he felt very
tired. And when he could go no further he lay down in the hay in an
outhouse.

A woman found him in the hay some hours after, and he told her his
story, and as the woman seemed very kind he laid some stress on his
mother's cruelty. He mentioned that his mother had put a bee down his
neck, and bending down his head he showed her where the bee had stung
him. She stroked his pretty curls and looked into his blue eyes, and
she said that anyone who could put a bee down a boy's neck must be a
she-devil.

She was a lone widow longing for someone to look after, and in a very
short time Ulick was as much loved by his chance mother as he had been
hated by his real mother.

Three years afterwards she died, and Ulick had to leave the cottage.

He was now a little over thirteen, and knew the ships and their
sailors, and he went away in one of the ships that came up the river,
and sailed many times round the coast of Ireland, and up all the
harbours of Ireland. He led a wild rough life, and his flight from home
was remembered like a tale heard in infancy, until one day, as he was
steering his ship up the Shannon, a desire to see what they were doing
at home came over him. The ship dropped anchor, and he went to the
canal to watch the boats going home. And it was not long before he was
asking one of the bargemen if he would take him on board. He knew the
rules, and he knew they could be broken, and how, and he said if they
would take him he would be careful the lockmen did not see him, and the
journey began.

The month was July, so the days were as endless and the country was as
green and as full