ck thunderbolts into pancakes? The
thing was impossible, and Finn knew not on what hand to turn him. Right
or left, backward or forward, where to go he could form no guess
whatever.

"Oonagh," said he, "can you do anything for me? Where's all your
invention? Am I to be skivered like a rabbit before your eyes and to
have my name disgraced for ever in the sight of all my tribe, and me the
best man among them? How am I to fight this man-mountain--this huge
cross between an earthquake and a thunderbolt--with a pancake in his
pocket that was once----?"

"Be aisy, Finn," replied Oonagh. "Troth, I'm ashamed of you. Keep your
toe in your pump, will you? Talking of pancakes, maybe we'll give him as
good as any he brings with him--thunderbolts or otherwise. If I don't
treat him to as smart feeding as he's got this many a day, don't trust
Oonagh again. Leave him to me, and do just as I bid you."

This relieved Finn very much, for, after all, he had great confidence in
his wife, knowing, as he did, that she had got him out of many a
quandary before. The present, however, was the greatest of all; but,
still, he began to get courage and to eat his victuals as usual. Oonagh
then drew the nine woollen threads of different colours, which she
always did to find out the best way of succeeding in anything of
importance she went about. She then plaited them into three plaits, with
three colours in each, putting one on her right arm, one round her
heart, and the third round her right ankle, for then she knew that
nothing could fail her that she undertook.

Having everything now prepared, she sent round to the neighbours and
borrowed one-and-twenty iron griddles, which she took and kneaded into
the hearts of one-and-twenty cakes of bread, and these she baked on the
fire in the usual way, setting them aside in the cupboard according as
they were done. She then put down a large pot of new milk, which she
made into curds and whey, and gave Finn due instructions how to use the
curds when Far Rua should come. Having done all this, she sat down quite
contented waiting for his arrival on the next day about two o'clock,
that being the hour at which he was expected--for Finn knew as much by
the sucking of his thumb. Now, this was a curious property that Finn's
thumb had; but notwithstanding all the wisdom and logic he used to suck
out of it, it could never have stood to him here were it not for the wit
of his wife. In this very thing, moreover, he