it for her, only that Hugh
McInerney--the omadhawn--starting forward at the same time, blundered up
against him, and tumbled with him into a furze-bush. And before they
picked themselves up, the cherry-coloured knot had met its fate in the
shape of the Ryans' black and white kid. She was tethered close by, and
had been apparently absorbed in scratching her forehead with her left
hind foot in a way that said much for the limberness of her youthful
joints. But as the bit of ribbon flirted past her she made a rapid
snatch, and swallowed it at a gulp. Mrs. Ryan stood dismayed at possible
serious consequences to the kid, and Theresa at the certain loss of her
scrap of finery; and everybody else was saying to Hugh McInerney: "Och,
you great omadhawn, why couldn't you keep yourself aisy? He had it safe
enough on'y for you gettin' under his feet"--everybody, that is, except
Denis O'Meara, who said: "Sure now the both of us wasn't mindin' rightly
where we was chargin' to; and the raison of that belike was the nayther
of us thinkin' so much of what we was runnin' after, as of who we was
runnin' for--and small blame to us bedad."

But Hugh's self-esteem was not restored by the good-natured excuse. He
said: "Truth it is, I'd a right to ha' sted quiet. For the on'y notion I
had was puttin' meself for'ard to be gettin' a hould of it before any of
the others." And he walked off crestfallen to resume his perch on the
thatch.

As for Theresa, she ignored Denis's pretty speech, and said 'deed now
she remembered her mother had bid her step up and see what way Ody
Rafferty's aunt was that morning. And she, too, withdrew from the group
to make this visit of inquiry.

As she passed on her way under the place where Hugh was thatching, he
dropped a small handful of rushes on her head to call her attention, and
when she looked up she saw his red-brick-hued face in a wild
tow-coloured halo peering down at her from over the eaves. "I am sorry I
lost it on you," he said.

"Ah, no matter about it; and it wasn't your fau't more than another's,"
said Theresa.

"You'd ha' had it now," said Hugh, "if it wasn't for the little goat
gettin' the chance to ait it while himself was tumblin' over me. But I'd
as lief have your hair the way it is now. It is the blackest ever I
seen. One might think you'd gathered it out of the middles of them red
poppies there. Stick a couple of them in it, if you want anythin'; but
to my mind it's better widout. On'y if