im,
and he put his arms about them. "Daughter of Murrachu," said he, "is
there no food in the house for guests?"

"There is a cake of bread, a little goat's milk and some cheese," she
replied, and she set about getting these things.

"I never ate cheese," said Seumas. "Is it good?"

"Surely it is," replied Pan. "The cheese that is made from goat's milk
is rather strong, and it is good to be eaten by people who live in the
open air, but not by those who live in houses, for such people do not
have any appetite. They are poor creatures whom I do not like."

"I like eating," said Seumas.

"So do I," said Pan. "All good people like eating. Every person who is
hungry is a good person, and every person who is not hungry is a bad
person. It is better to be hungry than rich."

Caitilin having supplied the children with food, seated herself in front
of them. "I don't think that is right," said she. "I have always been
hungry, and it was never good."

"If you had always been full you would like it even less," he replied,
"because when you are hungry you are alive, and when you are not hungry
you are only half alive."

"One has to be poor to be hungry," replied Caitilin. "My father is poor
and gets no good of it but to work from morning to night and never to
stop doing that."

"It is bad for a wise person to be poor," said Pan, "and it is bad for a
fool to be rich. A rich fool will think of nothing else at first but to
find a dark house wherein to hide away, and there he will satisfy his
hunger, and he will continue to do that until his hunger is dead and
he is no better than dead but a wise person who is rich will carefully
preserve his appetite. All people who have been rich for a long time, or
who are rich from birth, live a great deal outside of their houses, and
so they are always hungry and healthy."

"Poor people have no time to be wise," said Caitilin.

"They have time to be hungry," said Pan. "I ask no more of them."

"My father is very wise," said Seumas Beg.

"How do you know that, little boy?" said Pan.

"Because he is always talking," replied Seumas. "Do you always listen,
my dear?"

"No, sir," said Seumas; "I go to sleep when he talks."

"That is very clever of you," said Pan.

"I go to sleep too," said Brigid.

"It is clever of you also, my darling. Do you go to sleep when your
mother talks?"

"Oh, no," she answered. "If we went to sleep then our mother would pinch
us and say that we were a b