to bring
her home. I found the cow, and took her with us. There fell a shower of
snow. We went into the herd's bothy, and we took the cow and the calf
in with us, and we were letting the shower pass from us. Who should
come in but one cat and ten, and one great one-eyed fox-coloured cat as
head bard over them. When they came in, in very deed I myself had no
liking for their company. 'Strike up with you,' said the head bard,
'why should we be still? and sing a cronan to Conall Yellowclaw.' I was
amazed that my name was known to the cats themselves. When they had
sung the cronan, said the head bard, 'Now, O Conall, pay the reward of
the cronan that the cats have sung to thee.' 'Well then,' said I
myself, 'I have no reward whatsoever for you, unless you should go down
and take that calf.' No sooner said I the word than the two cats and
ten went down to attack the calf, and in very deed, he did not last
them long. 'Play up with you, why should you be silent? Make a cronan
to Conall Yellowclaw,' said the head bard. Certainly I had no liking at
all for the cronan, but up came the one cat and ten, and if they did
not sing me a cronan then and there! 'Pay them now their reward,' said
the great fox-coloured cat. 'I am tired myself of yourselves and your
rewards,' said I. 'I have no reward for you unless you take that cow
down there.' They betook themselves to the cow, and indeed she did not
last them long.

"'Why will you be silent? Go up and sing a cronan to Conall
Yellowclaw,' said the head bard. And surely, oh king, I had no care for
them or for their cronan, for I began to see that they were not good
comrades. When they had sung me the cronan they betook themselves down
where the head bard was. 'Pay now their reward, said the head bard; and
for sure, oh king, I had no reward for them; and I said to them, 'I
have no reward for you.' And surely, oh king, there was catterwauling
between them. So I leapt out at a turf window that was at the back of
the house. I took myself off as hard as I might into the wood. I was
swift enough and strong at that time; and when I felt the rustling
toirm of the cats after me I climbed into as high a tree as I saw in
the place, and one that was close in the top; and I hid myself as well
as I might. The cats began to search for me through the wood, and they
could not find me; and when they were tired, each one said to the other
that they would turn back. 'But,' said the one-eyed fox-coloured cat