find
more to interest them in the land than in anything else ... but they
don't. There's so much to do, an' it's so varied, an' you have it all
under your own eye ... you begin it an' carry it on and you end it ...
an' yet somehow!... An' then the whole family understands it and can
take an interest in it. You'd think that that would hold them. There
isn't any other trade in the world that'll take up a whole family an'
give them all somethin' to talk about an' think over an' join in. But
I've never known a bright boy or girl on a farm that wasn't itchin' to
get away from it to a town!"

"But something'll have to be done, father!" Henry urged. "We must have
farmers!..."

"Aye, something'll have to be done, but I'm damned if I know what. I
suppose when they've developed machinery more an' can make transit
easier ... but sometimes I half think we'll have to breed people for the
land ... thick people, slow-witted people, clods ... an' just let them
root an' dig and grub an' ... an' breed!" He got up as he spoke, and
paced about the room. "No, Henry, I've got no remedy for you! The
Almighty God'll have to think of a plan, _I_ can't!"

6

Sheila Morgan did not know any of the ancient Gaelic dances, nor did any
one in Ballymartin. She knew how to waltz and she could dance the polka
and the schottishe. "An' that's all you need!" she said. There were two
old women in the village who danced a double reel, and Paddy Kane was a
great lad at jigs....

"Perhaps later on," Marsh said, "we can get some one to teach them
Gaelic dances!"

And so the classes began. Marsh had announced at the Language class that
the first of the Dancing Classes would be held on the following Thursday
... and on Thursday every boy and girl and young man and woman in
Ballymartin had crowded into the schoolroom where the class was to be
held.

"There are more here than come to the Language class," Marsh exclaimed
in astonishment when he entered the room.

"Dancing seems to be more popular than Gaelic," Henry replied.

"I don't know how we shall teach them all," Marsh went on. "I can't
dance ... and she can't possibly teach them all!"

But there was no need to teach them to dance--they had all learned to
dance "from their cradles," as some one said, and in a little while the
room was full of dancing couples.

Sheila Morgan had gone smilingly to John Marsh as he entered the room.
"We're all ready," she said, and waited.

"Oh, yes!" he replied