rformance.

There was an odd, bewildered look about the people who stood in groups
in Sackville Street.

"What's up?" Henry said to a bystander.

"Begod," said the man, "I think there's a rebellion on. That's what this
woman says anyway!"

"A what?"

"A rebellion or something of the sort. You can ask her yourself! Begod,
it's a quare day to have it. The people'll not enjoy themselves at
all...."

Henry turned to the woman who was standing in the centre of the group,
endlessly relating her experience.

"I went to the Gener'l," she said, "an' I said to the man behin' the
counter, 'Gimme two ha'penny postcards an' a penny stamp an' change for
a shillin', if you please!' and I hadn't the words out of my mouth 'til
a man in a green uniform ... one of them Sinn Feiners ... come up to me,
an' pointed a gun at me, an' toul' me to go home. 'Go home yourself!'
says I, an' I give his oul' gun a push with my hand, 'an' who are you to
be orderin' a person about?' 'If you don't go on when I tell you,' says
he, 'I'll shoot you!' an' I declare to my God he looked as if he'd blow
the head off you. 'Well, wait till I get my change anyway,' says I.
'Ye'll get no change here,' says he. 'I will so,' I said, and I turned
to the man behind the counter, but, sure, God bless you, he wasn't
there. 'Well, this bates all,' says I to the Sinn Feiner, 'an if the
peelers catches a houldt of you, you'll get into bother over the head of
this!' I picked up my shillin', an' I went out. The place was full of
them. They were orderin' everybody out, except a couple or three
soldiers that they made prisoners. An' if you were to go down there now,
you'd see them, young fellas that I could bate with my one hand, cocked
up behin' the windas with guns in their hands, an' telling people to
move on out of that...."

Some one came into the group, and said "What's that?" and she turned to
him and began again. "I went in to the Gener'l," she said, "an' I said
to the man behin' the counter, 'Gimme two ha'penny postcards....'"

Henry made his way out of the group of listeners, and walked down the
street towards the General Post Office.

"It's absurd," he said. "Ridiculous! A rebellion!"

But something was toward. On the roof of the Post Office there were two
flags, a green flag with a motto on it, and a tri-colour, orange, white
and green. There was hardly any wind, and the flags hung limply from
their staffs, but as Henry approached the Post Office, the