tin fowls; they all shlape togather on a pile av wet shtraw in the corner,
an' sorra a wan o' thim knows where the bit in the mornin' is to come
from. Phat do they ate? They're not in the laste purtickler. Spakin'
ginerally, whatever they can get. They've pitaties an' milk, an' sometimes
pitaties an' no milk, an' av a Sunday a bit o' mate that's a herrin', an'
not a boot to the fut o' thim, an' they paddlin' in the wather on the
flure. Sure the town's full o' thim an' the likes av thim. Begorra, the
times has changed since the siven Kings held coort in the castle beyant
yon.

"Niver heard o' the Siven Kings av Athenroy? Why ivery babby knows the
whole shtory be heart, an' all about thim. Faith I'll tell it, fur it's
not desayvin' ye I am, fur the ould castle was wan o' the greatest places
in the counthry.

"Wanst upon a time, there was an ould King in Athenroy, that, be all
accounts, was the besht ould King that iver set fut upon a throne. He was
a tall ould King, an' the hairs av him an' the beard av him was as white
as a shnow-flake, an' he had a long, grane dressin' gown, wid shamrocks av
goold all over it, an' a goold crown as high as a gintleman's hat, wid a
dimund as big as yer fisht on the front av it, an' silver shlippers on the
feet av him. An' he had grane carpets on the groun' in the hall o' the
ould castle, an' begob, they do say that everything about the coort was
goold, but av that I'm not rightly sartain, barrin' the pipe. That was av
goold, bekase there's a picture av him hangin' in Michael Flaherty's
shebeen, an' the pipe is just the look av goold an' so it must have been.

"An' he was the besht King in Ireland, an' sorra a beggar 'ud come an the
dure, but the King 'ud come out in his gown an' shlippers an' ax him how
he come to be poor, an' sind him 'round to the kitchen to be warrumed wid
a dhrop av whishkey an' fed wid all the cold pitaties that was in the
panthry. All the people riz up whin he was a-walkin' down the shtrate wid
a big goold-top shtick in his hand, an' the crown a-shinin' on his head,
an' they said, 'God save yer Holiness,' an' he said, 'God save ye kindly,'
mighty perlite, bekase he was a dacent mannered ould King, an' 'ud shpake
to a poor divil that hadn't a coat on his back as quick as to wan av his
ginerals wid a goold watch an' a shiny hat. An' whin he wint into a shop,
sure they niver axed him to show the color av his money at all, but the
man 'ud say, 'God save ye! Sure ye c