human
And then, said Mac Cann thoughtfully,
gpt
That wasn't a bad tale, he continued to Caeltia.
human
You are as good a story-teller, mister, as the man himself,
gpt
It's because the stories were good ones that they were well told, for that's not my trade, and what wonder would it be if I made a botch of it? I'm a musician myself, as I told you, and there's my instrument, but I knew an old man in Connaught one time, and he was a great lad for the stories. He used to make his money at it, and if that man was to break off in the middle of a tale the people would stand up and kill him, they would so. He was a gifted man, for he would tell you a story about nothing at all, and you'd listen to him with your mouth open and you afraid that he would come to the end of it soon, and maybe it would be nothing more than the tale of how a white hen laid a brown egg. He would tell you a thing you knew all your life, and you would think it was a new thing. There was no old age in that man's mind, and that's the secret of story-telling.
human
I could listen to a story for a day and a night.
gpt
So could I, if it was a good story and well told, and I would be ready to listen to another one after that.
human
You were saying yourself, sonny, that there was a story in your head, and if that's so, now is your chance to tell it; but I'm doubting you'll be able to do it as well as the two men here, for you are a youngster, and story-telling is an old man's trade.
gpt
I'll do my best, said Art,
human
That's all right, replied Mac Cann encouragingly.
gpt
We won't be hard on you.
human
Sure enough, said Billy the Music,
gpt
What are you going to talk about?
human
I'm going to talk about Brien O'Brien, the same as the rest of you.
gpt
Did you know him too?
human
I did.
gpt
There isn't a person doesn't know that man, growled Patsy.
human
Maybe, and he grinned ferociously as he said it,
gpt
That man could not tell a story, Finaun interrupted,
human
If we meet him, said Mac Cann grimly,
gpt
I'll do something to him and he'll remember it, and it's likely that he will be able to make a story out of it too.
human
I only saw him once, said Art,
gpt
What is he now?
human
He is a man.
gpt
We are all that, said Patsy,
human
It was more trouble than you imagine,
gpt
I had expected him to be no more than one of the higher animals, or even that he might have been dissipated completely from existence.
human
What was he at the time you met him?
gpt
He was a magician, and he was one of the most powerful magicians that ever lived. He was a being of the fifth round, and he had discovered many secrets.
human
I have known magicians, commented Finaun,
gpt
Brien O'Brien destroyed himself, Art continued,
human
No magician has a sense of humour, remarked Finaun,
gpt
That, Art broke in,
human
Tell us the story,
gpt
Here it is,