human
What's your name, mister?
gpt
I was known as Old Carolan, but now the people call me Billy the Music.
human
How is it that I never met you before?
gpt
I'm from Connemara.
human
I know every cow-track and bohereen in Connemara, and I know every road in Donegal and Kerry, and I know everybody that's on them roads, but I don't know you, mister.
gpt
I'm not long on the roads, so how could you know me? What are you called yourself?
human
I'm called Padraig Mac Cann.
gpt
I know you well, for you stole a hen and a pair of boots off me ten months ago when I lived in a house.
human
Do you tell me?
gpt
I do; and I never grudged them to you, for that was the day that everything happened to me.
human
Well, glory be to God! he cried.
gpt
Isn't it the queer world! Are you old Carolan, the miserly man of Temple Cahill?
human
I used to be him, but now I'm Billy the Music, and there's my instrument under the boy's oxter.
gpt
And where's the house and the cattle, and the hundred acres of grass land and glebe, and the wife that people said you used to starve the stomach out of?
human
Faith, I don't know where they are, and I don't care either,
gpt
And your sister that killed herself climbing out of a high window on a windy night to search for food among the neighbours?
human
She's dead still,
gpt
I declare, said Patsy,
human
There's the field I was telling you about and it's weighty to the ribs with potatoes and turnips.
gpt
Gather in the potatoes; don't take them all from the one place, but take them from here and there the way they won't be missed, and then go along the road with the cart for twenty minutes and be cooking them. Myself and Caeltia will catch up on you in a little time and we'll bring good meat with us.