School: Killmallock Convent School

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1. The Farmer's Wife and the Chickens

   

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   There was a very rich farmer there one time, but his wife was a very miserly woman. There was a very poor, honest, old woman living beside the farmer in a small, little house. This poor woman had a lot of fowl, and she used to sell the eggs to keep herself. Every day she used miss some of her fowl gone. So one day she went into town to sell some eggs and when she came in there was not one of her fowl left. She was in an awful way for she used to sell the eggs to keep herself.
   It was in a few days after when she heard that the farmers wife was very bad. The poor, old woman went to see her. The farmer's wife was delighted to see her. As she was dying she told the poor woman that it was she who stole all her fowl, and she asked the woman if she would forgive her. The poor, old woman said she wouldn't and when the farmer's wife died all the combs of the chickens were in her face, and the cock's comb was in the middle. Then the rich woman's husband begged and implored the poor woman to forgive her. She forgave her and immediately the combs of the chickens and the cock went from her forehead that minute.
   No one knew why the farmer's wife took the fowl, and the poor woman was never short of anything while she had the farmer, and he gave her back all the chickens his wife took from her.

   

   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. activities
      1. economic activities
         1. agriculture (~2,659)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Eileen O' Connell

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Kilmallock, Co. Limerick

   Informant

   Mary Naughton

   Gender

   Female

   Age

   65