School: Ballynacally, Inis (roll number 2189)

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1. Comic Story

   

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   There was a man living in Lisheen named Pat O'Byrne, and he had three sons. He was very poor so on that account he sent his eldest son Jack to County Limerick to earn a living. He started off from Lisheen on a Sunday evening at about three o'clock and arrived at Palaskenry in County Limerick at about twelve o'clock next day. A well-to-do farmer there hired him and made a bargain him to keep him until the cuckoo should first be heard in Palaskenry, and that if he did anything wrong that his master would have to get three pounds of flesh out of his back, but that if the master did anything wrong the boy would have to get three pounds of flesh from him.
   When he arrived at his master's house the were eating their dinner, and of course he ate with them. When he had eaten with them he asked the other servant "what do you do after eating your supper" and he answered "we go to bed of course". When Jack heard this he went to bed thinking that he was after eating his supper instead of his dinner. His master missed him about an hour after and asked the other servant where he was gone, and he told him that he was gone to bed, but the master said nothing this time. A couple of days later when Jack got his master gone to a feast he went down the field to where the sheep are kept. He found a couple

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Folktales index

   AT1000: Bargain Not to Become Angry

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Eily Tuohy

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Inishmore or Deer Island, Co. Clare

   Informant

   John O' Neill

   Gender

   Male

   Age

   75

   Address

   Lavally, Co. Clare