"Then the man went and cut off one of the legs of the bird which had
been killed, and they took it with them and started back. As they went
they passed a mountain ash which had berries of enormous size, and the
man put one of them into the chariot. Then the man saw huge ivy
leaves, and he took one of them too. So they went back to St.
Patrick's house and showed all the men there what they had brought.
The leg of the bird and the berry and the ivy leaf were even larger
than Oisin had said. And after that they all believed the stories that
Oisin told them, and all of them agreed that a man who had lived in
the days when there were such trees and such beasts and such men in
Erin should be his own judge as to how much he needed to eat. And so
after that all of St. Patrick's men treated him as well as did St.
Patrick himself.
"But Oisin died only a little while after that, the last of the great
heroes of Erin. He had lived for more than three hundred years, and it
seemed to him no more than the life of a young man."
[Illustration: ]
X
THE IRON CRUCIFIX
Kathleen had not been at home long, of course, before Peter and Ellen
came to see her, and Terence came with them.
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