hareskin coat. [Looking round at the ham bone.] Give me the loan of a kippeen to stir the pot with. . . . [He takes the ham bone and puts it into the pot.]
john. Oh! the ham bone!
tramp. I didn’t say a ham bone, I said a hare-skin coat.
sibby. Hold your tongue, John, if it’s deaf you are getting.
tramp [stirring the pot with the ham bone]. Well, as I was telling you he was sitting up, and one time I thought he was as small as a nut, and the next minute I thought his head to be in the stars. Frightened I was.
sibby. No wonder, no wonder at all in that.
tramp. He took the little stone then—that stone I have with me—out of the side pocket of his coat, and he showed it to me. 'Call off your dog,' says he, 'and I'll give you that stone, and if ever you want a good drop of broth or a bit of stirabout, or a drop of poteen itself, all you have to do is to put it down in a pot with a drop of water and stir it awhile, and you'll have the thing you were wanting ready before you.'
sibby. Poteen! Would it make that?
tramp. It would, ma’am; and wine, the same as the Clare Miltia uses.
sibby. Let me see what does it look like now. [Is bending forward.]
