The Green Helmet and Other Poems Part 6

[_CONALL takes up Helmet and gazes at it with delight_]

LAEGAIRE

[_Singing, with a swaggering stride_]

Laegaire is best; Between water and hill, He fought in the west With cat heads, until At the break of day All fell by his sword, And he carried away Their hidden h.o.a.rd.

[_He seizes the Helmet_]

CONALL

Give it me, for what did you find in the bag But the straw and the broken delf and the bits of dirty rag You'd taken for good money?

CUCHULAIN

No, no, but give it me.

[_He takes Helmet_]

CONALL

The Helmet's mine or Laegaire's--you're the youngest of us three.

CUCHULAIN

[_Filling Helmet with ale_]

I did not take it to keep it--the Red Man gave it for one, But I shall give it to all--to all of us three or to none; That is as you look upon it--we will pa.s.s it to and fro, And time and time about, drink out of it and so Stroke into peace this cat that has come to take our lives.

Now it is purring again, and now I drink to your wives, And I drink to Emer, my wife.

[_A great noise without and shouting_]

Why, what in G.o.d's name is that noise?

CONALL

What else but the charioteers and the kitchen and stable boys Shouting against each other, and the worst of all is your own, That chariot-driver, Laeg, and they'll keep it up till the dawn, And there's not a man in the house that will close his eyes to-night, Or be able to keep them from it, or know what set them to fight.

[_A noise of horns without_]

There, do you hear them now? such hatred has each for each They have taken the hunting horns to drown one other's speech For fear the truth may prevail.--Here's your good health and long life, And, though she be quarrelsome, good health to Emer, your wife.

[_The charioteers, Stable Boys and Kitchen Boys come running in.

They carry great horns, ladles and the like_]

LAEG

I am Laeg, Cuchulain's driver, and my master's c.o.c.k of the yard.

ANOTHER

Conall would scatter his feathers.

[_Confused murmurs_]

LAEGAIRE

[_To_ CUCHULAIN]

No use, they won't hear a word.

CONALL

They'll keep it up till the dawn.

ANOTHER

It is Laegaire that is the best, For he fought with cats in Connaught while Conall took his rest And drained his ale pot.

ANOTHER

Laegaire--what does a man of his sort Care for the like of us! He did it for his own sport.

ANOTHER

It was all mere luck at the best.

ANOTHER

But Conall, I say--

ANOTHER

Let me speak.

LAEG

You'd be dumb if the c.o.c.k of the yard would but open his beak.

ANOTHER

Before your c.o.c.k was born, my master was in the fight.

LAEG

Go home and praise your grand-dad. They took to the horns for spite, For I said that no c.o.c.k of your sort had been born since the fight began.

ANOTHER