“Larry, however, made him no answer; and, on looking for him again, there was no Larry there for him.  ‘Nelly,’ says he to his wife, ‘did you see any sight of Larry since, he went to the still-house?’ ‘Arrah, no indeed, Tom,’ says she; ’what’s coming over you to spake to the man that’s near Drum-furrar by this time?’ ‘God keep him from harm!’ said Tom;—­’poor fellow, I wish nothing ill may happen him this night!  I’m afeard, Nelly, that I saw his fetch;* and if I did, he hasn’t long to live; for when one’s fetch is seen at this time of night, their lase of life, let them be sick or in health, is always short.’

* This in the North of Ireland is called wraith, as in Scotland.  The Fetch is a spirit that assumes the likeness of a particular person.  It does not appear to the individual himself whose resemblance it assumes, but to some of his friends.  If it is seen in the morning, it betokens long life; if after sunset, approaching death; after nightfall, immediate death.

“‘Hut, Tom aroon!’ says Nelly, ’it was the shadow of the jamb or yourself you saw in the light of the candle, or the shadow of the bed-post.’

“The next morning they were all up, hoping that he would drop in to them.  Sally got a creel of turf, notwithstanding her condition, and put down a good fire to warm him; but the morning passed, and no sign of him.  She now got very unasy, and mintioned to his brother what she felt, and Tom went up to the still-house to know if he was there, or to try if he could get any tidings of him.  But, by the laws! when he heard that he had left that for home the night before, and he in a state of liquor, putting this, and what he had heard and seen in his house together, Tom knew that something must have happened him.  He went home again, and on his way had his eye about him, thinking that it would be no miracle, if he’d meet him lying head-foremost in a ditch; however, he did not, but went on, expecting to find him at home before him.

“In the mane time, the neighbors had been all raised to search for him; and, indeed, the hills were alive with people.  It was the second day after, that Sally was standing, looking out at her own door towards the mountains, expecting that every man with a blue coat upon him might be Larry, when she saw a crowd of people coming down the hills.  Her heart leaped to her mouth, and she sent Dick, the eldest of the sons, to meet them, and run back with word to her if he was among them.  Dick went away; but he hadn’t gone far when he met his uncle Tom, coming on before the rest.

“‘Uncle,’ says Dick, ’did you get my father? for I must fly back with word to my mother, like lightning.’