They were passing the gate of a big building that Bartley said was the workhouse, and a collection of tramps, men and women, were passing through it. They had been given a night's shelter and had done a morning's work in return. There was a boy with the tramps. He hurried from the group and went alongside the cart. Finn saw that the boy carried a pigeon on his shoulder. He was older than Finn, being twelve or thirteen years of age, and had red hair and a freckled face and ran on in his bare feet. Bartley said that the pigeon on the boy's shoulder was a nun-pigeon, and Finn saw that it had a remarkable hood on its head.

Well, the boy went beside the cart and he looked very disappointed when they drew up alongside of Flannigan's shop. The horse was unharnessed and left in the yard and Bartley and Finn took their breakfast. Two hours later they were on the road again. A few miles outside the town they heard the music of a tin-whistle. It was being played by somebody sitting in a ditch. When they came alongside of the player Finn saw that he was the red-headed boy with the nun-pigeon. He put himself before the horse and continued playing with great energy. Then, holding the tin-whistle in his hand he ran by the cart, saying to Bartley:

"Eh, mister, is this the road to Dublin?"

Bartley told him it was but that it would take him a long time to get to the city.

Then he said with a whine in his voice, "I'm a poor lone boy going the roads of Ireland and I'm travelling hungry."

Bartley told him he would give him a lift as far as the next town, and with a grin of great triumph the boy mounted the cart, the pigeon still keeping on his shoulder.

He told Bartley that his name was Tim Rogan and that his father was a travelling tumbler. They would put down a little carpet on the street of a town and then Tim would play on the tin-whistle to bring a crowd. His father would tumble then for the children and in this way they got coppers. But before his father took to strolling he was a great man. He used to swing off trapezes in Beatty's Show and his name used to be on the placards as the Great Caucasian Acrobat. There used to be pictures, too, of his father flying through the air. But his father became very strange and Mr. Beatty said that it was that he lost his nerve and couldn't act on the trapezes any more. Then he started as a travelling tumbler with Tim playing the tin-whistle for him. His father became more and more queer and he told Tim not to be following him. He beat him with a belt for going after him one day. Then, a couple of nights ago when they were sleeping in a shed his father got up in the middle of the night and went away. Tim hadn't seen him since. Then he followed some tramps and went with them into the workhouse last night.

Finn wanted to know where he had got the pigeon.

It was his own pigeon, Tim Rogan said. He was nearly forgetting it the day they left the show. But he went back from the road and the pigeon flew down off Beatty's van and lit on his shoulder. He had stayed there ever since.

Where did he get the tin-whistle, Bartley asked.

Tim said it was a very expensive sort of tin-whistle. It was called a variegated tin-whistle and you paid eight-pence for it. It was a great sort of a tin-whistle. There was great sound in it. Saying this Tim Rogan put the tin-whistle to his mouth and played a march. The horse pricked up its ears and went forward with more spirit. Bartley, who wasn't in his best spirits that morning, began to get into a better humour. Tim played one tune after another. They found themselves getting past dull bits of country—fields beside an empty road where there were only black bullocks looking across gates, and other fields, more empty still, where herons rose from beside pools of water and flew lazily away. They came into a village and Bartley got a dinner for Tim. He ate quickly and slipped away while Finn and Bartley were waiting for tea. But when they were on the road again and some miles outside the town they heard the music of the tin-whistle and came upon Tim playing for some men who were working in the bog. He put up the tin-whistle and begged for a lift for another bit of the road. He played on at the time when the light is leaving the sky and when it gets more lonesome on the road. Then when he put the tin-whistle in his pocket he told Bartley that he was going to Dublin to find his grandmother. If he had anyone friendly to him at all, he said, he could get a job after a while. He should like to drive a horse and van.

That night they came into the town of Ballymore. They drew up at Mrs. Foley's. Tim wanted to slip off, but Bartley said he would get him a supper and a place to sleep for the night. Mrs. Foley gave him a bed beside Jimmy, the servant boy. But they found out next morning that Tim never slept in the bed at all. He went out in the middle of the night and stayed in the stable with the horse.