About noon
All that forenoon Mrs. Joyce had happy dreams about the mending of the family fortunes , which would be effected by Bessy 's marriage with Jerry Dunne . When her neighbour , Mrs. Ryan , looked in , she could not forbear mentioning the expected call , and was further elated because Mrs. Ryan at once remarked : `` Sure , ` twill be Bessy he 's after , '' though she herself , of course , disclaimed the idea , saying : `` Och musha , ma'am , not at all . '' The Ryans were tenants who had also been put out of Clonmena , and they occupied a cabin adjoining the Joyces ' , these two dwellings , backed by the slopes of the Knockawn , forming the nucleus of Lisconnel . About noon , Paddy , the eldest boy , approached at a hand gallop , bestriding a donkey which belonged to the gang of men who were still working on the unfinished road . As soon as the beast reached the open-work stone wall of the potato-field it resolutely scraped its rider off , a thing it had been vainly wishing to do all along the fenceless track . Paddy , however , alighted unconcerned among the clattering stones , and ran on with his tidings . These were to the effect that he was `` after seein ' Jerry Dunne shankin ' up from Duffclane ways , a goodish bit below the indin ' of the road , and he wid a great big basket carryin ' , fit to hould a young turf-stack . ''