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Show brought to the bank. But the selfishness selfish-ness and cupidity in the men again showed itself and they vowed they would not part with this fish at any cost, adding the information that the showing of a fish of the size and beauty of this one would make them the envied of the neighborhood. Whereupon St. Patrick told them who he was, and told them that they deserved no pity or mercy. He decreed that from then on the lovely smiling river should dry up, as also should the little lake it had formed and provide no more fish. The two fishermen were transformed into tall stones, standing side by side, with a smaller stone at their feet, shaped like the fish bag they had carried. And the story goes that at the words of St. Patrick the waters dried up, and since that, time no stream flows by the lonely, weather-beaten hill, and no little lake glistens glis-tens in the summer sunshine. And if you should be skeptical enough to doubt the truth of this legend le-gend when it is told you in some peasant peas-ant home, you will do so no more after the man of the house leads you to the lonely wind-swept waste of land that is called Moneen, and telling you the tale anew, shows you the dried-up river bed and the two tall stones, standing like sentinels in the gray dusk, bearing evidence to the fate that met the men who broke their word to the saint of Erin's Isle. Dj : S g Legend g fa I I of St. Patrick jjj ? at Moneen c ; a Pr THE neighborhood of Ard- J croney. In County Tipperary, not far from where the River ffffi-sfr Shannon forms the great Lough Derg, there is a lonesome flat stretch of land, with a high gravel hill on the northeast, called Moneen-a-da-Iaussga, meaning "the little bog of the two fishermen," But for many years the full name has been very seldom used and the place is known and called by the name Moneen only. Although Al-though now perfectly dry there is ample evidence to prove that a stream of water of considerable size once wound its way along the foot of the high gravel hill. Every place that savors of mystery In Ireland has a legend or story attached at-tached to it, and it goes without saying say-ing that Moneen has its own. If you go among the peasants in tlie neighborhood neigh-borhood you will hear the story, told as only an Irish peasant can tell, of the tilings that happened long ago: In the early days of Erin a large river is supposed to have run through the valley adjacent to Moneen, and when it came to tlie wild stretch of land at the foot of the bill it formed a large pool of water, which was tlie favorite haunt of all who loved fishing, fish-ing, as it was well stocked with all kinds of fish that were good to eat. The story goes that one day two men were trying their luck at the sport, but were meeting with little success. After many hours of fruitless striving, they were about ready to give up, when, on looking up.' they beheld, to their surprise, several strangers standing stand-ing beside them. One of them, who seemed to be tlie leader of the rest and on whose our.tenance was reflected re-flected a strange light, asked tlie men what success they wore having. Upon hearing of their failure to land even one fish, the .stranger, who was none oilier than St. Patrick, offered to pray for them, telling them that the reason for his request was that he and his companions had boon fasting all day and wore weak anil faint. To this the men readily agreed and the hooks were rebaitod and cast into the wafer. Tn a few niinules a large ami shiny fish was lying on the bank. St. Patrick, Pat-rick, si retched forth his hand to get the fish, whereupon Hie fisherman pleaded hard that the very next fish brought in would be ills. The saint seemed distressed at the breaking of Hie promise given, and reluctantly consented con-sented to wait for the next fish. Again, at the casting of the line a fish, even larger anil more beautiful than the first was landed. But the fishermen again broke their word, ami the saint was sorely grieved, hut finally promised prom-ised to wait for tlie next fish, which the men declared should be his under any circumstances. At the third casting out of the line, a fish us large ns the other two combined, com-bined, and twice us beuutiful, was |