Though I have looked forward to to-day for a long time, it was not so pleasant as I expected. For no pleasure can be enjoyed without some work in the background to throw it into relief. Did nothing but stamps and read ‘Lands and Peoples’ all day. In the morning cycled to Arthur to tell him I could not come with him to Fountainstown as invited, mar dheadh [under the pretence] on account of having to help Mám. Miss O’Brien was for dinner and Fr. McCarthy for tea. He was in Brussels and Aachen for his holidays. He had a frightening story about a priest’s house in remote Scull which he visited, and where all night he was struggling with an abnormally large bat trying to get it out of the window. The priest there knows his house is haunted because one day he saw it blazing madly, and on rushing thither found all quite normal! Farranferris did awfully in the exams. Only 2 out of 16 passed I.C.H.!! [Intermediate Certificate Honours] I suppose poor Timmie Leary has failed. The poor fellow will have to go to America!
