Paddy Maloney and the well-sinkers, after belting and blasting all day long, used to drop in at night, and throw the table outside, and take the girls up, and prance about the floor with them till all hours.
Nearly every week Mother gave a ball.

It might have been every night only for Dad.

He said the jumping about destroyed the ground-floor--wore it away and made the room like a well.

And whenever it rained hard and the water rushed in he had to bail it out.

Dad always looked on the dark side of things.