Chapter 4
He was given good training by the women in running and leaping
and swimming.
One of them would take a thorn switch in her hand, and Fionn
would take a thorn switch in his hand, and each would try to strike
the other running round a tree.
You had to go fast to keep away from the switch behind, and a
small boy feels a switch. Fionn would run his best to get away from
that prickly stinger, but how he would run when it was his turn to
deal the strokes!
With reason too, for his nurses had suddenly grown implacable.
They pursued him with a savagery which he could not distinguish
from hatred, and they swished him well whenever they got the
chance.
Fionn learned to run. After a while he could buzz around a tree
like a maddened fly, and oh, the joy, when he felt himself dra
