The Crock of Gold

n right hand above his head (this is both the fairy and the Gaelic form of salutation), and would have passed on but that a thought brought h

ur name, a

, sir," the

e name," said

er calls me, sir,"

ther call you," wa

aelduin O'Carbha

n, and he turned to the little girl.

d Beg,

es your fath

calls me a

ittle children, and I like you very much. Hea

As he went he made little jumps and cracked his fing

e Leprecaun,"

m too," sa

e Leprecaun, and you be the two chil

ey di

He sat down beside the children and, as

to ask us our names

dress shyly. "My name, sir

y Jackstones?" sa

," repli

aid the Leprecaun, and he picked up some p

play Ball in

r," sai

nail with my ree-ro-raddy-O, I ca

," repli

Billy-goat's Tail, and Towns, and Relievo, and Leap-frog. I'll teach you all these games," said

p over Breedeen's back, and then I run and jump over Seumaseen's back like this, and then I run ahead again and I bend down. Now, Breedeen, you jump over your brother, and then you

ne game, sir,

said the Leprecaun. "That's a good jum

d Seumas, "and I'll jump as well as you do when

in sloped distantly away to the skyline. There was a raggedy blackberry hedge all round the field, and there were long, tough, haggard-looking plants growing in clumps here and there. Near a corner of this field there was a broad, lo

rigid, and she fl

one leg against the other, and then he also d

r before. There was one of the children whom she hated; it was her own child, but as she had forgotten which of them was hers, and as she loved one of them, she was co

ning wore on to the night, and while she waited for the Philosopher to come in she reviewed the situation. Her husband had not come in, the children had not come in, the Leprecaun had not returned as arranged. . . . A light flashed u

said she, "the Leprecauns of Gort na C

r gazed at her

procedure is to attach a person and hold it to ransom. If the ransom is not paid an ear or a finger may be cut from the captive and desp

oman passionately, "that it is your

thieving, or from some other obscure and possibly functional causes, and the victim is retained in their forts or duns until by the effluxion of time th

Woman in a deep voice,

ising or other expeditions from whence they return with a rich booty of aphides and other stock, who thence-forward become the servants and domestic creatures of the republic. As they neither kill nor eat their captives, this practice will be termed kidnapping. The same may be sai

erstand?" screame

indeed, sharing their coconuts, yams, plantains, and other equatorial provender with the largest generosity, and conveying their delicate

d the Thin Woman, "your

n it, my dear?" sa

plied the Thin Woman,

ry attack of rheumatism he had ever known, nor did he get any ease