The Irish Twins Part 2

"'You must go out into the wide world and seek your fortune, for I can keep you no longer,' says the Mother.

"'Mother, I will,' says he.

"'And will you take a big cake with my curse or a little cake with my blessing?'

"'A little cake,' says he.

"So she baked it for him and gave him her blessing, and he went away, and she a-weeping after him fine and loud. And by and by he came to the same spring in the woods where the bad son was before him, and the small, little bird sat again on the side of it.

"'Give me a bit of your cakeen for my little ones in the nest,' says she.

"'I will,' says the good son, and he broke her off a fine piece, and she dipped her beak in the spring and turned it into sweet wine; and when he bit into his cake, sure, it was turned into fine plum-cake entirely; and he ate and drank and went on light-hearted. And next day he comes to the farmer's house.

"'Will ye tend the cows for me?' says the farmer.

"'I will,' says the good son.

"'Be wise,' says the farmer's wife, 'for the clover-field beyond is belonging to a giant, and if you leave in the cows, he will kill you dead.'

"'Never fear,' says the good son, 'I don't sleep at my work.'

"And he goes out in the field and lugs a big stone up in the tree, and then sends every cow far out in the clover-fields and goes back again to the tree! And out comes the giant a-roaring, so you could hear the roars of him a mile away, and when he finds the cow-boy, he goes under the tree to shake him down, but the good little son slips out the big stone, and it fell down and broke the giant's head entirely. So the good son went running away to the giant's house, and it being full to the eaves of gold and diamonds and splendid things.

"So you see what fine luck comes to folks that is good and honest! And he went home and fetched his old Mother, and they lived rich and contented, and died very old and respected."

"Do you suppose your son Michael killed any giants in America, the way he got to be an Alderman?" asked Eileen, when Grannie had finished her story.

"I don't rightly know that," Grannie answered. "Maybe it wasn't just exactly giants, but you can see for yourself that he is rich and respected, and he with a silk hat, and riding in a procession the same as the Lord-Mayor himself!"

"Did you ever see a giant or a fairy or any of the good little people themselves, Grannie Malone?" Larry asked.

"I've never exactly seen any of them with my own two eyes," she answered, "but many is the time I've talked with people and they having seen them. There was Mary O'Connor now,--dead long since, G.o.d rest her.

She told me this tale herself, and she sitting by this very hearth.

Wait now till I wet my mouth with a sup of tea in it, and I'll be telling you the tale the very same way she told it herself."

Note 1. Adapted from "Marygold House," in _Play-Days_, by Sarah Orne Jewett.

CHAPTER THREE.

THE TALE OF THE LEPRECHAUN.

Grannie reached for the teapot and poured herself a cup of tea. As she sipped it, she said to the twins, "Did you ever hear of the Leprechauns?

Little men they are, not half the bigness of the smallest baby you ever laid your two eyes on. Long beards they have, and little pointed caps on the heads of them.

"And it's forever making the little brogues (shoes) they are, and you can hear the tap-tap of their hammers before you ever get sight of them at all. And the gold and silver and precious things they have hidden away would fill the world with treasures.

"But they have the sharpness of the new moon, that's sharp at both ends, and no one can get their riches away from them at all. They do be saying that if you catch one in your two hands and never take your eyes off him, you can make him give up his money.

"But they've the tricks of the world to make you look the other way, the Leprechauns have. And then when you look back again, faith, they're nowhere at all!"

"Did Mary O'Connor catch one?" asked Eileen.

"Did she now!" cried Grannie. "Listen to this. One day Mary O'Connor was sitting in her bit of garden, with her knitting in her hand, and she was watching some bees that were going to swarm.

"It was a fine day in June, and the bees were humming, and the birds were chirping and hopping, and the b.u.t.terflies were flying about, and everything smelt as sweet and fresh as if it was the first day of the world.

"Well, all of a sudden, what did she hear among the bean-rows in the garden but a noise that went tick-tack, tick-tack, just for all the world as if a brogue-maker was putting on the heel of a pump!

"'The Lord preserve us,' says Mary O'Connor; 'what in the world can that be?'

"So she laid down her knitting, and she went over to the beans. Now, never believe me, if she didn't see sitting right before her a bit of an old man, with a c.o.c.ked hat on his head and a dudeen (pipe) in his mouth, smoking away! He had on a drab-coloured coat with big bra.s.s b.u.t.tons on it, and a pair of silver buckles on his shoes, and he working away as hard as ever he could, heeling a little pair of pumps!

"You may believe me or not, Larry and Eileen McQueen, but the minute she clapped her eyes on him, she knew him for a Leprechaun.

"And she says to him very bold, 'G.o.d save you, honest man! That's hard work you're at this hot day!' And she made a run at him and caught him in her two hands!

"'And where is your purse of money?' says she.

"'Money!' says he; 'money is it! And where on top of earth would an old creature like myself get money?' says he.

"'Maybe not on top of earth at all, but _in_ it,' says she; and with that she gave him a bit of a squeeze. 'Come, come,' says she. 'Don't be turning your tricks upon an honest woman!'

"And then she, being at the time as good-looking a young woman as you'd find, put a wicked face on her, and pulled a knife from her pocket, and says she, 'If you don't give me your purse this instant minute, or show me a pot of gold, I'll cut the nose off the face of you as soon as wink.'

"The little man's eyes were popping out of his head with fright, and says he, 'Come with me a couple of fields off, and I'll show you where I keep my money!'

"So she went, still holding him fast in her hand, and keeping her two eyes fixed on him without so much as a wink, when, all of a sudden, what do you think?

"She heard a whiz and a buzz behind her, as if all the bees in the world were humming, and the little old man cries out, 'There go your bees a-swarming and a-going off with themselves like blazes!'

"She turned her head for no more than a second of time, but when she looked back there was nothing at all in her hand.

"He slipped out of her fingers as if he were made of fog or smoke, and sorrow a bit of him did she ever see after." [Note 1.]

"And she never got the gold at all," sighed Eileen.

"Never so much as a ha'penny worth," said Grannie Malone.

"I believe I'd rather get rich in America than try to catch Leprechauns for a living," said Larry.

"And you never said a truer word," said Grannie. "'Tis a poor living you'd get from the Leprechauns, I'm thinking, rich as they are."

By this time the teapot was empty, and every crumb of the cakeen was gone, and as Larry had eaten two potatoes, just as Eileen thought he would, there was little left to clear away.

It was late in the afternoon. The room had grown darker, and Grannie Malone went to the little window and looked out.