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And a stupid mortal had tricked me twice. It was then I left the rath. It was then I could bear to look at nobody, man or fairy. Then I put on the red jacket and went by myself. After a time I was a lepracaun, and a cluricaun, and nothing at all, as it suited me, and sometimes I lived in a rath with others, as I have in yours, and other times I went by myself.
We had dreams of our own and to have right at our fireside the one man in all the world who saw things and get merely a dream from him was, to say the least, discouraging. "I thocht I heer'd th' rat, tap; rat, tap, ov th' Lepracaun th' feerie shoemaker. "'Is that th' Lepracaun? says I. 'If it is I want m' three wishes. 'Get thim out, says he, 'fur I'm gey busy th' night.
So they went, and Tom held the Lepracaun fast in his hand, and never took his eyes from off him, though they had to cross hedges and ditches, and a crooked bit of bog, till at last they came to a great field all full of boliauns, and the Lepracaun pointed to a big boliaun, and says he, "Dig under that boliaun, and you'll get the great crock all full of guineas."
So Tom came home again with his spade on his shoulder, a little cooler than he went, and many's the hearty curse he gave the Lepracaun every time he thought of the neat turn he had served him. A rich woman sat up late one night carding and preparing wool, while all the family and servants were asleep. Suddenly a knock was given at the door, and a voice called, "Open! open!"
Tom in his hurry had never thought of bringing a spade with him, so he made up his mind to run home and fetch one; and that he might know the place again he took off one of his red garters, and tied it round the boliaun. Then he said to the Lepracaun, "Swear ye'll not take that garter away from that boliaun." And the Lepracaun swore right away not to touch it.
And hasn't he made you as much trouble as any fir darrig could do?" "I was a lepracaun, too, once, Your Majesty," Naggeneen said. "A lepracaun, were you? What did you do then? And when was it and how did it happen that a lazy lump like you was ever a lepracaun?"
Tom was taken so by surprise with this that he was just on the very point of turning round when he recollected himself; so, afraid that the like might happen again, he made a grab at the Lepracaun, and caught him up in his hand; but in his hurry he overset the pitcher, and spilt all the beer, so that he could not get a taste of it to tell what sort it was.
"If idleness could make you fall to pieces, there wouldn't have been a piece of you left big enough to make trouble in a fly's eye, these last seven hundred years." "As you say, Your Majesty," Naggeneen went on, "but, anyway, I was a lepracaun, and I did what any other lepracaun does: I sat in the field or under a tree and made brogues.
"I suppose," said the Lepracaun, very civilly, "you have no further occasion for me?" "No," says Tom; "you may go away now, if you please, and God speed you, and may good luck attend you wherever you go." "Well, good-bye to you, Tom Fitzpatrick," said the Lepracaun; "and much good may it do you when you get it."
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