The Leprechaun
is a shoemaker to the faeries and is
extremely irascible and solitary. Catch him and get
crocks of gold. A thrifty professional.Take your eyes off of him and he
vanishes. Red Coat seven buttons in each row and he spins sometimes on the point of a
cocked hat. His haunts are by old castles. A very little fellow, he is always
engaged in his trade of shoemaking. If you are lucky enough to come upon him, draw
close to him without making a sound. Take him in your grasp. Then ask him
where the crocks of gold are hidden. Insist upon his telling; do not let your mind
be dissipated by his talk. In the end he will cheat you; he will say or do
something that will distract your attention, and when you look again, the Leprechaun will
have disappeared.
The Leprechauns had ceased work and were looking at the fairie children.
"God bless the work," one of the tiny faeries said politely.
One
of the Leprechauns who had a grey, puckered face and a thin fringe of grey whisker very
far under his chin, spoke.
"Come over here, Seumas Beg," said he, "and I'll measure you for a pair of
shoes. Put your foot up here."
The
faerie child did so and the Leprechaun took the measure of his foot with a wooden rule.
"Now, Brigid Beg, show me your foot," and he measured her also.
"They'll be ready for you in the morning."
"Do you never do anything else but make shoes, sir?" asked Seumas.
"We do not," replied the Leprechaun, "except when we want new clothes, an
then we have to make them, but we grudge every minute spent making anything else except
shoes, because that is the proper work for a Leprechaun. In the night time we go
about the country into people's houses and we clip little pieces off their money, and so,
bit by bit, we get a crock of gold so that if he's captured by men folk he may be able to
ransom himself. But that seldom happens, because it's a great disgrace altogether to
be captured by a man, and we've practiced so long dodging among the roots here that we can
easily get away from them. Of course, now and again we are caught; but men are
fools, and we always escape without having to pay the ransom at all. We wear green
clothes because it is the color of the grass and the leaves, and when we sit down under a
bush or lie in the grass they just walk by without noticing us."
1998 - 2002