leprechaun is quick and mysterious. He is also mischievous. And one of his great pranks is stealing wee boys away.
He steals wee Irish boys away from their homes because they do work so well. He makes them work for himself – this mischief-making fairy!
He will not bother with wee girls.
"Wee girls are not so strong as wee boys," says he.
So when you meet Shaun O'Day, you must not be surprised to find him wearing a petticoat! You must not be surprised, because it is the fault of the leprechaun.
You see, Shaun O'Day lived in a very western part of Ireland, in Connemara, where fairies abound.
And in the village where he lived, the boys were all dressed in red petticoats! They were dressed in red flannel petticoats until they reached a tall and manly age.
This was many years ago. And though they would not tell you why they wore those petticoats, I am telling you 'twas because of the leprechauns.
Every wee boy's mother feared the leprechaun. And so she dressed her boy in the dress of the girl to trick that sly creature.
Boys were needed badly by the human folk. Why should the fairy folk be taking them away?
Shaun had a good, kind father. He was a fisherman. Shaun's mother was dead.
But Shaun and his father lived happily enough until one day Shaun's father married again.
He married a woman who had four sons. Grown-up boys they were, and lazy.
Like the Queen in the story of Conn-eda, this woman was unkind. Little love had she for Shaun, and she made him work hard.
Poor little lad! He was very young when he had to labor like a full grown man, while the sons of his stepmother rested or played.
Shaun was always called Shauneen by his father, who loved him dearly. "Shauneen" means "little Shaun." "Een" is the Irish for "little."
"Oh, Shauneen, lad," said the father, one night after his return from sea, "'tis tired you look, and worn. Faith! Can the school work be so hard?"
Shaun did not tell his father that the wicked stepmother had kept him from school that day. He did not tell his father that she had made him walk upon an errand, miles and miles away. He did not say that she had beaten him when he returned.
Shaun was often tempted to tell these things to his good, kind father. But he feared to cause the poor man sorrow.
"Sure, and 'twould be a pity to cause him grief, and he so good," the lad had often thought to himself. "And I can bear it all, for have I not himself to love me?"
Shauneen was a brave boy and felt that to whimper to his father would be weak.
He was a sturdy little lad. His hair was Irish red and his cheeks were bright and rosy from the damp, rainy wind. He was strong and manly.
He hated the red petticoat he was forced to wear. Often he had thought of putting on the clothing of a real boy.
But always in his heart, as in the hearts of other village boys, there was the fear of the leprechaun!
And if he were stolen away, what would his dear father do? His dear father, who loved him!
It was only because of his father that Shauneen did not give himself to the fairies.
He would not have been afraid of the fairies.
He would have liked them to take him away. They could not be so cruel as his stepmother.
Sometimes Shaun's stepmother made him mind her baby. He had to carry it upon his back. Many of the village boys did this sort of thing, and so it was not the disgrace that it would be in a present-day city.
He often went down to the shore.
To-day as he approached the shore, he met a friend. This friend was a girl, the daughter of a neighbor. Her name was Eileen. But Shauneen did not call her that.
She was his little schoolgirl sweetheart, and he called her Dawn. He called her Dawn because he told her that she was the dawn of day to him.
"Some day," he said, "'tis myself, Shaun O'Day, will marry you. Then you will be in truth my Dawn O'Day."
To-day they looked out across the great ocean and dreamed of a new world out there. They dreamed of America.
And Shaun said, "When I am tall and strong, I shall take you in a ship to America. Och, we'll be after building a houseen in the New Island!"
The New Island was their Irish name for America.
It was a rainy day, but they did not notice it. Rain is nothing to Irish children. And as they talked together on the shore in the drizzling rain, they heard a strange cry.
Louder grew the cry, and suddenly they saw men and women running toward the shore. They heard the women wailing. They heard the tramp, tramp of men's heavy boots.
Shaun stood up, with the baby on his back. He shaded his eyes and looked.
The girl stood, too. She gave a low cry.
"Och, Shauneen!" she moaned. "'Tis a fishing boat has been wrecked! Och, the poor wives and children of the men 'twere in it!"
And she moaned and rocked back and forth.
The waters made a roaring sound. The sky was leaden gray. The men were working, pulling in the wreck of the boat.
Shaun gave the baby to Eileen. Then the boy in his red petticoat started to run.
His feet were bare, but he could skim over those rough rocks like a wild animal. His feet never had known shoes.
His ruddy face had gone white. He reached the group of working men and moaning women. Then he fell upon his face, and a great sob came from his heart.
Among the lost men was his own father!
CHAPTER III
COME AWAY
"Come away, O human child!
To the woods and waters wild,
With a fairy hand in hand."
The sea had taken away Shaun's only loved one.
Shaun O'Day stood upon the banks of the little lake near his village. He stared out across the blue Irish lake. That morning his stepmother had beaten him.
It was several months since the sea accident had taken his father from him. It was several sad, cruel months to the boy Shaun.
If it had not been for his little Dawn O'Day, Shaun would have run away. He would have run and run – anywhere to get away from this life of hard work and cruelty.
But he did not want to leave little Dawn O'Day. She pleaded with him to stay. She was afraid of the fairies.
To-day he stood beside the lake, and he had a bundle by his side.
