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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41015 ***
+
+Shaun O'Day of Ireland
+
+
+  [Illustration: SHAUN O'DAY OF IRELAND]
+
+
+  SHAUN O'DAY
+  _of_ IRELAND
+
+  BY
+  MADELINE BRANDEIS
+
+  _Producer of the Motion Pictures_
+
+  "The Little Indian Weaver"
+  "The Wee Scotch Piper"
+  "The Little Dutch Tulip Girl"
+  "The Little Swiss Wood Carver"
+
+  Distributed by Pathé Exchange, Inc., New York City
+
+
+  _Photographic Illustrations made in Ireland by the Author_
+
+
+  GROSSET & DUNLAP
+  PUBLISHERS NEW YORK
+  _by arrangement with the A. Flanagan Company_
+
+
+  COPYRIGHT, 1929. BY A. FLANAGAN COMPANY
+
+  PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+When I began to write these stories about children of all lands I had
+just returned from Europe whither I journeyed with Marie and Ref. Maybe
+you don't know Marie and Ref. I'll introduce them: Please meet Marie, my
+very little daughter, and Ref, my very big reflex camera.
+
+These two are my helpers. Marie helps by being a little girl who knows
+what other little girls like and by telling me; and Ref helps by
+snapping pictures of everything interesting that Marie and I see on our
+travels. I couldn't get along without them.
+
+Several years have gone by since we started our work together and Marie
+is a bigger girl--but Ref hasn't changed one bit. Ref hasn't changed any
+more than my interest in writing these books for you. And I hope that
+_you_ hope that I'll never change, because I want to keep on writing
+until we'll have no more countries to write about--unless, of course,
+some one discovers a new country.
+
+Even if a new country isn't discovered, we'll find foreign children to
+talk about--maybe the children in Mars! Who knows? Nobody. Not even
+Marie--and Marie usually knows about most things. That's the reason why,
+you see, though I sign myself
+
+  [Illustration: Madeleine Brandeis]
+
+I am really only
+
+      Marie's Mother.
+
+
+
+
+DEDICATION
+
+
+    To every child of every land,
+      Little sister, little brother,
+    As in this book your lives unfold,
+      May you learn to love each other.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  PART I
+
+    Chapter I
+  Isn't It a Great Wonder?               13
+
+    Chapter II
+  Shauneen and the Leprechaun            32
+
+    Chapter III
+  Come Away                              48
+
+    Chapter IV
+  The Strange Land                       62
+
+    Chapter V
+  The Frightened Giant                   84
+
+
+  PART II
+
+    Chapter VI
+  John                                   98
+
+    Chapter VII
+  The Girl Fairy                        111
+
+    Chapter VIII
+  Over the Green Land                   129
+
+    Chapter IX
+  Wandering                             152
+
+    Chapter X
+  Because He Is Irish                   176
+
+
+
+
+WILL YOU WALK INTO MY STORY--?
+
+
+Just because I think it may interest you to know it:--In these
+photographs Kit Wain posed for Shaun O'Day. Kit is a real Irish boy, but
+he did not have the adventures that Shaun had in the story. He has had
+many other adventures, however, because Kit is a young actor. Dawn O'Day
+was played by Mary Jo Desmond. Mary Jo is just a little schoolgirl like
+you. She looked so much like Dawn O'Day in the story that I asked her to
+be Dawn for me. And because she is Irish and loves make-believe, she did
+it.
+
+When Shaun grew older it was Maurice Murphy who posed. Maurice has had a
+wonderful life for a young boy. He has played on the stage and in motion
+pictures and also on the piano! For he is a very talented young
+musician. Maybe you remember seeing him act in the film called "Beau
+Geste."
+
+Little saucy Marjorie was posed by a little saucy miss who is known as
+Carmencita Johnson. I should say "well known" because Carmencita, though
+only five, is already a picture star. She is a very interesting young
+person, and if I began to tell you all about her and her family of
+sisters and brothers it would take up all the book and leave no room for
+the story.
+
+John O'Day, Shaun's son, is portrayed by another little film artist. His
+name is Gordon Thorpe. Gordon is only six. But he has appeared in more
+than sixty motion pictures. Do you remember the little Prince in Douglas
+Fairbanks' "The Iron Mask?" That was Gordon. And in "The Bridge of San
+Luis Rey?" You surely recognized him.
+
+Dick Good was the fighting boy who didn't believe that Marjorie was a
+fairy. And of course I need not tell you that the scenes of cities and
+buildings and places in Ireland were all played by those cities and
+buildings and places _themselves_.
+
+That is, when I was in Ireland I asked them to pose for me. And they did
+it willingly the way the children did. They posed very well, in fact.
+Very quietly.
+
+Only the rain in Ireland is not willing. The rain does not want
+photographers to catch the beauty of the country. The rain tries to
+spoil everything for the poor photographers. But we forgive him because
+he makes Ireland so green.
+
+Here are the names of the little children who helped me so nicely by
+coming to Marjorie's birthday party and posing as her guests: Alice and
+Howard Bucquet, Caroline Kuhns, Barbara and Patrick Ford, Betty and
+Stephen Kline, Marie Madeleine Brandeis and Dietrich Haupt.
+
+The only grown-up in the story, John's girl-fairy, is Miss Alice White.
+Miss White is such a busy star that I think I should thank her for
+stopping long enough from her work to be John's girl-fairy in the pages
+of this book. And I think I should thank all the rest of these good
+people, even if they are only little people, for they too, are busy. And
+it is sometimes hard to tear oneself away from the work of the world and
+walk into a fairy tale.
+
+But these in the photographs did it. And that is what I am going to ask
+you, young readers, to do now. Come along! See if you can!
+
+MADELINE BRANDEIS.
+
+  [Illustration: UPPER LAKE KILLARNEY]
+
+
+
+
+Shaun O'Day of Ireland
+
+
+PART I
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+ISN'T IT A GREAT WONDER?
+
+
+  The wee word "why"
+  Is a fairy gift
+  To little babes at birth,
+  It opens wide the wonder world To every child on earth.
+
+Isn't it a great wonder--the fair green Emerald Isle?
+
+And do you know why Ireland is so green? It is because the rain fairies
+love Ireland. They have made it the greenest spot on earth. They do be
+sprinkling it forever with the drops of their fairy rain.
+
+Ireland is divided into four provinces. They are Ulster, Leinster,
+Munster, and Connaught.
+
+In Connaught is the County of Galway. In the County of Galway is the
+District of Connemara.
+
+In Connemara there is a village that looks out upon a lake. And in that
+village are wee houses covered with thatched roofs--roofs of straw.
+
+  [Illustration: WEE HOUSES COVERED WITH STRAW ROOFS]
+
+Inside one of these houses there lived a boy, Shaun O'Day. But I am not
+going to tell you now about Shaun O'Day, nor of the strange thing that
+befell him. Not now.
+
+First, I shall tell you about his country. I shall tell you about his
+country because all children love to know the why and the wonder of
+things. And great is the wonder of Ireland.
+
+This is the tale of the Province of Connaught and how it got its name.
+Long ago the western districts of Ireland were named after the person
+who took possession of them.
+
+At this time there reigned a powerful king whose name was Conn. He was
+good as well as great, and dearly loved by his people.
+
+His Queen was equally beloved. Her name was Eda. Their son was a blessed
+and good boy. They named him Conn-eda, after both his parents.
+
+As Conn-eda grew to manhood, his strength and goodness grew with his
+years. All was harmony in the west until a great sorrow fell upon the
+land. The Queen died. The country mourned for a year and a day.
+
+And then the King married again. But the new Queen was not good and kind
+as Queen Eda had been. She was wicked and cruel.
+
+  [Illustration: CONNEMARA PEOPLE ENGAGED IN SPINNING]
+
+She had several children of her own, and was jealous of Conn-eda, who
+was the favorite of the King and the darling of the people.
+
+She clearly foresaw that Conn-eda would be King after the death of his
+father. She wanted her own son to become King some day.
+
+And so she planned to destroy Conn-eda or have him exiled from the
+country. With envy and hatred in her heart, the wicked Queen went to
+consult a witch.
+
+The witch gave the Queen a chess-board and told her to invite Prince
+Conn-eda to play a game of chess.
+
+The witch said to the Queen, "The loser of this game shall be obliged
+to obey the orders of the winner. And, you, great Queen, shall win the
+game! Having won the game, you are to send the Prince Conn-eda upon a
+dangerous journey. He must seek and bring to you, within a year and a
+day, three golden apples, a magical black steed, and the Hound of
+Supernatural Powers. These things are so well guarded that the Prince
+will surely lose his life in attempting to seek them."
+
+The Queen was delighted and hastened to invite Conn-eda to play a game
+of chess. He agreed to the conditions of the game, and it came about as
+the witch had promised. The wicked Queen won.
+
+  [Illustration: SUBSTANTIAL HOMES IN A WOODLAND SETTING ON THE KILLARNEY
+  RIVER]
+
+But so pleased was she with her triumph and so greedy for further
+power that she challenged the Prince to another game. To the Queen's
+astonishment and horror, Conn-eda won this second game.
+
+"Since you won the first game," said Conn-eda, "you shall be first to
+command your reward."
+
+The Queen said, "My reward shall be the three golden apples, the Black
+Steed, and the Hound of Supernatural Powers. These you must seek and
+bring to me within the space of a year and a day. If you fail you must
+leave your country forever or lose your life."
+
+Conn-eda answered, "Then my order to you is that you sit upon the
+topmost spire of yonder tower until I return. If I do not return, you
+may come down at the end of the year and a day."
+
+Conn-eda was troubled and went to consult with a great Druid. The poor
+Prince had no idea how he was to find these magical treasures.
+
+The great Druid gave the Prince a little, shaggy pony. He bade Conn-eda
+obey this little horse.
+
+After further instructions from the great Druid, Conn-eda mounted the
+shaggy steed and set out upon his journey.
+
+His adventures were many. Through them all, the little shaggy horse
+helped and guided him. The animal had the power of speech.
+
+After days of hardship and danger, Conn-eda reached the walls of a
+great city. Two huge towers stood on either side of the gate and sent
+forth flames of fire. The pony bade Conn-eda alight from his back and
+take from his ear a small knife.
+
+"With this knife," said the steed, "kill me! Then wrap yourself in my
+skin, and you shall be able to pass the gates of the city unharmed. All
+I ask is that you return to my body and pour a drop of this powerful
+ointment upon my poor flesh."
+
+With these words the pony gave Conn-eda a bottle of magic fluid.
+
+The Prince cried, "Never, never! I would rather die than kill you, my
+good friend!"
+
+But at last the pony persuaded Conn-eda, and the Prince stabbed his
+noble steed. His heart bled, and he was in despair at what he had done.
+
+But he suddenly thought of the bottle of fluid which the steed had given
+him. Following the animal's advice, the Prince poured the ointment over
+the horse's body.
+
+No sooner had he done this than the horse's shape changed to the form of
+a handsome young man.
+
+"Behold!" cried the noble youth. "You have freed me from a wicked
+enchantment. I am brother of the King of the city. It was a wicked Druid
+who kept me so long in the form of a shaggy steed. Now, through your
+brave act, you have broken the spell, and I shall help you in your
+quest."
+
+  [Illustration: LOCH DERG AT KILLALOE, EMPTYING INTO THE RIVER SHANNON]
+
+The handsome Prince asked his brother, the King, for those treasures
+which Conn-eda sought. Gladly did the King give to him the apples from
+his magic tree, the Black Steed, and the precious hound. With these
+three treasures did Conn-eda return to his country.
+
+The wicked Queen, who was sitting upon the top of her tower, saw
+Conn-eda approaching. She saw him riding upon a prancing steed and
+leading a curious animal by a silver chain.
+
+The Queen knew that he was returning in triumph. In despair she cast
+herself from the tower.
+
+That was her end. And that was also the end of trouble in the kingdom of
+the west. For at the death of the good King Conn, his son Conn-eda was
+made king. Conn-eda ruled wisely, and it was after his name that the
+province of Connaught was called.
+
+In Connaught is the County of Galway. Sheep are raised in Galway. And it
+has a rugged, wild seacoast.
+
+It was on this coast that the wreck of part of the Spanish Armada took
+place in 1588. For this reason there is still to be found, in this part
+of Ireland, people of Spanish descent. And the fairies are said to love
+the County of Galway. In Galway County is the District of Connemara.
+
+Once upon a time there dwelt a powerful family named Conmac. In Irish
+"Connemara" means "Seaside of the Conmacs," for it was this wild and
+rocky shore that was used by these ancient royal people as their
+seaside.
+
+Connemara is called the Congested District of Ireland. The word
+"congested" means "overcrowded." But in this case it does not mean that
+the country is overcrowded with people. For the people are few here in
+this wild land.
+
+But the barren soil does not yield enough for those few people. And
+there is much poverty in Connemara.
+
+But there also are lakes of great beauty, and valuable marble, known
+as Connemara marble. And there are fairies! Well do the fairies love
+Connemara!
+
+  [Illustration: IRISH FARMER AND HIS SON PATCHING THE ROOF OF THEIR OLD
+  STONE HOUSE]
+
+In Connemara there is a village, and in that village lived a boy named
+Shaun O'Day.
+
+Do you know the why of that name Shaun? It is the same as the name John.
+But it is an Irish name. It is spelled "Sean" in Irish and pronounced
+"hwan."
+
+It is Jean in French, and Giovanni in Italian, and Hans in German, and
+Ivan in Russian. It is Juan in Spanish, Jock in Scotch, and Johnny in
+American.
+
+It is a Hebrew word and has a very beautiful meaning: "Gift of God." Do
+you wonder that so many boys all over the world are given the name
+John?
+
+Here we have the why and the wonder of the land of Shaun O'Day. So now
+we shall hear of the strange things that befell this lad, who lived in
+the Emerald Isle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+SHAUNEEN AND THE LEPRECHAUN
+
+
+  "Can you not catch the tiny clamor,
+  Busy click of an elfin hammer,
+  Voice of the Leprechaun ringing shrill
+  As he busily plies his trade?"
+                            --W. B. YEATS
+
+We have been speaking of the fairies and how they love Ireland.
+
+The fairies are divided into tribes just the way Ireland itself is
+divided into many districts, counties, and provinces.
+
+There are many tribes of fairies, and these tribes are all quite
+different from one another.
+
+There are those who dress like the flowers; and those that change
+themselves into various shapes. There are evil fairies and solitary
+fairies.
+
+You must always call them the "Good People," for they are easily
+offended.
+
+But if you believe in them and leave a bit of milk for them upon the
+window sill, they will bring luck and happiness to you.
+
+Now the fairy that we are going to meet in this story is called the
+leprechaun, or fairy shoemaker. We are going to meet him, because if it
+had not been for him, there would be no story at all.
+
+The fairy shoemaker sits under a toadstool making tiny shoes. The word
+"leprechaun" comes from two Irish words meaning "one shoe." The reason
+he bears this name is because he is always working upon one shoe.
+
+The 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.
+
+  [Illustration: HE WORE A FLANNEL PETTICOAT]
+
+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.
+
+  [Illustration: THEY FANCIED 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.
+
+  [Illustration: 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.
+
+  [Illustration: SHAUN STOOD UP WITH THE BABY ON HIS BACK]
+
+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.
+
+  [Illustration: HE 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!
+
+  [Illustration: HE FELL UPON HIS FACE]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+COME AWAY
+
+
+  "Come away, O human child!
+  To the woods and waters wild,
+  With a fairy hand in hand."
+                  --W. B. YEATS
+
+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.
+
+  [Illustration: HE STARED OUT ACROSS THE BLUE IRISH LAKE]
+
+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. It was
+a bulky bundle. He had worked hard all that morning. He had helped the
+men burn kelp.
+
+Kelp is seaweed. The people burn it and make iodine from what is left of
+it. Kelp burning is an important occupation in western Ireland.
+
+Shaun had worked hard. His little rough hands burned. His little sturdy
+body ached. He was hungry.
+
+He had gone home and, seeing the family at dinner, he had helped himself
+to potatoes.
+
+His stepmother had cried, "Begob, and did I tell you to serve yourself?
+Are you, indeed, the King himself?"
+
+With that, she had beaten him.
+
+Now Shaun stood upon the shore of that blue Irish lake near his village.
+He had taken a suit of clothes belonging to one of his stepbrothers. A
+suit of boy's clothes it was.
+
+He would put it on. He would stand by the lake and call to the
+leprechauns to take him away. He would work for the leprechauns. Yes,
+willingly would he work and toil for the fairy folk!
+
+He started to undo the paper in which he had wrapped the clothing. He
+heard a sound and looked up. Eileen was standing before him. It was his
+little Dawn O'Day.
+
+"Shauneen, och, Shauneen!" she cried. "What is it you are about to do?
+And why do you look that way?"
+
+Shaun did not answer. He took her hand. They sat together on the bank of
+the lake.
+
+"Faith, speak to me, Shauneen!" cried the girl, the tears starting to
+her eyes. "Speak and tell me that you are not after calling the lep--"
+
+She stopped suddenly. One should not talk about them. They are easily
+offended.
+
+Shaun kept looking out across the lake, but he held the hand of his
+little sweetheart. At last he spoke.
+
+"Sure, I am leaving you, Dawn O'Day," he said.
+
+As she started to cry out, he held up his hand and said, "No; do not
+cry, for I cannot stay. But do not fear that I shall forget you. The
+dream we made together shall come true. I'll be coming back to you. For
+there's not a faireen like you in all the world, at all."
+
+Dawn O'Day began to cry.
+
+  [Illustration: SHE PLEADED WITH HIM TO STAY]
+
+She sobbed, "Och, don't be after leaving me! Don't be after going to
+them. Och, 'tis themselves will be keeping you, and never will Dawn
+O'Day see you again!"
+
+Shaun laughed and stroked her little hand.
+
+  [Illustration: HE TOOK HER HAND]
+
+"Troth, do not fret, mavourneen," he said. "Sure, you know well I'll be
+writing to you, and never will I forget you, my Dawn O'Day."
+
+The little girl knew that it was useless to say more. The boy stood up,
+and she stood, too. They looked into each other's blue eyes.
+
+  [Illustration: "DO NOT FRET, MAVOURNEEN"]
+
+And then Eileen ran as fast as she could. She ran away from her little
+friend and sobbed as she ran. She thought she should never again see
+her Shauneen.
+
+The boy quickly changed his clothing. He tied a large rock to the red
+petticoat and threw it into the lake. He stood there in the garments of
+a boy.
+
+  [Illustration: HE TIED A ROCK TO THE PETTICOAT]
+
+He held out his arms and cried, "Come, leprechauns! Sure, I'm ready to
+go with you!"
+
+There was no fear in his heart. Any other boy in that village would have
+trembled at doing such a thing. But other boys were contented at home.
+
+Other boys had mothers and fathers and good homes. They did not want to
+be stolen away. Shauneen was not afraid.
+
+He stood and called as he stood. He was straight and strong. He would
+make a splendid helper for a shoemaker. Why did the fairy shoemakers not
+come and take him? He stood there until dusk. Then he grew tired and lay
+down to sleep. He slept long. It was early dawn when he awoke.
+
+He stood once more and called out, "I am ready to go. Come, leprechauns,
+come!"
+
+  [Illustration: "COME, LEPRECHAUNS! I'M READY TO GO"]
+
+But not a one came. And the lad was puzzled.
+
+Now Shaun was keen. He was one who thought and planned. He did not
+intend to go back to his stepmother.
+
+He began to wonder whether the tale of the leprechauns was true. Had
+anyone ever really seen one? Only old Patch, the village shoemaker, and
+he was half-witted.
+
+But no one had been with Patch when he had seen the leprechaun. No one
+ever had seen the fairies; but they all believed. They believed so much
+that they were in daily dread of them.
+
+They left milk upon window sills and made charms to keep the fairies
+from doing evil. They dressed their boys in red petticoats.
+
+But Shaun would never again wear a red petticoat. He would never again
+return to his stepmother.
+
+Even if the fairies did not steal him, he would never return. He would
+go somewhere. Perhaps to the "New Island"--America! As he was thinking
+these thoughts, he found himself walking toward the shore. There was a
+weak light in the sky. The rugged shore was blue in the haze of dawn.
+
+The boy could see a boat. Men were hauling things and making ready to
+set off for somewhere. Shaun was quick, and before he knew what he had
+done he had slid into the boat.
+
+He crouched upon the bottom, under a seat. He made himself as small as a
+bundle of rags.
+
+He lay very still. He felt the boat leave the shore and he heard the men
+talking and singing. The water rolled the boat about, and sometimes the
+spray came in and wet the men.
+
+But Shaun was dry and warm under the seat. He hardly breathed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE STRANGE LAND
+
+
+  "Out of the old world
+    Into the new,
+  True land or fairyland,
+    Say, which are you?"
+
+"Shaun O'Day has been stolen by the leprechauns!" That was the whisper
+that buzzed all about the village the next day.
+
+Little Eileen, with swollen eyes, told her mother how she had left the
+lad on the bank of the lake. She told how he had planned to put on the
+clothing of a boy and call the fairies. She wept as she told how brave
+he had been and how he had promised to write to her.
+
+Her mother smiled sadly and said, "Och, the poor lad will never write!
+Never will Ireland see himself again! Sure, it's lost he is, and he
+standing by the banks of that lake in the clothing of a man child! For
+the fairies do be looking for his likes. Well pleased were they surely
+to find him!"
+
+She sighed, and so did all the rest of the village folk. They all left
+milk upon their window sills that night.
+
+They spoke together of the Good People and said, "God bless them!"
+
+For, you see, they wanted to win the good will of the fairies.
+
+Shaun's stepmother was as certain as any of the rest that the boy had
+been stolen.
+
+She said, "And luck to the Good People! May they work the lazy lad and
+make a man of him!"
+
+She was not sorry for Shaun. But she was sorry for herself that he was
+not there to work for her any more.
+
+In a few months nobody spoke of Shaun in the village. He was forgotten.
+He was forgotten by all but little Eileen. She thought of him each day.
+
+And ofttimes she went to the lake and talked to the blue waters. She
+asked them where the fairies had taken her Shauneen.
+
+But the wind only blew ripples over the blue waters of the lake. And the
+trees sighed, and Eileen ran home crying.
+
+She did not tell her mother. She kept her secret in her heart and kept
+her heart open for Shauneen.
+
+Then one day after many months, a letter came to the town. It was for
+Eileen. It came from a strange land; and everyone in the village was
+curious about it.
+
+Some of the old folks in the village did not know English. They spoke
+only Irish. But the children in the village all knew English, for they
+studied it in school.
+
+The letter to Eileen was written in English. The little girl ran to the
+side of the blue lake. She opened the letter with trembling fingers.
+
+This is what she read:
+
+"Dawn O'Day, I have traveled far. The many lands I've seen and the many
+strange things would open wide your eyes. I am in a fairy city. The
+lights at night do be shining like the stars. And the noise is like a
+thousand thunders.
+
+"But the shoemaker is kind. I work hard, but I am paid a handsome sum.
+And I study at night in a fine school. I am happy but for the sorrow of
+leaving you. Keep in your heart your faith, for I'll be coming back to
+get you.
+
+"Your Shaun."
+
+When Eileen walked back to the village with her letter clasped in her
+hand, a crowd of children surrounded her.
+
+"And what is in it?" shouted one.
+
+"Are the fairies themselves writing to you?" laughed another.
+
+Eileen shook her curls and would not answer.
+
+One cried, "Och, you cannot keep it secret at all, at all! 'Tis from
+himself--Shaun O'Day, and 'tis from America!"
+
+The crowd set up a loud roar. "Yes, yes, we know! From America! We saw
+the mark! 'Tis a fine secret you'd keep, Eileen!"
+
+Eileen's face became red with anger.
+
+"Stop!" she cried. "'Tis not true! He's with the fairies! He's in a
+fairy city! 'Tis himself says so!"
+
+But the crowd only laughed the more loudly. "Ho! A fairy city! And why,
+then, is the letter marked with the mark of America?"
+
+Eileen had wondered, too, about this. She wondered about the postmark.
+It said "U.S.A." And that meant United States of America.
+
+"'Tis a trick of the fairies!" she cried, believing it herself. "A trick
+to put us off their track! 'Tis himself that's working for the fairy
+shoemaker in a fairy city!"
+
+She then told them what Shaun had said about the lights at night and the
+thunder noise. She told how he was receiving pay for his work and about
+the school to which he went.
+
+They stopped shouting and listened. Their jaws fell open. They were
+forced to believe that Shaun was truly in the land of the leprechaun!
+
+Still, some were doubtful and went away wagging their heads and
+sneering.
+
+"'Tis said that in great cities in the New World such things do be,"
+said one.
+
+But Eileen was happy. No matter where Shaun was, she knew that he was
+well. She knew that he thought of her and that they would meet again
+some day.
+
+Letters came often after that. In each one were tales of great wonder.
+Even the most doubtful of the villagers had to admit that the boy was
+with the fairies.
+
+He told of strange people, of amusements, of towers touching the sky,
+and of sights that dazzled his eyes.
+
+Shaun had traveled all the way to a big American city. A bright, strong
+lad was he.
+
+He could always find ways of working himself along. On ships and
+trains, in motors, and upon his two feet he traveled.
+
+When he arrived in the strange city across the sea, he sold papers on
+the streets.
+
+His clear Irish voice rang out with its brogue. Many persons smiled as
+they listened to the fresh young voice of Shaun O'Day from Connemara.
+
+But one man stopped and spoke to the lad. He, too, was an Irishman. He
+spoke kindly to Shaun.
+
+The boy told him about his trip and the strangeness he felt in this new
+land. So this Irishman, Pat O'Leary, took Shaun to his shop.
+
+Pat O'Leary was a shoemaker. He had a tiny shop on a side street in the
+great city. Here he worked at his trade and lived in a dingy room in the
+back of the shop.
+
+'Twas thus that Shaun O'Day found a home. And 'twas thus that he started
+to work for a shoemaker. Pat O'Leary was not a fairy shoemaker. But a
+good fairy was he to the Irish lad.
+
+He was wrinkled and bent. He might have been an old leprechaun who had
+lost his way upon earth. He was jolly and smiling, with a joke ever upon
+his lips.
+
+Shaun lived and worked with Pat and was happy. At night he went to
+school in the big city and learned many things.
+
+The bright lights, flickering on and off, made him blink his eyes. The
+tall towers and buildings made his neck stiff with looking up.
+
+The noise of the traffic and whistles and motors and people made his
+ears tingle.
+
+But he loved it and wrote each week to his little friend in Ireland and
+told her of the magic of it all. He told it with a twinkle in his Irish
+eyes as he wrote.
+
+He knew she would think he was with the fairies. He knew she, too, would
+think this big city fairyland if she were here with him.
+
+So he smiled to himself as he wrote to her. And the smiles tumbled down
+from his lips to the paper on which he wrote.
+
+And when Eileen received the letters those same smiles jumped up and
+settled on her own two pretty lips. She liked to think that her Shaun
+was in a fairy city. He knew she would like to think it.
+
+So he went on telling her about the wonders, without ever saying he was
+in the city of New York.
+
+It was a simple jest. He would not have deceived her for worlds. But
+that twinkle made him play with her. It made him write letters that read
+like fairy tales.
+
+And sometimes he wrote verse like this:
+
+      Towers tall
+      Make Shauneen small
+      Feel like nothing
+      At all, at all!
+
+Years went by. One day a very small girl came into the shoemaker's
+shop.
+
+Shaun was growing to be a tall boy now. He was tall and manly. But the
+Irish bloom was still on his face, with the smile of his country.
+
+A very small girl came into the shop with her nurse. While the nurse
+talked to Pat O'Leary, the little miss came over and sat upon a stool by
+the side of Shaun O'Day.
+
+He gave her his Irish smile. She gave him a friendly American smile.
+
+She was a pretty, blond baby, with teeth as white as milk and eyes the
+brown of tree bark.
+
+It was not long before the Irish lad was telling her the stories of his
+land. She sat spellbound while he talked of the fairies. He worked upon
+a shoe while he talked.
+
+  [Illustration: TELLING STORIES OF HIS LAND]
+
+He told her about the leprechaun. And she thought he might be one, from
+the way he looked as he worked upon that shoe.
+
+  [Illustration: HE WORKED UPON ONE SHOE WHILE HE TALKED]
+
+Then her nurse called, "Come, Marjorie. We must go!" Marjorie did not
+want to go. She stamped her little foot.
+
+"Come, now," begged Nurse, "and to-morrow we will be coming back."
+
+You see, Nurse was Irish, too, and she loved to talk with Pat O'Leary.
+
+Marjorie could twine Nurse about her little finger and make her do as
+she wished. Marjorie could make almost everybody do as she wished, for
+she was sweet and pretty, and she had dimples.
+
+  [Illustration: MARJORIE]
+
+But sometimes she was very stubborn and naughty. Then she did not look
+so pretty. Her dimple did not seem to be a fairy ripple when she was
+cross.
+
+Marjorie and Nurse left the shop. All that day, Marjorie thought of the
+Irish lad's tales.
+
+The next day they came again, and the next, and the next. Marjorie
+loved to go to the shop each day and listen to the tales of Shaun O'Day.
+
+But one day a frightful thing happened. Marjorie's dimple was looking
+more like a smudge of dirt than like a fairy ripple.
+
+It was evening. Marjorie heard the water running for her bath.
+
+She stamped her foot at Nurse and cried, "I won't take a bath!"
+
+When Nurse called to her that the bath was ready, Marjorie was nowhere
+to be found. She had run away from her home.
+
+Marjorie ran to the shop of Pat O'Leary, straight to Shaun O'Day.
+
+Shaun was surprised and shocked to see the little girl alone and at
+such a late hour. He was just starting off for his school.
+
+Marjorie wanted the lad to tell her tales. But he shook his head.
+
+"Sure, 'tis the wicked child you are, Miss Marjorie," he said. "And 'tis
+myself will carry you back to your home."
+
+So saying, he picked her up under his arm and took her to her home.
+Imagine how surprised her parents were when they saw this sight at their
+door.
+
+There was Shaun, the red-haired Irish lad, standing with their wee
+daughter tucked under his big arm. She was kicking and squealing like a
+little pig.
+
+  [Illustration: KICKING AND SQUEALING LIKE A LITTLE PIG]
+
+"Begging your pardon, sir," said Shaun to Marjorie's father, "I've
+brought you the young lady of the house!"
+
+Marjorie was sent upstairs to bed. I do not know whether her mother
+spanked her, but I think she did not. Her mother spoiled her the way
+everyone else did.
+
+Downstairs, Shaun told Marjorie's father how she had come to the shop.
+Her father asked Shaun to sit down. He liked the boy. He asked Shaun
+about his life. Marjorie's father wanted to know about Ireland, too.
+Shaun talked with his slow brogue. His blue eyes twinkled with the truth
+there was in them.
+
+Marjorie's father asked Shaun, "Would you not like to change your home?
+Come and work for me in this house. I will have you taught the work of a
+butler, if you will come here and stay. You shall tell Marjorie tales
+every day."
+
+You see, her father was another who wanted to do everything in the world
+for this little American Princess.
+
+So it came about that Shaun changed his home and his work. He left the
+shop of Pat O'Leary. And a letter came to Dawn O'Day in Ireland.
+
+It said: "So here I am in the house of a fairy Princess. She did wave
+her wand, and I was brought to live here by her father. 'Tis a good man
+he is, too. And I love the baby Princess well and do be pleasing her
+with tales of old Ireland.
+
+"I'm learning the trade of a butler. I'm after serving themselves out of
+golden goblets and glass plates the color of Ireland's green. The table
+shines with bright crystal and silver. The food is beautiful to look
+upon.
+
+"Then the pay I do get is indeed grand. 'Tis all to be saved for our
+wedding day, mavourneen."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE FRIGHTENED GIANT
+
+
+  A giant did call at a fairy ball
+    With the wee folk he wanted to play,
+  But as soon as he lifted his clumsy arm
+    He frightened the fairies away.
+
+   Then back they all came and they played their game,
+     And the giant once more tried to play,
+   But so quick and so light were the fairies bright
+     They frightened the giant away.
+
+When Marjorie's nurse went out, it was Shaun who took Marjorie to play
+in the park. Sometimes they stayed in the big gardens of Marjorie's
+home, and Shaun told stories.
+
+  [Illustration: SHAUN TOLD MARJORIE STORIES IN THE GARDEN]
+
+But occasionally the little girl liked to go where she would meet her
+friends.
+
+On such a day Shaun and Marjorie were playing ball with the children in
+the park. They were throwing the ball to one another.
+
+Shaun was standing among them like a giant. He was trying to be gentle
+as he threw the ball. But all at once his strength let go and over the
+tree tops went the ball.
+
+"O-oh, what a terrible throw!" sneered a small boy.
+
+Shaun ran and brought back the ball. He tried to be more careful. But
+once he threw it into the duck pond, and at last he lost it altogether.
+He heard a child snickering as he came back from an unsuccessful search.
+
+Marjorie said, "Let's go home. I'm tired, anyway."
+
+She looked cross, but she did not say a word to Shaun on the way home.
+
+That night Shaun was dressing to help the butler serve dinner. He looked
+at his big hands.
+
+He looked at his strong arms and sighed, "Och! Shaun O'Day is too big to
+be the playmate of a fairy princess!"
+
+But he did not worry until later.
+
+Then that evening when he was helping wash dishes, the cook said, "Watch
+out, boy. You'll break the dishes yet, with your big, clumsy hands."
+
+He tried so hard to be careful. He tried too hard, perhaps, for what
+cook had warned him of came to pass. He broke a precious cup and saucer.
+
+The other servants said nothing, but smiled behind their hands.
+
+Cook, however, cautioned, "Mind you don't do that again, boy."
+
+Shaun went to his room with a heavy heart that night. What was the
+matter? Was he too big, too clumsy?
+
+Would he never learn to be deft and quick like Perkins the butler? Or
+neat and brisk like the chauffeur Paul?
+
+Oh, well, he could only try. He could be very careful. But anyway,
+Marjorie still loved his tales.
+
+He could tell stories and amuse the Princess. That was one thing none of
+the others could do. He fell asleep smiling.
+
+A few days later, Marjorie told him that she was planning a birthday
+party. She told him about all the amusements they were to have. Many
+children were to be asked.
+
+They would have ice cream and cake and chocolate in the garden under
+the trees. Shaun would serve them.
+
+They would play games, and Shaun would tell them stories. Oh, that was
+to be the best part of all, Marjorie thought.
+
+Shaun and the little girl planned the party together. Shaun suggested an
+Irish game, and Marjorie said it would be fun to play it.
+
+So the day arrived. It was a shiny spring day. It was a pretty sight to
+see the little boys and girls running about and playing together in the
+green garden.
+
+Marjorie cried out, "Come now! Shaun will show you how to play his
+game."
+
+And the tall lad stood among the little children. He tried to make them
+understand what fun it was to play an old Irish game.
+
+It was a game that Shaun had played and that Shaun's father had played
+and perhaps Shaun's father's father.
+
+But these young Americans did not like it. They said so. They turned
+their backs and refused to play it.
+
+So Marjorie said, "Then Shaun will tell us a story."
+
+The children gathered around Shaun and he began: "Once upon a time in
+old Ireland--"
+
+"Will there be any wars in the story?" asked one of the children--a boy,
+of course.
+
+Shaun twinkled and replied, "Perhaps."
+
+  [Illustration: "ONCE UPON A TIME IN OLD IRELAND"]
+
+Then he went on. He was telling a fairy tale. The boys began to realize
+that it was not about wild Indians and wars. They twisted and fidgeted.
+They dug their heels into the ground, and one boy pinched another. He
+squealed aloud.
+
+"S-sh!" said one girl. "Stop making that noise!"
+
+But the boys did not want to listen.
+
+One boy stood up and said, "Who wants to hear about fairies?"
+
+"I don't! I don't!" yelled the others.
+
+Marjorie frowned.
+
+The boys ran away, shouting, "Come on! Let's play robbers."
+
+Marjorie said, "They would have liked Shaun's story. They should have
+listened. It was awf'lly 'citing! But he hardly started to tell it."
+
+By this time the group was scattered. Even the little girls were
+whispering together.
+
+Shaun got up and walked away. He walked to a bench at the other end of
+the garden and sat down. He was thinking very deeply.
+
+He sat there until he heard his name called. He had to go into the house
+to help bring out ice cream and cake and chocolate to Marjorie's guests.
+
+As he served little ice cream boats and flowers and animals, his
+thoughts were far away. The crystal and gold of the plates and goblets
+did not seem so lovely as before.
+
+Everything on the table swam before Shaun's eyes. Even the children's
+faces seemed blurred. He heard their talk and laughter in a dream.
+
+He was very unhappy.
+
+"Oh, Shaun, do look what you're doing!" cried a voice in distress.
+
+Shaun looked in horror at what he had done. He had poured hot chocolate
+over the tablecloth. It was trickling down over a little girl's dress.
+
+Perkins the butler grabbed the chocolate pot out of Shaun's hand.
+
+He muttered, "Clumsy fellow!" and started mopping up.
+
+The little girl began to cry.
+
+Shaun went into the kitchen for a fresh napkin. When he came out to the
+party again, he heard the children snickering and whispering among
+themselves. As he approached the table, they stopped. He knew they were
+making sport of his clumsiness.
+
+He looked at Marjorie. There were tears in her brown eyes, and she was
+biting her lip. That night Shaun packed his few things and left a letter
+for Marjorie.
+
+  [Illustration: THERE WERE TEARS IN MARJORIE'S BROWN EYES]
+
+He told her that he was too clumsy to stay in the home of a princess any
+longer. He told her that he should never forget her kindness to him.
+
+Then he wrote another letter and put a stamp on it. He walked out of
+the big house with the letter in one hand and his old Irish carpet bag
+in the other.
+
+He walked along the bright city streets until he came to a mail box. He
+kissed the letter and then dropped it into the box.
+
+Dawn O'Day read the letter a few weeks later in Ireland.
+
+This is what it said:
+
+"My Dawn O'Day--
+
+"At last I am leaving the fairy folk. My fingers have grown too clumsy
+and my arms too big for the dainty likes of the Good People. Those
+elves, the children of this bright world, do not be wanting Shaun O'Day
+any more.
+
+"And so, little Eileen, I am coming back to you and Ireland. And in my
+pocket is silver and gold to buy us a wedding and a cottage.
+
+"But the cottage will not be in that New Island. 'Twill be in the old
+Emerald Isle.
+
+"Your Shaun."
+
+Shaun sold everything he had but an old suit of clothes. He bought a
+ticket on a boat going to England and sailed away from New York.
+
+As the big ship left behind her the great American city, the Irish lad
+saluted and murmured, "Farewell, fairyland. 'Tis too grand you are for
+the likes of a simple lad like me. But, och, a wonderful, great
+fairyland you are!"
+
+Slowly the stately harbor disappeared from view.
+
+
+
+
+PART II
+
+CHAPTER
+
+VI JOHN
+
+
+  "Come cuddle close in Daddy's coat
+    Beside the fire so bright,
+  And hear about the fairy folk
+    That wander in the night."
+                      --ROBERT BIRD
+
+It is to-day in Ireland. Shaun O'Day is married to Eileen. He has made
+her his Dawn O'Day.
+
+They have built a cottage near the banks of that blue Irish lake. They
+live there with their children.
+
+Shaun and Dawn O'Day have three children. Their youngest is a red-haired
+baby girl with the eyes and the name of her mother.
+
+Their oldest is a lanky, freckle-faced lad who wears the cast-off
+trousers of his father. No more do tall boys wear the petticoats of
+girls. They are not afraid of the leprechaun when they reach the age of
+ten or twelve years.
+
+But their mothers still keep them dressed as girls when they are small.
+And that is why we find John, the second son of Shaun O'Day, in a red
+petticoat. He looks very much the way Shaun himself had looked at that
+age.
+
+John had been christened Shaun. But they call him John, because it is
+to-day in Ireland. Young Shaun was called John O'Day.
+
+John had the ruddy complexion given most of these village lads by the
+wind and rain. But he was not as tough and strong as his father had
+been. He did not have to work. He could come home from school and do as
+he pleased. Sometimes, of course, he ran errands for his mother or
+helped her with household chores. But usually he would go to the shores
+of the lake and think.
+
+Shaun once found his son thus. He went up to John quietly. He put his
+hand on the lad's shoulder. John jumped and stood erect, his face white.
+
+"Och, why do you jump with such a great fear, my lad?" asked the father.
+
+John sat down again. He was ashamed. He did not speak.
+
+"Tell me, lad: What is it you fear?" asked the father.
+
+  [Illustration: HE WOULD GO TO THE SHORES OF THE LAKE]
+
+Then John told his father how some boy in the village had started a
+tale. The lad had told how, many years ago, Shaun had been stolen away
+by the leprechauns.
+
+John told how it had happened on the shores of this very lake. He would
+not believe it and said so.
+
+Still he often lay on his back by the lake and wondered whether it could
+be true. Now he asked Shaun to tell him.
+
+Shaun stroked his rough chin. The twinkle he had had as a boy was there
+in his eyes still. He looked at little John beside him.
+
+"Och, Johneen!" he laughed with his musical laugh. "'Tis indeed a true
+story."
+
+John's eyes grew big. He stared at his father as though Shaun himself
+might be one of the Good People.
+
+Then he spread out the red petticoat on the ground. He knew that the red
+petticoat would protect him.
+
+Shaun looked in amusement at the boy's frightened eyes. Then he grew
+sober.
+
+He said, "You must not fear the Good People, Johneen!"
+
+John wet his dry lips with the tip of his tongue. He came up closer to
+his father.
+
+"But didn't they make you work for themselves?" he whispered. "And
+weren't they after stealing you away, and you wearing the clothes of a
+boy?"
+
+"Yes, yes," agreed Shaun. But he took his little son's hand and stroked
+it. "And now," he went on, "if you'll listen, I'll tell you the story."
+
+Shaun began, "When I was a lad I was not so fortunate as you, Johneen.
+I had to work hard. I was beaten and had not enough to eat. So I
+determined to go with the leprechaun. I put on the clothes of a boy. I
+stood by the lake. But never a fairy came at all, at all.
+
+"I was tired and slept, and when I awoke 'twas dawn. I ran to the shore
+in a daze. I jumped into a boat. I was carried away. Through many
+countries and on many seas I traveled.
+
+"At last I landed in the fairy city. 'Twas there I met the leprechaun
+himself."
+
+John's hand squeezed the hand of his father. He edged up closer to the
+big man.
+
+"But do not be thinking that this leprechaun was wicked," continued
+Shaun. "No, indeed. Kind he was, and good to me. I worked on the mending
+of shoes and was paid in silver.
+
+"Then did I work for a little princess in the home of her father. Good
+People they were, too. And the sight of the beauty of that home would
+surely have dazzled you.
+
+"Among the precious treasures of that house I worked. With the treasured
+little Princess did I play until at last--"
+
+Here the big man stopped. His voice grew low and soft. He dropped his
+head.
+
+John asked in a hushed whisper, "Yes--and what happened?"
+
+"Och, well--lad--I came back to old Ireland. Your mother was waiting for
+me."
+
+Then Shaun arose and placed his hand on John's shoulder.
+
+He continued, "But remember, son, that the Good People will not harm
+you. Do not be afraid, at all, for well do they love us. And I do
+believe that they steal the wee boys because they love them so."
+
+Shaun told this tale to the lad John, so he would never again fear the
+fairies.
+
+And so well did the plan succeed that John began to love the Good
+People. Over and over, he thought of what Shaun had told him.
+
+He tried to imagine what the baby Princess looked like. He would shut
+his eyes and try to picture the wonders of that fairy city.
+
+One day he found himself pretending that he was flying over the city. He
+started and jumped to his feet.
+
+Why had he been doing this? Did he, too, want to go away with the
+fairies? Of course not. Why should he want to leave his home, his good
+parents, his brother and sister?
+
+Laughing aloud, he went back to the cottage. He did not visit the lake
+for several days.
+
+Then one morning, he was walking by himself in the sunshine. The little
+sparkling beams of sun made him think of the lights his father had told
+him about in the strange city.
+
+Suddenly he found himself on the banks of the lake. He was on the
+opposite shore. He sat down.
+
+He wondered whether the leprechaun would steal him if he should wear
+the clothes of his big brother. The brightness of the day and the bird
+songs made him light of heart. They gave him courage.
+
+"Sure, I'll try," he exclaimed to the blue waters of the lake.
+
+What harm to try? Suppose they took him. It would be fun to visit
+fairyland. He could always come back. His father came back.
+
+In his new enthusiasm, John stood on the bank and held out his arms
+crying, "Come, fairy Good Folk! Take me away. I do be wanting to see the
+wonders of your land!"
+
+But the gentle lapping of the lake was the only answer to his cry. Then
+John realized that he was standing in the red petticoat. He smiled.
+
+"They'll not be wanting girls, at all," he reasoned.
+
+  [Illustration: "THEY'LL NOT BE WANTING GIRLS AT ALL"]
+
+Next day, before anyone in the cottage was astir, John slipped out of
+the door. He was clad in a suit belonging to his older brother. The
+trousers hung very low, but he tucked them up. He pulled a cap down over
+his face.
+
+He ran all the way to the opposite shore of the lake. His heart was
+pounding, and his breath came in gasps.
+
+He threw himself down on the ground to rest. Bird sounds were all about,
+and a rustling of leaves. The water was lap-lapping as always.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE GIRL FAIRY
+
+
+  "To the fairyland afar
+  Where the Little People are."
+          --ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
+
+Marjorie was now grown up. She looked quite different from the tiny
+golden-haired girl Shaun had known. She was a tall, slender young lady.
+
+Her dimple still became a fairy ripple when she was happy. When she was
+cross, it still seemed a smudge of dirt.
+
+Marjorie was often cross now. The reason was a strange one. She had too
+much to make her happy. She had loving parents and a beautiful home. She
+had many friends who adored her.
+
+She was very beautiful, too. Everything lovely belonged to Marjorie.
+Even wealth was hers.
+
+Her father gave her everything she asked for. She had an automobile. She
+had a beautiful glossy horse to ride.
+
+She went to jolly parties, and all the boys wanted to dance with her.
+They sent her boxes of chocolate creams and rare flowers.
+
+  [Illustration: MARJORIE WAS NOW GROWN UP]
+
+But Marjorie was not happy with all this. She wanted the one thing that
+she could not have.
+
+Often she spoke about Shaun O'Day. He had written to her from Ireland
+when he returned. He had sent her a shamrock and his picture. After
+that, she had never heard from him again.
+
+She had cried bitterly for many days after Shaun's departure. She had
+blamed her rude companions for having insulted the Irish lad. She wanted
+him back.
+
+But of course Shaun never went back to America. He was too happy in
+Ireland. You know why he was happy. He had his Dawn O'Day and his little
+children.
+
+So he hardly ever thought of the baby Princess in "fairyland." He was
+too busy working hard to make a living for his family. He had so little
+money. But it did not make him unhappy. Sometimes it is a good thing
+when people have to work. It makes them happy.
+
+You see how discontented Marjorie was. And she had so much! But she
+finally found a wish that seemed impossible to grant.
+
+When she knew that she might never have Shaun again, she wanted him more
+than ever. She pleaded with her father to send for him. But that was one
+thing her father would not do.
+
+He knew that the lad could never be happy in this land. He knew that
+Shaun had the dreams of Ireland in his heart. Shaun belonged in Ireland.
+
+  [Illustration: SHAUN HAD THE DREAMS OF IRELAND]
+
+Many years passed, and Marjorie never forgot Shaun. She often looked at
+the young men who danced with her or who took her to the theater.
+
+She often thought, "He is not so nice as Shaun O'Day!"
+
+She imagined Shaun even finer than he was. She had really forgotten what
+he was like, and she made a prince of him in her thoughts.
+
+"I shall never be happy until I find Shaun O'Day once more!" she said.
+
+One day Marjorie asked her father if he would take her abroad. She
+wanted to visit the countries of Europe. Her father consented, and the
+family sailed away on a fine ship.
+
+They were going to France and Germany and Italy and many other
+countries. They had not thought of going to Ireland. But Marjorie knew
+that they were going to Ireland!
+
+And in Ireland, poor little John O'Day sat by the lake waiting for the
+fairies. He had waited there for many days. At first he sat very still
+with the clumsy trousers rolled up his legs and the big cap falling over
+his eyes.
+
+He sat still and listened for a sound. He heard only the lake lapping.
+
+Then he began to bring his books along. He liked the books about Ireland
+that they gave him at school.
+
+He thought the pictures of Dublin and Belfast looked very like that
+fairy city of which his father had told. He looked at those pictures for
+hours and hours. And he waited there by the banks.
+
+  [Illustration:--LOOKED AT THOSE PICTURES FOR HOURS AND HOURS]
+
+He always changed to his red petticoat before he went home. He did not
+want anyone to know what he was doing. Some might laugh at him.
+
+His mother would be frightened and hold him close. She might make him
+promise never to do it again. Then he would never see the fairies.
+
+His brother could not imagine what had become of his old suit of
+clothes. He had to wear his Sunday suit until he could make enough money
+to buy a new suit. But the days slipped by, and the boy waited in vain
+for the leprechaun. The longing for adventure was great in his heart.
+
+One day he stepped to the edge of the lake and cried out in a loud
+voice, "Arrah, 'tis long I've waited and tired I am! Come, Good Folk,
+come! Give to the son of Shaun O'Day the great wonders of your fairy
+powers!"
+
+As his voice died down, he stepped back from the edge of the water. He
+looked about cautiously. Then his heart gave a leap. He had heard a tiny
+sound. It was not the lapping lake. It was not the wind in the trees.
+
+It was surely a fairy. And as he was thinking these thoughts, he saw
+her.
+
+She came gliding over the ground like a rainbow. Her gown was lavender
+and blue, flowing and billowy. Her dainty little shoes were snow-white.
+And her hair was spun gold.
+
+A many-colored scarf twined about her neck and fluttered in the breeze.
+There was a beautiful perfume in the air as she appeared.
+
+The boy backed into the bushes. He stared out at the lovely vision. His
+eyes were wild with fear.
+
+  [Illustration: HE STARED OUT AT THE LOVELY VISION]
+
+The beautiful creature came closer. She held out her hand and smiled.
+Her hand was snow-white. Her smile was a sunbeam, with a dimple in it.
+
+"Do not be afraid," said her clear, sweet voice. "You called the
+fairies, son of Shaun O'Day?"
+
+John nodded, but could not speak. His mouth was dry.
+
+"I have come at your command," she smiled. Then she led John out and
+looked at him for a long time. She was smiling kindly. At last she
+spoke.
+
+"You are the son of Shaun O'Day. And I am the fairy Princess who once
+stole Shaun from the leprechaun. I used to hear his fine stories of
+Ireland. I loved to listen to him. He used to play with me in fairyland.
+Did he tell you?"
+
+John looked into her sparkling brown eyes and said, "Sure, and he did.
+He told me about it all. And I did be wanting to go with the fairies,
+too."
+
+She laughed a silvery laugh and put her arm about John. "And so you
+shall," she said. "Come with me. Let me show you to our fairy chariot."
+
+She led him away. They walked for quite a while until they came to a
+dusty road. It was a road on which many donkey carts travel, but few
+automobiles.
+
+She drew him to the side of a shining automobile. It was the most
+beautiful thing John had ever seen.
+
+"Enter, Shaun," said the girl fairy.
+
+John looked at her for just an instant with a question on his lips. She
+had called him Shaun. Why?
+
+  [Illustration: "YOU ARE THE SON OF SHAUN O'DAY"]
+
+But she stopped his question and said, "We shall fly over the ground
+now. Hold on tight."
+
+For the next hour, the boy John hardly breathed with excitement. He was
+being carried over the ground faster than ever he had gone in his life.
+
+Trees and fields and pigs and donkeys flew by. Thatched cottages seemed
+to dart out at them and then disappear.
+
+The girl fairy sat at the big wheel of the car and only smiled at him
+occasionally. She said never a word.
+
+At last they drew up at the side of a lonely road. She stopped the
+flying car. She turned to him.
+
+She said, "Now Shauneen, what do you want me to do for you?"
+
+John took a deep breath and clutched the side of the car.
+
+Then he answered slowly, "Faith! I'm after longing to visit fairyland."
+
+The girl fairy's smile vanished for a moment. Then she took his hand in
+hers and spoke seriously.
+
+"Shauneen," she said, "I cannot take you there. But I can show you a
+land as beautiful as fairyland. I can take you all about your own land,
+Ireland. Do you know that the poets have called Ireland fairyland? Do
+you know that there is no greener spot on earth?"
+
+John's eyes glowed.
+
+He answered, "Indeed, I do know it. And I'm forever seeing the pictures
+in the school books. Sure, I do believe I'd rather be seeing Ireland
+than any fairyland at all!"
+
+  [Illustration: "ENTER, SHAUN," SAID THE GIRL FAIRY]
+
+"Good!" laughed the girl fairy. Then she grew serious again as she said,
+"But Shauneen, you must promise your fairy that you will not speak of
+this to anyone at all. You must also ask your father to come to the
+shore of the lake to-morrow morning while you are at school. Tell him
+that there is some one who would speak with him on a serious matter. But
+do not say any more. If you obey these two commands, your fairy will
+come again. She will come for you on the shores of the lake. She will
+take you to all parts of your own beautiful country."
+
+John promised to carry out her wishes. Again they flew over the ground
+until at last they were back at the spot whence they had started.
+
+Then John stepped out of the glistening automobile. The girl fairy threw
+him a kiss and was off in a cloud of dust.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+OVER THE GREEN LAND
+
+
+  Above is so blue
+    And below is so green;
+  We are sailing away
+   In our flying machine.
+
+John was in school. But his mind was not on his lessons. For the first
+time, the letters in his book swam before his eyes. The teacher's voice
+seemed far away.
+
+He was thinking of the girl fairy and of his coming trip with her. She
+had told him to say nothing, and he must obey her. But he could not help
+thinking about her. Surely she was good and would let no harm befall
+him.
+
+His father had told him that the Good People were kind and loved little
+boys. So he smiled and paid no attention to his school work.
+
+The teacher set him in a corner with a dunce's cap on his head.
+
+In the meantime, John's father was walking to the shore of the lake. He
+wondered who wanted to see him. John had told him that it was an
+important matter.
+
+He scratched his red head and puzzled. He waited on the banks of the
+lake until he heard a light step behind him.
+
+He turned and saw John's girl fairy. She walked over to him silently. He
+jumped up and looked at her. Shaun thought he had never seen so
+exquisite a being. She spoke.
+
+"You are Shaun O'Day," she said softly. She held out something and
+continued, "Please take this."
+
+Shaun took from her graceful white hand a slip of paper. She kept
+looking into his eyes.
+
+"Read it, Shaun," she said.
+
+Shaun opened the paper. His eyes fell on his own boyish handwriting and
+a shamrock pasted across the top of the letter.
+
+"Faith, 'tis a letter I wrote, myself, when I was a lad!" he exclaimed.
+
+  [Illustration: O'CONNELL STREET AND NELSON'S COLUMN, DUBLIN]
+
+The girl fairy only smiled and kept looking into Shaun's eyes.
+
+"Begob!" he suddenly shouted, looking hard at the girl fairy. "'Tis
+Miss Marjorie, the baby Princess!"
+
+"Yes, Shaun," answered Marjorie happily. "'Tis Marjorie come all the way
+from fairyland to see you."
+
+Then the two sat down on the bank. Shaun took off his coat and spread it
+on the ground for the girl to sit upon. They talked and laughed and
+remembered old times together.
+
+Suddenly Marjorie grew serious and said, "Shaun, I have seen your son!"
+
+Shaun looked surprised.
+
+Marjorie continued, "Shaun, I want you to help me. I want to give a
+great pleasure to your little John."
+
+Then she told Shaun how John had seen her the previous day. She told
+how John had believed her to be a fairy. She told Shaun that she had
+promised to take the little lad on a trip through Ireland.
+
+  [Illustration: DUBLIN IS QUAINT AND ANCIENT]
+
+She finished by saying, "I want to make him happy, Shaun, as you made
+me, long ago. Will you say that I may take him?"
+
+Shaun's eyes were moist. He felt very grateful to the girl.
+
+He replied in a low voice, "Och, Miss Marjorie, you are indeed no fairy,
+but a great good angel!"
+
+Marjorie jumped up gayly and cried, "Then you will let him go with me,
+Shaun?"
+
+"And sure you know well I will, Miss Marjorie. 'Tis a great good you
+will be doing for my lad. It is surely," he said.
+
+Marjorie looked very serious then. And she bowed her head.
+
+Her words were whispers as she said, "If it is a great good, then it is
+the first great good I have ever done. I have been very selfish, Shaun.
+Everyone has always done for me. This is the first time I have ever done
+something to give some one else pleasure. And, oh," she suddenly clasped
+her hands together and smiled radiantly, "it is a wonderful feeling! It
+has made me happy, Shaun."
+
+She kissed his rough brown hand and turned on her dainty heel. She fled
+before Shaun could utter a sound.
+
+"Well, begob, begorra!" he at last sputtered, scratching his head and
+wrinkling his nose. "Now isn't it a great wonder?"
+
+Then, as if some breeze had contradicted him, he nodded his head and
+said loudly, "It is surely!"
+
+It was several days before Marjorie's next visit to the lake.
+
+Although the little boy John went thither daily and waited longingly, no
+girl fairy appeared. But he never doubted that she would come. He knew
+she would keep her promise. And she did.
+
+At last, one day, she came tripping over the ground, laughing and
+calling, "Shauneen, Shauneen, 'tis I!"
+
+John trembled. But he smiled at her and held out his hand.
+
+To-day she was not dressed in fluttering, light-colored garments.
+Instead, she had on a brown leather coat. She wore a little round cap.
+
+She carried a small coat, which she held out to John.
+
+"Put this on quickly and come, for our air chariot awaits us," she
+exclaimed, helping John put on the fine warm coat.
+
+Again they walked to the shining white automobile, and then they drove
+and drove. At last they came to a large field. It was an air port, a
+place where airplanes land.
+
+The girl stopped her car. John saw a winged machine standing in the
+center of the field. It was a strange, terrible thing to the boy John.
+
+"Come," said Marjorie, taking him by the hand. "It is our airplane. We
+shall fly over the green land together!"
+
+An airplane! John had seen airplanes before, but never like this. He had
+seen them circling far up in the sky.
+
+He could often hear the whirring sound they made. They usually were so
+high that they looked to the lad like small birds.
+
+But this one was a monster. There was a pilot ready to start the plane
+and carry them off. They stepped inside the monster. John sat beside
+Marjorie, and she held his hand. He edged up close to her.
+
+The plane's motor started. They began to rise from the ground. Oh, it
+was like being a bird, John thought. It was even like being a fairy.
+
+He stole a glance at the girl fairy. She was beaming at him.
+
+"Do you like this, Shauneen?" she asked.
+
+"Faith, 'tis surely a great wonder! And you the good angel!" breathed
+the boy.
+
+Marjorie remembered Shaun had said those same words to her. She felt
+happier than she had felt ever before in her life.
+
+It was a trip that John O'Day never would forget. John would remember
+that trip to his ninetieth birthday.
+
+They flew in the plane to the city of Dublin. They stopped at a fine
+hotel, and the girl fairy gave John a handsome little traveling bag with
+everything in it that he needed.
+
+There were soft, fine pajamas. There was a new suit of clothes. There
+was a cap to match his coat, with fine socks and shoes.
+
+  [Illustration: SHE GAVE JOHN A HANDSOME LITTLE TRAVELING BAG]
+
+They started out early the next morning to see all of Dublin town. A
+great city it seemed to John, with its strange noises and its jostling
+mobs on the streets.
+
+  [Illustration: SUGARLOAF MOUNTAIN NEAR DUBLIN]
+
+In the center of O'Connell Street stands Nelson's Pillar. It is a thin,
+tall pillar. Inside there are one hundred and sixty-six steps which wind
+right up to the top. John and Marjorie walked up to the top and stood
+looking down on the streets below.
+
+John noticed later when they walked in the streets that some of the
+signs were written in Irish.
+
+  [Illustration: SOME OF THE SIGNS WERE WRITTEN IN IRISH]
+
+John was just learning to read Irish in school. So he could read some of
+the signs.
+
+School children have to study the Irish language in that part of Ireland
+called the Free State. The Free State is free from Great Britain and has
+its own government. It is the southern part of the country, and Dublin
+is the capital.
+
+The northern part of Ireland is still under the government of England.
+The County Galway, wherein John's village stood, belongs to the Free
+State.
+
+  [Illustration: A SCHOOL WHERE THEY TEACH THE IRISH LANGUAGE]
+
+Policemen on the streets of Dublin wear caps with silver harps on their
+visors. You know that the harp is the symbol of Ireland, and it is used
+on the new flag of the Irish Free State.
+
+Dublin is a quaint and ancient city. There are few automobiles on the
+streets.
+
+One sees many jaunting cars, which are funny little high carts with a
+seat on each side and big wheels. People sit with their legs hanging
+over the sides, while the driver sits up on the high box and drives an
+old thin horse.
+
+  [Illustration: A JAUNTING CAR]
+
+There are also many bicycles whirling along in Dublin.
+
+Children seem to be everywhere. Some look very poor, indeed. Some beg
+the wealthy people for money. There are many beggars. They crouch beside
+buildings and on the steps of churches. John and his fair guide visited
+Phoenix Park in Dublin. After Yellowstone Park in the United States,
+Phoenix Park is the largest in the world.
+
+  [Illustration: LOVELY LAKES IN PHOENIX PARK, DUBLIN]
+
+It is very beautiful, too. It has a fine zoo, and lovely lakes, walks,
+and drives.
+
+  [Illustration: PHOENIX PARK, DUBLIN]
+
+The Royal Hibernian Military School in Phoenix Park is used by the Free
+State Irish Speaking Union as a school to teach the Irish language to
+young men.
+
+They visited St. Patrick's College where a large number of students
+attend. This is a fine old college.
+
+  [Illustration: ST. PATRICK'S COLLEGE, DUBLIN]
+
+They left Dublin after seeing everything of interest there. They left in
+a drizzling rain in Marjorie's big white motor car. It had been brought
+to them from the flying field to Dublin. It seemed to John that things
+were always being brought to Marjorie in a magical way. And why not?
+Marjorie was a fairy! Now they motored to the Vale of Avoca.
+
+This is the beautiful woodland spot where Tom Moore, the Irish poet,
+wrote much of his poetry.
+
+  [Illustration: THE COUNTRY OF TOM MOORE]
+
+His famous words are:
+
+  "There is not in this wide world a valley so sweet
+  As the vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+WANDERING
+
+
+  "Over hill, over dale,
+  Through bush, through brier,
+  Over park, over pale,
+  Through flood, through fire,
+  I do wander everywhere."
+              --WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
+
+While John traveled with his good fairy, his mother and father sat
+before their fireside. They talked for hours about the lad's good
+fortune.
+
+Of course Shaun explained to his wife that the girl was no fairy. He
+told Dawn O'Day that she was Marjorie, the baby Princess, for whom he
+had worked so long ago.
+
+Dawn O'Day was pleased to think how much her boy was learning. She
+loved to think that some day little John might be a great, wise man.
+
+And the boy was indeed learning, and seeing all manner of wonders.
+Together he and Marjorie visited the Giant's Causeway, which is in the
+northern part of Ireland. The Giant's Causeway is a very remarkable
+place.
+
+It is supposed to have been made by the giants of old. It is believed by
+some that the queer rocks were built by giants. These great monsters
+were trying to make a great bridge across the water to join Ireland and
+Scotland.
+
+Of course this is only a fairy tale. But those huge, queer rocky forms
+do look as though giants had built them.
+
+The water roars up to the shore and often splashes over those strange,
+tall rocks. They are probably the result of a terrible eruption by some
+volcano, or fire mountain, years ago.
+
+The rocks form many peculiar shapes. There is the Giant's Organ--a group
+of immense rocks resembling a mighty organ.
+
+There is the Wishing Chair, a single column backed by higher ones. It
+forms a very comfortable chair. And they tell you that if you make a
+wish there, it will come true. But never must you speak that wish aloud.
+
+  [Illustration: THE WISHING CHAIR]
+
+There is a well of clear, fresh water within a few feet of the Atlantic
+Ocean.
+
+There is the gate which stands as the gate to Giant Land.
+
+  [Illustration: THE GATE TO GIANT LAND]
+
+There are the Giant's Eyeglass, the Chimney Tops, the Loom, and other
+forms of great size made of these strange rocks. It is no wonder that
+the people think of giants, when looking at them.
+
+  [Illustration: THE GIANT'S EYEGLASS]
+
+The little boy and his guide visited the mountain of Crough Patrick, one
+of the sacred places of Ireland.
+
+It is where St. Patrick stood when he banished all snakes and other
+reptiles from Ireland. This is supposed to have happened in the year 450
+A.D.
+
+St. Patrick imprisoned all creeping things in a deep canyon and kept
+them there. When he was ready to destroy them, he stood upon the summit
+of the mountain with a bell in his hand.
+
+He stood there and rang that bell. And each time he rang that bell
+thousands of snakes and other creeping creatures went tumbling into the
+sea.
+
+In Ireland to-day there are no snakes, toads, or poisonous reptiles. The
+people believe that it is because St. Patrick destroyed them all, many
+years ago.
+
+In July many pilgrims climb to this mountain. They pray there to St.
+Patrick.
+
+John and Marjorie went to the Lakes of Killarney. These are perhaps the
+best known lakes in all the world. Songs and poems have been written
+about their beauty.
+
+There are three lakes. Each one has a peculiar beauty of its own. The
+lakes lie between mountains like brilliant diamonds glistening in an
+emerald setting.
+
+They tell a legend in Killarney. They say that once no lakes were there
+at all. One man living there had a magic well. If he always kept the
+well covered, no harm would come.
+
+But one night somebody came to the well for water and forgot to cover
+it. The next morning a great flood had swallowed up the land. The town
+was completely under water.
+
+Sometimes, the natives say, one can still see, at the bottom of the
+lakes, this old town with the same old well. The Irish do love to be
+telling tales of magic.
+
+Blarney Castle is noted for the famous Blarney Stone. It is said that
+those who kiss the Blarney Stone forever afterward possess the art of
+flattery and beautiful speech.
+
+  [Illustration: BLARNEY CASTLE]
+
+You have often heard people say, "You must have kissed the Blarney
+Stone!"
+
+People who make many compliments are sometimes accused of kissing the
+Blarney Stone.
+
+Nor is it an easy object to kiss! John O'Day and Marjorie climbed to the
+top of Blarney Castle. There the old stone hangs from the top of the
+battlements. It lies in a peculiar position.
+
+John lay flat and thrust his head down about three feet through an
+opening. He then twisted his neck in order to kiss the precious stone. A
+guard held his feet.
+
+It was a wise thing to do, for it is over a hundred feet to the ground
+below! It would be a terrible fall!
+
+As they traveled, they passed beautiful green country. They saw many
+pigs and many donkey carts.
+
+  [Illustration: THEY PASSED DONKEY CARTS]
+
+In every village they found a war memorial. Some of these memorials
+stand in the center of the town. Some are very large and beautiful.
+Others are small. But all mean the same thing. Ireland lost many
+soldiers in the Great War.
+
+  [Illustration: A WAR MEMORIAL IN EVERY VILLAGE]
+
+They found few fruits growing in Ireland. Gooseberries are plentiful,
+and they ate many.
+
+Marjorie found the Irish peasants friendly and kind. Several times they
+stopped for the night in farmhouses.
+
+The people told Marjorie many wonderful tales as she sat before their
+firesides. They were very much surprised to find the girl traveling
+about alone with a young child.
+
+But she only laughed in her easy way, as the old women said, "God be
+praised, but American girls do be knowing no fear!"
+
+Marjorie always made John go to bed right after dinner. The little boy
+was tired from his long day's travels. He was tired, too, with seeing
+and hearing so many new things. So he did not hear the people talking at
+night. He still believed his girl fairy was one of the Good People.
+
+One day they were stopping in a small village. Marjorie left John alone
+with the car and went into a shop to buy some cakes.
+
+A group of little boys came over to the car. Their eyes were very
+curious, indeed.
+
+They began to talk to John. When they heard his accent they knew at once
+that he was Irish.
+
+One boy said, "'Tis surely a rich American lady driving the automobile?"
+
+John looked at him in a pitying manner. "And don't you know a fairy when
+you see one?" he asked.
+
+The boys' mouths opened. They stared at John.
+
+Then one boy came close to John and cried out, "Arrah, 'tis no fairy, at
+all, at all! 'Tis an American lady from across the seas!"
+
+John faced the boy. There was a frown on his face.
+
+"You'll not be standing there saying that again!" he said. "'Tis herself
+is one of the Good People!"
+
+The boy laughed again. "Och, you know well she is no fairy!"
+
+"She is!" yelled John.
+
+"She is not!" shrieked the boy.
+
+John rolled up his sleeves. He hit the boy.
+
+When Marjorie came out of the shop she found her young friend in a
+fierce battle. She separated the boys and thrust John into the car. He
+was waving his arms and shouting.
+
+Marjorie jumped into the driver's seat. She started the car, and off
+they went.
+
+  [Illustration: SHE SEPARATED THE BOYS]
+
+John's clothing was torn. He was bruised. The boy with whom he had
+fought was larger than he. But John knew that he had left the other boy
+as bruised and torn as he was himself. So he smiled.
+
+Marjorie drove for a while in silence.
+
+Then she asked, "John, why did you fight?"
+
+John told her the reason. She bit her lip and was silent again.
+
+Then she said, "John, how do you know that I am a fairy?"
+
+The little boy answered promptly, "Because I was after calling the
+fairies that day by the lake. And because I did take off my petticoat
+and put on the clothes of a boy."
+
+"Do you believe that was the reason I took you away?" asked Marjorie.
+
+"I do," answered John firmly. "And," he continued, "if I had been in the
+petticoats of a girl, you would never have noticed me at all."
+
+"Why?" Marjorie queried.
+
+"Sure, and the Good People do be wanting the boys to work for
+themselves. They'll not be noticing girls, and they so weak!" John
+answered.
+
+Marjorie frowned. Then she said, "But I have not made you work."
+
+John looked at her quickly and replied, "Och, no! But 'tis willing I am
+to work for you now. Only--" He hesitated.
+
+"Only what, John?" asked the girl.
+
+"I'll not be wanting to stay away forever from my mother and father,"
+was the reply.
+
+Marjorie put an arm about his shoulder.
+
+"Do you know that we are almost at your home now?" She laughed gayly.
+"Look about you!"
+
+The little boy was amazed to see that they really had returned. They
+were on the same dusty road whence they had started their trip so many
+days ago.
+
+Marjorie drew the car up to the side of the road and stopped it.
+
+"Now you may jump out and run home to your mother and father," she
+said.
+
+John O'Day just stood and stared at her.
+
+"And you'll not be asking me to work at all?" he questioned, with
+wondering eyes.
+
+Marjorie shook her head and smiled.
+
+"Och," cried the boy, "but I want to do something for you!"
+
+Marjorie stroked his hand and replied softly, "It is not necessary,
+Shauneen. Your father did so very much for me many years ago. I am glad
+that I can now give his son a little happiness."
+
+"And will you not be coming back again to the lake, good fairy?" asked
+John.
+
+Marjorie's smile faded as she answered, "Shauneen, I am not a fairy. You
+must believe that. I shall come back to the lake to see you. But I shall
+come to bid you good-bye, for I am going back to America."
+
+For a moment John was almost going to believe her. His throat felt
+choky. Then suddenly he shook his head and laughed aloud.
+
+"Sure, 'tis not so at all, at all!" he laughed. "There's not a girl in
+all the world as beautiful as you. There's not a girl in all the world
+so good and kind, Faireen. Och, no! Not even the girls from the land of
+America! 'Tis indeed the fairy you are!"
+
+The little boy climbed out of the car. He saw a shamrock growing by the
+side of the road. He ran and picked it. He gave it to Marjorie. Then he
+kissed her hand and ran as fast as he could.
+
+  [Illustration: THEN HE KISSED HER HAND]
+
+He left the girl staring after him in real amazement. So he would not
+believe her! He thought that she was a fairy! Ah, well, she must
+certainly show him in some way that what she told him was true.
+
+She did not want to leave Ireland and feel that she had deceived the
+boy. Still, she loved to think that he believed her to be a fairy.
+
+It was a beautiful dream to John. She did not like to disturb that
+beautiful dream. Puzzled, she shook her head as she started her car.
+Then she was off, down the dusty road.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+BECAUSE HE IS IRISH
+
+
+  "I cannot see fairies.
+  I dream them. There is no fairy can hide from me.
+  I keep on dreaming till I find them."
+                          --HILDA CONKLIN
+
+John O'Day walked slowly through the village. He walked through the
+village because he wanted all the boys to see his fine suit.
+
+The fine suit was a bit torn and soiled from the fight he had had. Still
+John was proud of it.
+
+He went home by way of the village. He did not go by way of the lake. As
+he walked down the village street, the people stared at him.
+
+"And where are you going, John O'Day?" called one boy.
+
+"Sure, I'm not going," answered the little lad. "I'm after coming back
+from where I was!"
+
+He marched along. They all stood with staring eyes and watched him.
+
+He came to the cottage of his parents, and when they saw him they were
+delighted.
+
+Of course, John told his mother and father everything.
+
+He tried to tell it all before he went to bed. But the evening was too
+short and his tale too long. He was fairly bursting with the great trip
+he had had.
+
+He even had a tale of wonder for his wee sister. He held her on his
+knee while he told about the big zoo in Dublin.
+
+"Sure, and there's every kind of animal there," he went on, his eyes
+flashing. "Sure, I was after seeing a terrible, big creature. 'Twas an
+elephant they called it. And 'tis a square animal with a tail in front
+of it and a tail behind it!"
+
+"Glory be!" cried his mother.
+
+Shaun smiled behind his pipe. The baby gurgled.
+
+The older brother pretended that he was not very much interested. He
+was, though. He was greatly excited with John's tales.
+
+Then his father said, "But, Johneen, you do not really believe that
+your guide was a fairy?"
+
+"Sure, and the best one in all fairyland," answered John stoutly.
+
+Shaun scratched his head thoughtfully.
+
+"Och, Johneen," he said, "you do not believe that surely."
+
+But John answered, "I do!"
+
+Shaun then drew the boy over to his chair. He took John on his lap.
+
+"Listen, son," he said.
+
+He told the child the same thing that Marjorie had told him. He told
+John that Marjorie was really a girl from America.
+
+But John replied as he had replied to Marjorie in the car. He said that
+there could not be a girl so lovely and kind as she. He insisted that
+Marjorie could only be a fairy!
+
+Several days went by. John told everyone in the village about his trip.
+He talked of nothing else. He had gone to the lake day after day, but
+the girl fairy had never appeared.
+
+He did not give up hope, however. He felt she would keep her promise and
+come again to see him.
+
+Then one day little John received a package and a letter. In the package
+were several beautiful books. He asked his father to read the letter to
+him.
+
+Shaun read:
+
+"Dear Shauneen: To-morrow I am coming to the lake to say good-bye to
+you. Please be there. Marjorie."
+
+Shaun folded the letter and gave it back to his son.
+
+Then he said, "You see, she is an American girl. Her father and mother
+are going to take her back to America. They brought her over, and they
+also bought her that car. They arranged for her to take you on that fine
+trip. Don't you see now that she surely is not a fairy?"
+
+But John did not answer. He shook his head stubbornly. Suddenly Shaun
+had an idea.
+
+He said, "I must show you then." He put his two hands on the boy's
+shoulders and looked into his eyes. "To-morrow," he said, "when you go
+to meet her at the lake you must wear the red petticoat!"
+
+John looked frightened.
+
+He cried, "Och, father, she'll not be talking to me at all--and I in
+girl's clothes!"
+
+Shaun said, "Sure, that is just what she will do. She'll know you well.
+She'll talk to you. Then you will believe at last that she is no fairy!"
+
+The morning came. John dressed as usual in his red petticoat. He took
+the books that Marjorie had sent him and ran to the lake. He was there
+with the first birds. He was there with the sleepy sun.
+
+The sleepy sun was just waking up. But John O'Day had been awake for
+many hours. He had been so very much awake with his thoughts.
+
+He thought and thought about Marjorie. He wondered and wondered whether
+Marjorie would recognize him. If she should speak to him, he would know
+that she really was a girl. He would know that she was not a fairy.
+
+If she passed him by, he would be sure that she was a real fairy. Oh, he
+felt so sure that she was a fairy!
+
+But at the same time he wondered just a little bit why she tried to make
+him believe she was not. Was it because the Good People do not want
+folks to be talking about them?
+
+Maybe it was that. They like to give happiness to people. But they do
+not want people knowing that it is they giving the happiness.
+
+They do not ask thanks. They do not look for praise. The Good People
+are modest.
+
+But soon John would know about his lovely friend. She would soon appear
+and look for him. If she passed him by, his heart would beat with joy.
+He would know then.
+
+And he would call out to her, "It is I! It is your Shauneen! Do you not
+know me?"
+
+Then she would stop and he would laugh at her and jolly her.
+
+He would say, "You could not be fooling me, good fairy. Isn't it myself
+knows a fairy when I see one?"
+
+He chuckled to himself. She should not be fooling John O'Day!
+
+He opened one of the lovely books which Marjorie had sent him. He began
+to look at it. It was a beautiful book with colored pictures in it. It
+had grand pictures of cities in it.
+
+There were pictures of Irish cities and French cities and American
+cities.
+
+John grew so interested in looking at the pictures that he did not hear
+a step behind him. He did not see Marjorie standing behind him. She was
+smiling down at him as he sat all wrapped in joy and delight.
+
+  [Illustration: SHE WAS SMILING DOWN AT HIM]
+
+He was remembering his trip through the cities whose pictures he now
+looked at in a book. He was in Dublin again. He had jumped right into
+the book and was believing that he could hear the dull sounds of the
+city. He was believing that he could see the many people and cars and
+curious sights.
+
+Marjorie watched him for a few moments. She knew John O'Day, though he
+wore a girl's petticoat. She had come to bid him good-bye, for she was
+leaving for her own country.
+
+But she could not disturb him as he sat there. She could not disturb
+John O'Day while at his books. Nor could she disturb his dreams.
+
+She knew well that if she spoke to him now, he would know that she was
+not a fairy. He had told her that "fairies do not be speaking to girls,"
+and Marjorie could not disturb the little boy's beautiful dream of her.
+
+So she scribbled a note and left it on a flat rock. The note told John
+that she had come and gone. It said that Marjorie was sorry she had not
+seen her Shauneen again. But she left him with his dream of her.
+
+When John lifted his head and heart out of the pages of that grand book,
+he stood up and looked about. He saw the letter and opened it.
+
+Of course he could not read it, but he found something else with the
+letter which he kissed. It was the picture of his girl fairy. She had
+left it there.
+
+And now John O'Day knew that she had come and gone.
+
+  [Illustration: IT WAS THE PICTURE OF HIS GIRL FAIRY]
+
+Thought he, "She did not know the little figure in the red petticoat was
+her friend Shauneen! No; she did not notice this little girl at all, at
+all. Fairies do not be speaking to little girls."
+
+She had gone. But she had left behind her the picture of a girl fairy.
+She had left that picture on a flat rock.
+
+And she had left it, too, in the Irish heart of John O'Day, who had the
+dreams of his country.
+
+Marjorie will always remember the little boy. She will go back to
+America and always remember the boy who called her a good fairy. She
+will try really to be a good fairy because of that.
+
+She will not think so much about herself any more. But she will try to
+give pleasure to others because of the pleasure she finds in doing it.
+
+And as John O'Day grows older, perhaps he will find out the truth about
+Marjorie. But he will always be wanting to believe that she was a girl
+fairy, even if he finds that she was not.
+
+He will always want to keep his dreams, because he is Irish.
+
+  [Illustration: HE WILL ALWAYS KEEP HIS DREAMS]
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+
+Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
+
+Obvious punctuation errors are corrected.
+
+Illustrations have been rearranged to better match the story.
+
+On p. 152, a printing error was corrected. In the quote from
+Shakespeare, the book reads "Though flood, through fire,". This has been
+corrected to "Through flood".
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Shaun O'Day of Ireland, by Madeline Brandeis
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41015 ***