“That I will not tell you,” replied the Leprechaun, “unless you let me go, so that I may finish cobbling the Elfin King’s shoes.”
“I’ll make you tell me now where the gold is!” said the lad.
And with that he built a rousing fire under the Leprechaun to roast him.
“Oh, take me off! Take me off!” yelled the little fellow, “and I’ll tell you! Just go to the burdock-leaf under which I was sitting, and there is the pot of gold. Only go, dig, and find it, before the sun sets.”
The lad was so delighted that, without stopping to untie the Leprechaun, he ran out of the house. It happened that his mother was just coming in with a pail of new milk. He hit the pail and spilt the milk on the floor, but he ran on laughing. And when his mother saw the Leprechaun struggling on the hob, she was furiously angry.
“See what bad luck you have brought us, you rogue!” she cried. And with that she untied the little fellow and kicked him out of the house.
But the lad ran on until he came to the burdock-leaf; and he dug, and dug, and dug, but there was no pot of gold there, for the sun had set. So he started sorrowfully for home, and just as he was passing an old fort he heard laughter, and a squeaky voice crying out:—
“That boy is looking for a pot of gold! ha! ha! But little does he know that a whole crock full is lying at the bottom of the old quarry. Only he must go to fetch it at midnight, and he must not take his mother with him.”
When the lad heard this he hurried home and told his mother. At midnight he started out, after ordering her to stay in the house. But as soon as he was gone she thought to herself: “I’ll get to the quarry before he does, and find and keep the gold!”
So she ran by a shorter way, and when she reached the edge of the quarry she slipped on a stone, fell to the bottom, and broke her leg. And there she lay groaning dreadfully.