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.