The Crock of Gold Read Free Page B

got your wife's washboard. It remains, therefore, that the fairies have it."
    "It looks that way," said Meehawl.
    "There are six clans of fairies living in this neighbourhood; but the process of elimination which has shaped the world to a globe, the ant to its environment, and man to the captaincy of the
vertebrates, will not fail in this instance either."
    "Did you ever see anything like the way wasps have increased this season?" said Meehawl; "faith, you can't sit down anywhere but your breeches—"
    "I did not," said the Philosopher. "Did you leave out a pan of milk on last Tuesday?"
    "I did then."
    "Do you take off your hat when you meet a dust twirl?"
    "I wouldn't neglect that," said Meehawl.
    "Did you cut down a thorn bush recently?"
    "I'd sooner cut my eye out," said Meehawl, "and go about as wall-eyed as Lorcan O'Nualain's ass: I would that. Did you ever see his ass, sir? It—"
    "I did not," said the Philosopher. "Did you kill a robin red-breast?"
    "Never," said Meehawl. "By the pipers," he added, "that old skinny cat of mine caught a bird on the roof yesterday."
    "Hah!" cried the Philosopher, moving, if it were possible, even closer to his client, "now we have it. It is the Leprecauns of Gort na Cloca Mora took your washboard. Go to the Gort at once.
There is a hole under a tree in the south-east of the field. Try what you will find in that hole."
    "I'll do that," said Meehawl. "Did you ever—"
    "I did not," said the Philosopher.
    So Meehawl MacMurrachu went away and did as he had been bidden, and underneath the tree of Gort na Cloca Mora he found a little crock of gold.
    "There's a power of washboards in that," said he.
    By reason of this incident the fame of the Philosopher became even greater than it had been before, and also by reason of it many singular events were to happen with which you shall duly become
acquainted.

 
    CHAPTER IV
    It so happened that the Leprecauns of Gort na Cloca Mora were not thankful to the Philosopher for having sent Meehawl MacMurrachu to their field. In stealing Meehawl's property they were quite
within their rights because their bird had undoubtedly been slain by his cat. Not alone, therefore, was their righteous vengeance nullified, but the crock of gold which had taken their community
many thousands of years to amass was stolen. A Leprecaun without a pot of gold is like a rose without perfume, a bird without a wing, or an inside without an outside. They considered that the
Philosopher had treated them badly, that his action was mischievous and unneighbourly, and that until they were adequately compensated for their loss both of treasure and dignity, no conditions
other than those of enmity could exist between their people and the little house in the pine wood. Furthermore, for them the situation was cruelly complicated. They were unable to organise a
direct, personal hostility against their new enemy, because the Thin Woman of Inis Magrath would certainly protect her husband. She belonged to the Shee of Croghan Conghaile who had relatives in
every fairy fort in Ireland, and were also strongly represented in the forts and duns of their immediate neighbours. They could, of course, have called an extraordinary meeting of the Sheogs,
Leprecauns, and Cluricauns, and presented their case with a claim for damages against the Shee of Croghan Conghaile, but that Clann would assuredly repudiate any liability on the ground that no
member of their fraternity was responsible for the outrage as it was the Philosopher, and not the Thin Woman of Inis Magrath, who had done the deed. Notwithstanding this they were unwilling to let
the matter rest, and the fact that justice was out of reach only added fury to their anger.
    One of their number was sent to interview the Thin Woman of Inis Magrath, and the others concentrated nightly about the dwelling of Meehawl MacMurrachu in an endeavour to recapture the treasure,
which they were quite satisfied was hopeless. They found that Meehawl,