O'Shaughnessy's Gold

About a week and a half ago Tizzy and I were talking and he asked me if I believed in Leprechauns. I was caught off guard and I replied that I did not, but that they were fun to imagine. There was a long pause in which he thought about this and I knew that I'd given him the wrong answer.

"Do you believe in Leprechauns?" I asked him.

"Well, I'm not sure." He replied doubtfully.

I quickly came back that I personally had never seen one, but as they primarily live in Ireland I couldn't say for sure that they don't exist, just that I'd never seen one.

The next day as we were driving to school he piped up from the back seat that they'd been making shamrocks at school and were asked to outline them with gold glitter if they believed in Leprechauns and silver glitter if they did not. I asked him which color he'd used, and he told me he hadn't done his yet.

That evening we all went to his school for the Ice-cream Social and Book Fair. Part of the Book Fair took place in his classroom so Brad and I had a chance to look at his work on the wall. There on the wall were the shamrocks and Tizzy's was lined with gold.

"Tizzy!" I exclaimed. "What a beautiful shamrock. Looks to me like you do believe in Leprechauns!"

His eyes welled up with tears and his lips began to tremble. "I didn't use gold glitter! Someone else must have put that there!"

Two days later, all of the children were holding green pieces of paper in the pick-up line and there was lot's of excited chattering. As I approached Tizzy, he ran toward me and thrust the paper into my hands shouting, "There's a Leprechaun named O'Malley and it lives in the Kindergarten playground. It sent everybody letters in their mailboxes and said that Rm. 5 has it's favorite Kindergartners!"

There has been no more doubt as to the existence of Leprechauns, but there has been lot's of discussion as to how to catch them. Yesterday, Tizzy set out a trap made with black construction paper, lots of tape and a cookie. When he went back to check on it, the trap was on the floor the tape had been unwrapped and the cookie was gone!

Last night as the boys lay in bed getting ready to sleep I overheard this discussion –

Tizzy: I think the Leprechaun ate the cookie in one little bit. Poor man can't eat a cookie in one bite, just a bit – Poor little fella. Hey Zip, I saw that the Leprechaun ate the cookie!

Zip: Maybe he was hungry.

Tizzy: No you silly! The cookie was too big for his belly - Poor little fella!

Zip: Did you see him?

Tizzy: No. Did you?

Zip: I didn't see him, but I heard him. I heard little steps just come in the door and tiptoe across the floor.

Tizzy runs out to me and says: Hey Mom! Zip heard the Leprechaun sneak into our house! By the way – What's a poor little fella?

They finally fell asleep after much discussion about how a Leprechaun could be best caught and what they would do with the gold if they caught it.

This morning Tizzy climbed into bed with me, peered into my eye and said, "There are a couple of chocolate frogs on the table."

"What?" I exclaimed.

"I said, there are a couple of green chocolate frogs on the table."

"Where did they come from?" I asked.

"I don't know. They're by the traps."

"Maybe a Leprechaun brought them." I said.

"Let's go see!"

We walked into the living room and sure enough on the table were two green foil covered chocolate frogs. Underneath them was a letter from a Leprechaun named O'Shaughnessy who's apparently friends with O'Malley from the Kindergarten playground. He said that he's not easily trapped, but enjoys cookies very much and thought that Zip and Tizzy might enjoy a treat of their own for all of their hard work.

Tizzy could not wait to tell his friends.

Apparently, when he tried, nobody would pay any attention.

That, however, did not stop him from setting more traps when he got home.