t a-roaring, so you could hear the
roars of him a mile away, and when he finds the cow-boy, he goes under
the tree to shake him down, but the good little son slips out the big
stone, and it fell down and broke the giant's head entirely. So the
good son went running away to the giant's house, and it being full to
the eaves of gold and diamonds and splendid things.

"So you see what fine luck comes to folks that is good and honest! And
he went home and fetched his old Mother, and they lived rich and
contented, and died very old and respected."

"Do you suppose your son Michael killed any giants in America, the way
he got to be an Alderman?" asked Eileen, when Grannie had finished her
story.

"I don't rightly know that," Grannie answered. "Maybe it wasn't just
exactly giants, but you can see for yourself that he is rich and
respected, and he with a silk hat, and riding in a procession the same
as the Lord-Mayor himself!"

"Did you ever see a giant or a fairy or any of the good little people
themselves, Grannie Malone?" Larry asked.

"I've never exactly seen any of them with my own two eyes," she
answered, "but many is the time I've talked with people and they having
seen them. There was Mary O'Connor now,--dead long since, God rest her.
She told me this tale herself, and she sitting by this very hearth.
Wait now till I wet my mouth with a sup of tea in it, and I'll be
telling you the tale the very same way she told it herself."

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Note 1. Adapted from "Marygold House," in _Play-Days_, by Sarah Orne
Jewett.

CHAPTER THREE.

THE TALE OF THE LEPRECHAUN.

Grannie reached for the teapot and poured herself a cup of tea. As she
sipped it, she said to the twins, "Did you ever hear of the Leprechauns?
Little men they are, not half the bigness of the smallest baby you ever
laid your two eyes on. Long beards they have, and little pointed caps
on the heads of them.

"And it's forever making the little brogues (shoes) they are, and you
can hear the tap-tap of their hammers before you ever get sight of them
at all. And the gold and silver and precious things they have hidden
away would fill the world with treasures.

"But they have the sharpness of the new moon, that's sharp at both ends,
and no one can get their riches away from them at all. They do be
saying that if you catch one in your two hands and never take your eyes
off him, you