John's eyes glowed.
He answered, "Indeed, I do know it. And I'm forever seeing the pictures in the school books. Sure, I do believe I'd rather be seeing Ireland than any fairyland at all!"
"Good!" laughed the girl fairy. Then she grew serious again as she said, "But Shauneen, you must promise your fairy that you will not speak of this to anyone at all. You must also ask your father to come to the shore of the lake to-morrow morning while you are at school. Tell him that there is some one
who would speak with him on a serious matter. But do not say any more. If you obey these two commands, your fairy will come again. She will come for you on the shores of the lake. She will take you to all parts of your own beautiful country."
John promised to carry out her wishes. Again they flew over the ground until at last they were back at the spot whence they had started.
Then John stepped out of the glistening automobile. The girl fairy threw him a kiss and was off in a cloud of dust.
CHAPTER VIII OVER THE GREEN LAND
He was thinking of the girl fairy and of his coming trip with her. She had told him to say nothing, and he must obey her. But he could not help thinking about her. Surely she was good and would let no harm befall him.
His father had told him that the Good People were kind and loved little boys. So he smiled and paid no attention to his school work.
The teacher set him in a corner with a dunce's cap on his head.
In the meantime, John's father was walking to the shore of the lake. He wondered who wanted to see him. John had told him that it was an important matter.
He scratched his red head and puzzled. He waited on the banks of the lake until he heard a light step behind him.
He turned and saw John's girl fairy. She walked over to him silently. He jumped up and looked at her. Shaun thought he had never seen so exquisite a being. She spoke.
"You are Shaun O'Day," she said softly. She held out something and continued, "Please take this."
Shaun took from her graceful white hand a slip of paper. She kept looking into his eyes.
"Read it, Shaun," she said.
Shaun opened the paper. His eyes fell on his own boyish handwriting and a shamrock pasted across the top of the letter.
"Faith, 'tis a letter I wrote, myself, when I was a lad!" he exclaimed.
The girl fairy only smiled and kept looking into Shaun's eyes.
"Begob!" he suddenly shouted, looking hard at the girl fairy. "'Tis Miss Marjorie, the baby Princess!"
"Yes, Shaun," answered Marjorie happily. "'Tis Marjorie come all the way from fairyland to see you."
Then the two sat down on the bank. Shaun took off his coat and spread it on the ground for the girl to sit upon. They talked and laughed and remembered old times together.
Suddenly Marjorie grew serious and said, "Shaun, I have seen your son!"
Shaun looked surprised.
Marjorie continued, "Shaun, I want you to help me. I want to give a great pleasure to your little John."
Then she told Shaun how John had seen her the previous day. She told how John had believed her to be a fairy. She told Shaun that she had promised to take the little lad on a trip through Ireland.
She finished by saying, "I want to make him happy, Shaun, as you made me, long ago. Will you say that I may take him?"
Shaun's eyes were moist. He felt very grateful to the girl.
He replied in a low voice, "Och, Miss Marjorie, you are indeed no fairy, but a great good angel!"
Marjorie jumped up gayly and cried, "Then you will let him go with me, Shaun?"
"And sure you know well I will, Miss Marjorie. 'Tis a great good you will be doing for my lad. It is surely," he said.
Marjorie looked very serious then. And she bowed her head.
Her words were whispers as she said, "If it is a great good, then it is the first great good I have ever done. I have been very selfish, Shaun. Everyone has always done for me. This is the first time I have ever done something to give some one else pleasure. And, oh," she suddenly clasped her hands together and smiled radiantly, "it is a wonderful feeling! It has made me happy, Shaun."
She kissed his rough brown hand and turned on her dainty heel. She fled before Shaun could utter a sound.
"Well, begob, begorra!" he at last sputtered, scratching his head and wrinkling his nose. "Now isn't it a great wonder?"
Then, as if some breeze had contradicted him, he nodded his head and said loudly, "It is surely!"
It was several days before Marjorie's next visit to the lake.
Although the little boy John went thither daily and waited longingly, no girl fairy appeared. But he never doubted that she would come. He knew she would keep her promise. And she did.
At last, one day, she came tripping over the ground, laughing and calling, "Shauneen, Shauneen, 'tis I!"
John trembled. But he smiled at her and held out his hand.
To-day she was not dressed in fluttering, light-colored garments. Instead, she had on a brown leather coat. She wore a little round cap.