Shauneen was a brave boy and felt that to whimper to his father would be weak.
He was a sturdy little lad. His hair was Irish red and his cheeks were bright and rosy from the damp, rainy wind. He was strong and manly.
He hated the red petticoat he was forced to wear. Often he had thought of putting on the clothing of a real boy.
But always in his heart, as in the hearts of other village boys, there was the fear of the leprechaun!
And if he were stolen away, what would his dear father do? His dear father, who loved him!
It was only because of his father that Shauneen did not give himself to the fairies.
He would not have been afraid of the fairies.
He would have liked them to take him away. They could not be so cruel as his stepmother.
Sometimes Shaun's stepmother made him mind her baby. He had to carry it upon his back. Many of the village boys did this sort of thing, and so it was not the disgrace that it would be in a present-day city.
He often went down to the shore.
To-day as he approached the shore, he met a friend. This friend was a girl, the daughter of a neighbor. Her name was Eileen. But Shauneen did not call her that.
She was his little schoolgirl sweetheart, and he called her Dawn. He called her Dawn because he told her that she was the dawn of day to him.
"Some day," he said, "'tis myself, Shaun O'Day, will marry you. Then you will be in truth my Dawn O'Day."
To-day they looked out across the great ocean and dreamed of a new world out there. They dreamed of America.
And Shaun said, "When I am tall and strong, I shall take you in a ship to America. Och, we'll be after building a houseen in the New Island!"
The New Island was their Irish name for America.
It
was a rainy day, but they did not notice it. Rain is nothing to Irish children. And as they talked together on the shore in the drizzling rain, they heard a strange cry.
Louder grew the cry, and suddenly they saw men and women running toward the shore. They heard the women wailing. They heard the tramp, tramp of men's heavy boots.
Shaun stood up, with the baby on his back. He shaded his eyes and looked.
The girl stood, too. She gave a low cry.
"Och, Shauneen!" she moaned. "'Tis a fishing boat has been wrecked! Och, the poor wives and children of the men 'twere in it!"
And she moaned and rocked back and forth.
The waters made a roaring sound. The sky was leaden gray. The men were working, pulling in the wreck of the boat.
Shaun gave the baby to Eileen. Then the boy in his red petticoat started to run.
His feet were bare, but he could skim over those rough rocks like a wild animal. His feet never had known shoes.
His ruddy face had gone white. He reached the group of working men and moaning women. Then he fell upon his face, and a great sob came from his heart.
Among the lost men was his own father!
CHAPTER III COME AWAY
Shaun O'Day stood upon the banks of the little lake near his village. He stared out across the blue Irish lake. That morning his stepmother had beaten him.
It was several months since the sea accident had taken his father from him. It was several sad, cruel months to the boy Shaun.
If it had not been for his little Dawn O'Day, Shaun would have run away. He would have run and run anywhere to get away from this life of hard work and cruelty.
But he did not want to leave little Dawn O'Day. She pleaded with him to stay. She was afraid of the fairies.
To-day he stood beside the lake, and he had a bundle by his side. It was a bulky bundle. He had worked hard all that morning. He had helped the men burn kelp.
Kelp is seaweed. The people burn it and make iodine from what is left of it. Kelp burning is an important occupation in western Ireland.
Shaun had worked hard. His little rough hands burned. His little sturdy body ached. He was hungry.
He had gone home and, seeing the family at dinner, he had helped himself to potatoes.
His stepmother had cried, "Begob, and did I tell you to serve yourself? Are you, indeed, the King himself?"
With that, she had beaten him.
Now Shaun stood upon the shore of that blue Irish lake near his village. He had taken a suit of clothes belonging to one of his stepbrothers. A suit of boy's clothes it was.
He would put it on. He would stand by the lake and call to the leprechauns to take him away. He would work for the leprechauns. Yes, willingly would he work and toil for the fairy folk!
He started to undo the paper in which he had wrapped the clothing. He heard a sound and looked up. Eileen was standing before him. It was his little Dawn O'Day.
"Shauneen, och, Shauneen!" she cried. "What is it you are about to do? And why do you look that way?"
Shaun did not answer. He took her hand. They sat together on the bank of the lake.
"Faith, speak to me, Shauneen!" cried the girl, the tears starting to her eyes. "Speak and tell me that you are not after calling the lep "