Stranger
Little Cowboy, what have you heard,
Up on the lonely rath’s green mound?
Little Cowboy
Only the plaintive yellowbird
Sighing in sultry fields around,
“Chary, chary, chary, chee-ee!—”
Only the grasshopper and the bee.
Fairy Shoemaker (singing underground)
Tip-tap, rip-rap,
Tick-a-tack-too!
Scarlet leather, sewn together,
This will make a shoe.
Left, right, pull it tight;
Summer days are warm;
Underground in Winter,
Laughing at the storm!
Stranger
Lay your ear close to the hill.
Do you not catch the tiny clamour,
Busy click of an Elfin hammer,
Voice of the Leprechaun singing shrill
He’s a span
And a quarter in height.
Get him in sight, hold him tight,
And you’re a made
Man!
You watch your cattle the Summer day,
Sup on potatoes, sleep in the hay;
How would you like to roll in your carriage,
Look for a Duchess’s daughter in marriage?
Seize the Shoemaker—then you may!
Fairy Shoemaker (singing underground)
Big boots a-hunting,
Sandals in the hall,
White for a wedding-feast,
Pink for a ball.
This way, that way,
So we make a shoe;
Getting rich every stitch,
Tick-a-tack-too!
Stranger
Nine-and-ninety treasure-crocks
This keen Miser-Fairy hath,
Hid in mountains, woods, and rocks,
Ruin and round-tow’r, cave and rath,
From times of old
Guarded by him;
Each of them filled
Full to the brim
With gold!
I caught him at work one day, myself,
In the castle-ditch, where Foxglove grows,—
A wrinkled, wizened, and bearded Elf,
Spectacles stuck on his pointed nose,
Silver buckles to his hose,
Leather apron—shoe in his lap—
Fairy Shoemaker (singing underground)
Rip-rap, tip-tap,
Tick-a-tack-too!
(A grasshopper on my cap!
Away the moth flew!)
Buskins for a Fairy Prince,
Brogues for his son,—
Pay me well, pay me well,
When the job is done!
Stranger
The rogue was mine, beyond a doubt.
I stared at him; he stared at me;
“Servant, sir!” “Humph!” says he,
And pulled a snuff-box out.
The queer little Leprechaun;
Offerèd the box with a whimsical grace,—
Pouf! he flung the dust in my face,
And, while I sneezed,
Was gone!
William Allingham