The Leprechaun Who Wished He Wasn't Read Online Free PDF

CHAPTER ONE
Two Wishes
    Laurence was fed up with being a leprechaun.
    He was tired of sitting under a boring old rainbow, guarding a mouldy old crock of gold and making endless shoes.
    He wanted to be a human being.

    And besides, he longed to have a Best Friend. But nobody is ever Best Friends with a leprechaun. Leprechauns spend all their time tricking people and laughing wickedly and stealing things and not letting people have their crocks of gold.

    If he wanted to have a Best Friend, Laurence would have to REFORM HIS CHARACTER. But first, he had to get bigger. That was why, on this summer’s morning, he was doing his stretchingexercises in the sunshine. Regular exercises would surely bring him up to the right height to pass for a small boy. And he was practising his English very hard too.

    The other leprechauns jeered. ‘You’ll snap in the middle one day,’ they growled, ‘and that will be the end of you. Leprechauns aren’t supposed to be tall. Anyway, what’swrong with being a leprechaun?’
    â€˜It’s too corny,’ explained Laurence. ‘It’s just not cool. All the really hip people are huming beings.’
    The others didn’t agree.
    â€˜Well, name one hip person who’s a leprechaun,’ Laurence said. But of course they couldn’t.
    Laurence had marked out a watch-yourself-grow chart on a buachallán . He’d marked it in centimetres, because it’s much more encouraging to watch yourself grow in centimetres than in inches.
    He was just standing very still up against the stem of the buachallán , holding his breath and concentrating on being a centimetre taller, when a hugeshadow fell across the field.

    Laurence shivered with cold. He wondered where the sun had gone. What could have happened?
    He came out from under the buachallán , looked up towards the sky and straight into a pair of very large grey eyes, with long brown lashes, and pudgy pink cheeks under them.
    Oops! He was cornered.
    Now the one thing a leprechaun dreads is being spotted by a human being. It usually means having to cough up a crock of gold.
    â€˜Good morning.’ Laurence grinned hopefully at the owner of the eyes.
    â€˜What’s good about it?’
    â€˜I didn’t say it was a good morning,’ said Laurence. ‘I just wished you one. It’s not the same thing.’
    â€˜Humph,’ said the fat girl sourly and sat down with a bump that made the buachallán tremble. ‘Anyway,’ she went on, ‘leprechauns aren’t supposed to say Good morning. They’re supposed to say Top o’ the mornin’.’

    â€˜ Raiméis !’ (This was Laurence’s favourite word.) ‘You’ve been reading too many silly books about leprechauns. And who says I’m a leprechaun?’
    â€˜Well, if you’re not, you’re a mighty strange-looking whatever-it-is- that-you’re -supposed-to-be.’
    â€˜Well, I’m not a leprechaun,’ said Laurence stoutly. ‘I’m huming. Just like you.’
    â€˜Have it your own way. What’s your name? Mine’s Phoebe.’
    â€˜Phoebe!’ said Laurence. ‘ Phoebe ! What sort of a name is that?’
    â€˜You shouldn’t be rude about people’s names,’ said Phoebe primly. ‘What’s yours?’
    â€˜Laurence.’

    Now, Laurence’s name was really Larry, but he thought that sounded too leprechaunish altogether, so he’d changed it to Laurence. That had a definite human ring to it.
    â€˜Huh! That proves it!’ said Phoebe.
    â€˜That proves what?’
    â€˜That you really are a leprechaun. Allleprechauns are called Laurence.’
    â€˜No, they’re not. They’re mostly called Larry, actually.’
    â€˜Same difference. Laurence is long for Larry.’
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜Or at least,’ went on Phoebe thoughtfully, ‘Larry is short for Laurence, which comes to the same