One day, Frederick heard another leprechaun child say that you could always find gold under an old oak tree, all you needed was to say a magic poem. Frederick ran all the way home, and to where he knew there was an old oak tree.
When he got there, he sang a magic poem he had made up on the way:
There's never any sadness with leprechauns about, So find the treasure, and take it out.As soon as he sang the poem, he saw a hole in the tree, and inside it was a small black iron pot. Frederick reached in and took out the pot, but instead of gold, it was filled with porridge!
"Better than nothing," said Frederick, and he ate the porridge. As soon as he ate the porridge, he saw a Faerie sitting up in the tree. "Did you like the porridge," the Faerie asked Frederick.
"Yes, although I had hoped for gold," said Frederick, who was always honest.
"You may find gold, too," said the Faerie. Frederick looked down, and there were five gold coins right at his feet. He picked them up and took them home.
After that, his family was not poor anymore. Whenever they needed more gold, Frederick went to the old oak tree, and sang his poem, and ate the porridge, and always found five gold coins right at his feet. By the time he was a grown up leprechaun, and could not find gold any more, he and his family had filled their own pot full of gold coins.
One day, when Frederick was an old Grandpa leprechaun, he heard a young leprechaun telling his friend
"I would not eat porridge for a pot full of gold!"
Frederick just laughed and laughed.