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where I thought they were but they were nowhere to be found.
• Do not get me wrong here. I was never frustrated in my fruitless search of leprechauns. There is no better way to spend a day in the woods than searching for the elusive leprechaun. I began to think what I would do if I actually caught one. Then what would I do in the woods? It is always better to seek and not find than to find something and have to quit the seeking.
• I think it is something like fishermen. Few fishermen really fish for fish. They fish so they can go home and brag about the one that got away. It is hard to brag about the fish you caught and then there is the messy job of cleaning those fish. No, it is better to have fished and not caught anything to have fished and caught something that you have to take home and clean.
• Such was my thoughts concerning my leprechaun pursuit.
• Many an evening I entertained my parents with the exciting exploits of searching and almost catching a leprechaun today. I am sure they got tired of hearing, but I never tired of telling.
• Then the time came when I really had to face the facts. After almost a decade of diligently searching for leprechauns, I had to conclude that they were simply a figment of my imagination. And you know what happens to figs if you keep them around for a long time. I had to realize there were no such creatures as leprechauns.
• I must confess that it was a rather sad day for me. It was the beginning of many sad days like this.
• For instance, the day I realized Santa Claus was not real. Every year I diligently prepared my Christmas list starting out with, "Dear Ole Santa," and dictated my list

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