7 Building a Leprechaun Trap

7 Building a Leprechaun Trap The war would have to wait, because it was time for art class. We had to walk a million hundred miles to the art room. Our teacher is Ms. Hannah. I mean, Ms. O'Hannah. "In honor of Saint Patrick's Day," she told us, "I thought it would be fun to cut shamrocks out of

construction paper and decorate the walls of the school with them." There were sheets of green paper and scissors out on the table. "Ms. O'Hannah," I said, "can we make a leprechaun trap instead?" "Yeah," said Alexia. "If we catch Larry the Leprechaun, we'll get his pot of gold." "What a wonderful idea!" said Ms. O'Hannah. She cleared the paper off the table and got a bunch of other stuff—Popsicle sticks, string, tape, stickers, green tissue paper, a glue stick, and a big cardboard box. She helped us cut a hole in the top of the cardboard box. Then we covered the hole with the tissue paper and the rest of the box with green paper. We glued a long stick to the side of the box and attached a string to the end of it so a fake gold coin would dangle over the hole. That would be the bait. Finally, we made a little ladder out of Popsicle sticks so the leprechaun could climb up on the box and fall into the hole when he tried to grab the coin.

When our leprechaun trap was done, we stepped back to admire our work. "It's cool," said Ryan. "It's awesome," said Michael. "It's sure to catch Larry the Leprechaun," said Alexia. Ms. O'Hannah said we could take the leprechaun trap back to our classroom. We walked a million hundred miles back there and set it up on a desk in the front of the room. And you'll never believe who walked into the door at that moment. Nobody! People don't walk into doors! You'd bump your head.* But you'll never believe who walked into the doorway. It was our school tech guy, Mr. Harrison. I mean, Mr. O'Harrison. Mr. O'Harrison fixes the computers and copy machines when they break down. He can fix anything. "What's that contraption?" asked Mr. O'Harrison. "It's a leprechaun trap," said Mr. O'Cooper. "The students just built it during art class." Mr. O'Harrison walked around the trap, looking it over. Then he let out a snort.

"You call that a leprechaun trap?" he said. "That's not gonna catch any leprechauns." "It won't?" we all said. "Nah," said Mr. O'Harrison. "For one thing, it's too small." He was probably right. The leprechaun I saw running into the school was way too big to fit

inside our trap. "I'll be back in a jiff," said Mr. O'Harrison as he ran out of the room. I don't know what peanut butter had to do with anything. But a few minutes later Mr. O'Harrison came back. He was pushing a big cart full of wood, a hammer, nails, and lots of other stuff, including a big bell that looked like the Liberty Bell. "Leprechauns are tricky and sneaky," Mr. O'Harrison told us. "If you want to catch 'em, you've got to be trickier and sneakier than they are." He unrolled a big sheet of paper on Mr. O'Cooper's desk. It had a drawing of a leprechaun trap on it. We all gathered around him as he explained how it worked. "Look," Mr. O'Harrison said as he pointed to his drawing. "First, we lure the leprechaun over here with some cookies and gold coins. When he steps on this spot, he'll bump against this string. That will knock over this line of dominoes. The last domino will hit this little car. It will roll down this ramp and bump into the baseball at the end. The baseball will roll down this tube and push this

box of rocks off the table. The box of rocks will land on this bicycle pedal and turn it, causing these nails to pop the water balloon. The water in the balloon will slide down this marble run and knock down this bowling pin, which causes this wheel to spin, which activates this little zip line, which flips this switch, which drops the big bell that's hanging from the ceiling. BAM! The bell falls on top of the leprechaun and he's trapped!"