Colleen gave a slight laugh.

“I think it’s been open for some time, but now the huntress has some suitable bait to work with,” she said.

After she had crossed her own lawn, she asked if he was comfortable.

“Well I’m having to adjust to your hand swinging by your side while you walk,” he said, “But there’s nothing you can really do about that.”

“Would you like to ride in the basket?” she asked.

“I guess it would be more comfortable, even if I couldn’t feel your soft fingers holding me anymore.”

“You’re so sweet,” she said, and kissed him again.

She lowered him onto the blanket. He could either look out between the strands of the basket, or look up at her beautiful high face as she walked all the way to the meadow, and decided to do a bit of both.

This time she stopped at the edge of the meadow and crouched down straight away, and put the basket beside her. She took Stanley out and set him down gently on the ground.

“If you head in first, I’ll slowly crawl around, keeping an eye on you without giving my presence away. If you meet a leprechaun, do your best to keep him distracted, until I can lunge in and snatch him up from behind. If there is one there, I might well have him in my tummy by mid afternoon.”

“I’ll do my best,” said Stanley.

“I know you will,” she said, smiling kindly at him.

She watched him pass between flowers which were now taller than him, and kept as low and out of sight as she could, using bushes on the outer edge of the flower patch to conceal her.  Stanley’s thoughts oscillated between consideration for the plight he would be helping to inflict on any leprechaun he found and his desire to make Colleen happy. Most likely they would never find one, and the matter would remain academic. He could still look forward to more huge kisses each day that he helped her with her hunting expeditions.

Colleen kept her eye on Stanley, and briefly lost sight of him at one point, when the foliage was so thick, that his progress was completely concealed. She could still hear him stepping on dry leaves and rustling them with his feet. This enabled her to approximate his position and direction and continue to follow from a distance.

Eventually she saw him again. He looked up at her, and waved. Her blue eye winked at him encouragingly and smiled her appreciation of his enthusiasm.

Later, they came to a point where the flower bed was very open and bushes were sparse. She crawled out away a little, and took a wider loop, but was able to travel faster because of her full size, and came out at the opening at the end of that flower bed, and crouched between that patch and the next, waiting to see if Stanley would be likely to bring a leprechaun in that direction, where she would already be in a position to surprise him.

It took the entire morning, but they managed to make their way through the entire meadow in this tandem approach, but Stanley didn’t come across any leprechauns.