shouted Nate. “A pirate!” yelled Brian. “Groucho!” cried Lucy. It was Friday, March 15. In two days it would be St. Patrick’s Day. Every year people in Green Lawn had a St. Patrick’s Day contest. They dressed leprechaun statues in funny outfits. The mayor chose a winner, and there was a prize. Everyone who entered the contest bought a leprechaun statue for five dollars. The money went to help a local food bank. The four kids had chipped in and bought their statue together. They were on Bradley and Brian’s front porch with a cardboard box of costumes. The kids were trying costumes on the leprechaun and on themselves. Lucy was in first grade with the three boys. She was staying with her cousin, Dink Duncan, for a year. Her parents were in Arizona helping to build a school on a reservation. Nate Hathaway and his big sister, Ruth Rose, lived next door to Dink on Woody Street. Bradley and Brian Pinto were twins and lived with their parents and older brother, Josh, on Farm Lane.
