Patrick O'Reilly considered himself a very lucky man.  In fact,
since the day he had found that four leaf clover, everything good
and nothing bad had seemed to come his way.   He had met the
wonderful Rosie, and after a whirlwind romance, they were married.
Just a year later, he was the proud father of beautiful twins; a
boy and a girl.

At work, his story was the same.  Paddy had been promoted and he
had received a substantial raise, and then the firm had created a
profit sharing plan, and was considering him fully vested.

Paddy was convinced that his good fortune was due to his 4-leaf
clover.  Because of this belief, everywhere he went he was certain
to see that he was carrying the "lucky talisman" in his suit pocket.

Then, early one morning, Paddy could not find the clover.   In a
panic, he searched the house, but it was not to be found.  Desperately
he tried to recall when he had last seen it, and finally remembered
that he had put it in his gray suit that he had dropped off at the
dry cleaners just the afternoon before.

He rushed to the cleaners and discovered that the work had already
been completed and his suit was ready to be picked up. He searched
the suit and with relief found the 4-leaf clover.  It was still in
one piece, just a bit flattened from the dry cleaning process.

Here, our story takes a turn.  It seemed to Paddy that from that
day on, his fortunes changed.  Oh, don't misunderstand me, he still
thought that life was very good, but it was no longer perfect.
There were troubling little inconveniences that always seemed to
weave through his day.  Small things like having a flat tire as he
was driving to an important meeting, and the twins coming down with
measles when his boss and his wife were over for dinner.   Even at
work things changed.  The company lawyers revoked his full vesting,
cutting it back to 40% to comply with some obscure federal statute.

Yes, Paddy's life had changed. He still carried the amulet, but he
now believed that he was not living under the pot 'o gold he was
used to and sadly had come to expect.

After a few weeks of struggling with days filled with these trials,
he had reached the end of his coping rope. Paddy drove to his church
and visited the parish priest to see if the priest could help him
understand life's turns and find peace.

Being a man with great insight and of few, but severely diagnostic
words, the priest pondered the tale for but a moment.

"This certainly was to be expected," said Father Flanagan. "...and
Paddy, I'm surprised you didn't know that .... you should never
press your luck ! "