“Holding in their hands some of the lucky 4-Leaf Clovers are Craig Hawkinson, Cole Knutsen and his twin brother Taylor Knutsen.Kate Poss photoMaybe it’s Whidbey Island’s famous magic that led three boys to discover the four-leaf clover patches in their town of Freeland-they think they’re just plain lucky and they’re not even Irish.Late last month third graders Craig Hawkins and Cole Knutsen looked for a way to have fun while waiting for the bus to take them to school. They took a walk, never suspecting they’d find a secret patch of luck.Me and Craig were walking together, said Cole, and I found three four-leaf clovers and Craig found five. They grow in a small field. We’ve even found some with five leaves.Once we found them we thought it was probably ‘The Luck,’ added Craig. Soon Cole’s fraternal twin Taylor joined them on their morning adventure-now they go searching for four leafers each morning before school.In order to be a good four-leaf clover finder, one has to get down on hands and knees, be able to see distances and close up (the boys call this good mileage), and be able to sense with their fingers whether there are four leaves attached to the delicate clover stem.Craig said that Thursday morning, March 15 the luck was good; he found several that day. Before going out he takes a leaf off one of the clovers at home and wishes to find more that morning.I found one of the biggest ones this morning, he said, holding out his hand to show a pressed and fat-leaved four-leaf clover.Craig, who looks a bit like an elf himself with his buzz cut, blue eyes and freckles, said he has wished to get his math questions right and he did and he wished for snow and it snowed. The twins each have hazel-gray eyes and are as excited as their friend Craig is about their discovery. All three of the boys have collections of the lucky plant.Taylor said that after the clovers are picked he dunks them in water and lets them sit in the sun, but not too long or else the leaves roll up. Craig presses his in lined paper. Cole keeps his pressed clovers in a secret jar covered with a lid with holes in it. No one knows where this secret stash is. Cole gave one of the clovers to a cute girl who rides his bus, Sabrina James-Brown, a second grader. Sabrina shared the lucky clover one morning recently in class and clearly impressed the kids with her lucky leaf.The boys say their spot is secret, and even if others ask where it is they still want to keep their patch to themselves, though Cole said he’s found some in his yard. The boys said they would reveal one spot that has plenty of lucky four-leafers: It’s in Port Townsend, right near the ferry dock. Look for a field of grass and get down and look for the clovers (use your mileage) -the boys estimate there are between 50 to 100 lucky clovers there.Folks feel lucky when they find a clover with four leaves. Terri Schaal of Greenbank said she’s found only one in her life. That was nine years ago when she camped on her property before moving to Whidbey and found one in a little forested glen. She thought it was a lucky find from a magical place.Four- and five-leaf clovers really aren’t that unusual, says Maureen Rowley, co-owner of Bayview Farm and Garden in Langley. It’s funny, if you start looking for them you find them; they’re not all that rare, she said. Seems like they’ll be more numerous in a certain area. You’ll also find ones with five leaves. When I was a kid about 12, I was really into four-leaf clovers. We lived in Minnesota then. My dad said he would put one in an epoxy thing if I found a four-leaf clover. I found 168 and thought I was the luckiest girl in the world. Regular lawn clover–part of the oxalis family-produces four-leaf clovers. The lucky clover–the famous Irish good luck plant is a different species-that’s the shamrock. It’s really fun, though, to find them.Rare or not, Craig, Taylor and Cole think they’re pretty lucky and hope to keep the clovers until they are old men, wishing on the leaves and getting The Luck. “