WEBVTT 00:00:01.058 --> 00:00:07.223 - Good evening, and thank you all for coming out tonight to the Monroe County Public Library's presentation 00:00:07.223 --> 00:00:13.272 - of Wintertelling, funded by the Friends of the Library. I'd like at this point to ask everybody to turn 00:00:13.272 --> 00:00:19.262 - their cell phones to silent or off, if you would please, and remind you that we will have refreshments 00:00:19.262 --> 00:00:25.485 - in the atrium after the performances. And without further ado, I'd like to introduce you to Patty Callison 00:00:25.485 --> 00:00:27.870 - from the Bloomington Storytellers Guild. 00:00:33.282 --> 00:00:51.582 - Well, welcome everybody to this our annual gathering of stories. It was just saying goodbye, wasn't it? 00:00:52.098 --> 00:01:00.209 - We're very pleased to have a lovely turnout tonight to listen to a variety of stories. Bloomington 00:01:00.209 --> 00:01:08.730 - Storytellers Guild has been telling stories in the community since the mid-70s. And so we're, you know, 00:01:08.730 --> 00:01:16.350 - we ourselves love stories and we love to share them with you all. The stories of lives past, 00:01:16.674 --> 00:01:31.593 - folk tales, legends based on real people, original stories, and just the stories of our lives in general. 00:01:31.593 --> 00:01:43.838 - So we welcome you and hope that you enjoy this evening of Wintertelling. Good evening. 00:01:45.442 --> 00:01:52.477 - My name is Lisa Ciampelli, and I'm a member of the Bloomington Storytellers Guild. And the story that 00:01:52.477 --> 00:01:59.513 - I have to share this evening is a folktale from the American Southwest about a farmer, which may make 00:01:59.513 --> 00:02:06.686 - the story more suited to a spring telling than a winter telling. But the story also considers the types 00:02:06.686 --> 00:02:13.790 - of strife or trials that we may be willing to or feel capable of enduring at any time during the year. 00:02:14.626 --> 00:02:22.198 - But what got me thinking about this story and wanting to tell it tonight was how fortunate I have felt 00:02:22.198 --> 00:02:29.697 - recently to have very good people in my life, my colleagues, my friends and neighbors, and how having 00:02:29.697 --> 00:02:37.196 - those people in my life diminishes any trials that I might face. For you see, there was once a farmer 00:02:37.196 --> 00:02:41.534 - named Isidro who owned a small plot of land in New Mexico. 00:02:42.562 --> 00:02:50.824 - He made his living growing beans and chilies. And every spring, he plowed his fields and prepared the 00:02:50.824 --> 00:02:58.924 - ground for planting his precious seeds, which needed to be planted by May 15th. He was very devoted 00:02:58.924 --> 00:03:08.158 - to his farming, and he was very devoted to God. His neighbors, in fact, often observed him praying while plowing. 00:03:08.354 --> 00:03:16.081 - And later in his life, many people felt that the angels must be helping him with his farm work so that 00:03:16.081 --> 00:03:24.258 - he could attend church even during the week and not fall behind in his chores. His friends and his neighbors 00:03:24.258 --> 00:03:31.910 - all felt that he was such a good man, so kind and generous, so devout, that he was destined to become 00:03:31.910 --> 00:03:37.086 - a saint. And in fact, he did. After his death, May 15th was declared 00:03:37.218 --> 00:03:45.140 - the feast day of San Isidro, the patron saint of farmers. There was one year that the spring rains did 00:03:45.140 --> 00:03:53.216 - not come and Isidro's ground grew especially dry and thirsty and he worried that he would not have time, 00:03:53.216 --> 00:04:00.446 - he would not be able to plant his seeds in the ground and he would have no crop for the year. 00:04:00.674 --> 00:04:08.281 - When May 15th dawned again, bright and sunny, a blistering hot sun blazing across the sky, he felt that 00:04:08.281 --> 00:04:15.742 - he could not wait any longer. He had to do whatever he could do to get those seeds into the ground so 00:04:15.742 --> 00:04:23.056 - that he would have a crop for the year. So even though it was a Sunday, a day of rest and devotion, 00:04:23.056 --> 00:04:27.518 - he hitched up his ox to the plow and set out for the fields. 00:04:28.514 --> 00:04:36.229 - He'd been working in the fields for about an hour when he stopped to take a cool drink of water and 00:04:36.229 --> 00:04:44.099 - an angel appeared to him. Isidro, what are you doing? Why are you working on this Sunday? God is very 00:04:44.099 --> 00:04:52.123 - displeased to see you laboring on what should be a day of rest and devotion. You must stop your labors. 00:04:52.123 --> 00:04:54.206 - Isidro paused and he said, 00:04:55.490 --> 00:05:04.354 - Well, I am very pleased to know that God pays attention to what I do. But I must get my seeds in the 00:05:04.354 --> 00:05:13.130 - ground today. So I ask that God understand why I must work this Sunday. And please, let me continue 00:05:13.130 --> 00:05:14.622 - with my plowing. 00:05:15.138 --> 00:05:21.941 - Angel said, oh, I'm sorry, but God does not understand. If you do not cease your labors, then God will 00:05:21.941 --> 00:05:28.545 - send a wind or a rainstorm, possibly, to destroy your crops. And then what will you do? I will just 00:05:28.545 --> 00:05:35.282 - have to deal with it if that occurs, said Isidro. All I know is that I must continue working in order 00:05:35.282 --> 00:05:41.953 - to get my seeds into the ground, or I will not have any crops this year. Now please, leave me be and 00:05:41.953 --> 00:05:43.934 - let me go on with my plowing. 00:05:45.602 --> 00:05:54.581 - And so the angel disappeared, and Isidro continued. And he worked for about another hour when a second 00:05:54.581 --> 00:06:04.170 - angel appeared to him and said again to Isidro, Isidro, God is very displeased to see that you are continuing 00:06:04.170 --> 00:06:12.190 - to work on this Sunday. This is a day of rest. Why are you continuing to disobey God if you 00:06:12.418 --> 00:06:21.301 - Do not put down your plow and rest. There will be consequences." Isidro said, I'm sorry, I am not able 00:06:21.301 --> 00:06:29.925 - to put down my plow today. I must do what I can to get my seeds into the ground. Please, please ask 00:06:29.925 --> 00:06:37.342 - God to try and understand. But the angel said, God does not understand Isidro. If you 00:06:37.442 --> 00:06:45.379 - are not able to cease your labors, then a lightning bolt will strike the ground and fire will destroy 00:06:45.379 --> 00:06:53.472 - your crops. Enesidro said, there is nothing that I can do about that. All I know is what I can do today 00:06:53.472 --> 00:07:01.720 - to try to get these seeds into the ground so that I have crops for the year. Please ask God to understand 00:07:01.720 --> 00:07:06.078 - why I must continue with my plowing. So the angel left. 00:07:06.306 --> 00:07:15.679 - And Isidro continued plowing his fields. At midday, when the sun was directly overhead, a third angel 00:07:15.679 --> 00:07:25.236 - appeared to Isidro. And the third angel said to him, Isidro, twice now, God has asked you to cease your 00:07:25.236 --> 00:07:34.334 - labors and honor this Sunday as a day of devotion, and twice you have refused him. You must cease. 00:07:35.074 --> 00:07:44.515 - I am here to give you a third and final chance, or there will indeed be consequences. I know, said Isidro, 00:07:44.515 --> 00:07:53.691 - I know God will send a plague of locusts to destroy my crops." And the angel said, no, it will be worse 00:07:53.691 --> 00:08:02.779 - than that. Worse than a plague of locusts? Well, what could be worse than a plague of locusts? And the 00:08:02.779 --> 00:08:03.838 - angel said, 00:08:05.090 --> 00:08:15.713 - God will send you a very bad neighbor." And Isidro pulled up the ox and stopped short. Did you say a 00:08:15.713 --> 00:08:26.231 - very bad neighbor? Yes, said the angel. God will send you an especially bad neighbor to live on the 00:08:26.231 --> 00:08:34.750 - farm right next to you unless you cease your work right now. I see, said Isidro. 00:08:36.034 --> 00:08:43.750 - Of course, God is always right, and I should not be laboring on this Sunday. For I could deal 00:08:43.750 --> 00:08:52.040 - with rainstorms, foul weather of any kind. I could deal with fire, destroying my crops. I could even 00:08:52.040 --> 00:08:59.838 - handle a plague of locusts. But a bad neighbor? Not even a saint can deal with a bad neighbor. 00:09:10.242 --> 00:09:17.034 - Nicely done, Lisa, getting us started off with a great folk tale well told. Hello, my name's Stephanie 00:09:17.034 --> 00:09:23.892 - Holman, and I am so excited to be a part of Wintertelling once again. Always glad to cozy in and listen 00:09:23.892 --> 00:09:30.486 - to stories, my favorite thing. But I've had a story tapping on my shoulder for many a year now, and 00:09:30.486 --> 00:09:32.926 - I want to share it with you tonight. 00:09:33.730 --> 00:09:40.785 - Perhaps you've heard the legend of Diana of the Dunes. Raise your hand if you've heard a variation of 00:09:40.785 --> 00:09:47.978 - the legend of Diana of the Dunes. Ah, Hoosiers, show thyselves. There you are. Well, there are probably 00:09:47.978 --> 00:09:55.103 - as many variations of this legend as there are hands in the air, because it is a legend. And one thing 00:09:55.103 --> 00:10:01.950 - I know is that legends often are stories that hide deeper truths and often more interesting facts. 00:10:02.594 --> 00:10:11.459 - And so I share with you tonight the story of Diana, who was dubbed Diana of the Dunes back in 1916 by 00:10:11.459 --> 00:10:20.498 - a newspaper reporter who had heard of her penchant for dashing into the waves of the Lake Michigan nude 00:10:20.498 --> 00:10:25.886 - and then running pell-mell to dry off up and down the shores. 00:10:26.434 --> 00:10:37.917 - And so the Diana of the Dunes was created. But I know this for sure, that her name was really Alice. 00:10:37.917 --> 00:10:49.854 - And I want to tell you about Alice Mabel Gray. She was an environmentalist, a feminist, a sturdy, strong 00:10:49.854 --> 00:10:55.198 - woman who had the gumption to become a pioneer 00:10:55.682 --> 00:11:04.102 - and live on the dunes, the last frontier in Indiana during that time period, on her own in a shack all 00:11:04.102 --> 00:11:12.439 - year round for 10 years. She was quite a gal. And I've learned a lot about her and I want to tell you 00:11:12.439 --> 00:11:20.696 - how she got to be on those dunes. Alice Mabel Gray was born in 1881, one of three children born to a 00:11:20.696 --> 00:11:22.494 - well-to-do physician. 00:11:22.722 --> 00:11:31.722 - And she wanted for nothing. Her life in Chicago was ideal. And she got to go to the University of Chicago 00:11:31.722 --> 00:11:40.806 - where she graduated in 1903, Phi Beta Kappa, with honors in Latin, mathematics, grammar. She was extremely 00:11:40.806 --> 00:11:48.702 - well accomplished. And then she began her workaday world in the big city. And she was always 00:11:49.026 --> 00:11:56.868 - always discontented with the way cities were run. She loathed living in the cities. She didn't understand 00:11:56.868 --> 00:12:04.487 - why they wouldn't let her go out onto the lake shore and bathe nude whenever she wanted to right there 00:12:04.487 --> 00:12:12.329 - on the shores of Chicago. And so it wasn't until she was 34 years old that she headed out. It was October 00:12:12.329 --> 00:12:15.806 - of 1915 when she boarded the South Shore Rail. 00:12:16.034 --> 00:12:23.123 - There, in her electric interurban car, she followed the shoreline and in those days she saw nothing 00:12:23.123 --> 00:12:30.354 - but wafting, moving, living sand dunes out either side of her car. Of course, there was that time she 00:12:30.354 --> 00:12:37.514 - had to avert her eyes as she passed by the U.S. Steel Mill there in Gary, the town that it bore. But 00:12:37.514 --> 00:12:42.334 - then she passed further east and disembarked at the Miller Station. 00:12:43.074 --> 00:12:50.686 - And there she found exactly what she'd been looking for. It was very uninhabited. There were a few buildings 00:12:50.686 --> 00:12:58.298 - and people, but Highway 12 wasn't there yet. So all of the dunes along the shoreline there were inaccessible 00:12:58.298 --> 00:13:05.701 - by car. And so she walked off that south shore rail train out towards the lake and turned left and headed 00:13:05.701 --> 00:13:11.358 - away from Miller just a little ways looking for her shack where she would squat. 00:13:11.842 --> 00:13:19.574 - where she would claim and become a recluse and the hermit she wanted to be. She told people who asked, 00:13:19.574 --> 00:13:27.306 - she'd say, I just want to live my own life, a free life. Her favorite poem was by Byron, Solitude, and 00:13:27.306 --> 00:13:34.813 - that's what she sought. And the few people who got to meet her when she first arrived described her 00:13:34.813 --> 00:13:36.990 - as quiet but not unfriendly. 00:13:37.890 --> 00:13:44.822 - They described her as attractive, but not necessarily physically. It was her self-assurance, 00:13:44.822 --> 00:13:52.350 - her self-confidence that they fell in love with. And that character of hers is what made her an icon 00:13:52.350 --> 00:14:00.027 - that we're still talking about 100 years later. But it also made her a target. Because she hadn't even 00:14:00.027 --> 00:14:04.350 - been living on the dunes for a year when in July of 1916, 00:14:04.674 --> 00:14:12.923 - The Chicago Examiner sent a reporter to find out more about this nudist who was causing such a sensation 00:14:12.923 --> 00:14:21.252 - on the shores. Well, he sought her out, and he found her at her cabin, a little shack that she'd claimed. 00:14:21.252 --> 00:14:29.187 - And he got an interview with her, and she told of when she'd first arrived back in October. She said 00:14:29.187 --> 00:14:32.958 - that she arrived bearing only a spoon, a knife, 00:14:33.506 --> 00:14:40.525 - Two guns, a blanket, and a gunny sack. And when she first arrived, she had nowhere to stay, so the first 00:14:40.525 --> 00:14:47.411 - four nights she was there under the stars. But then she found an abandoned rail car and hung out there 00:14:47.411 --> 00:14:54.363 - for a while until she found this shack that she claimed. And there she made furniture out of driftwood, 00:14:54.363 --> 00:15:01.182 - and so she dubbed her shack the Driftwood. And there she began her life of solitude. How did she eat? 00:15:01.762 --> 00:15:08.457 - She gathered berries and other food from the dunes. She fished. And when she needed to, she headed to 00:15:08.457 --> 00:15:15.152 - Chesterton for supplies such as salt and bread. And of course, her every two-week visit to the public 00:15:15.152 --> 00:15:21.847 - library, where she filled that gunny sack with books and magazines. And she loved her life, she said. 00:15:21.847 --> 00:15:23.422 - And yes, she did bathe. 00:15:23.586 --> 00:15:29.639 - Twice daily nude in the water. Lots of people did hear, why aren't you writing about them? Yes, she 00:15:29.639 --> 00:15:35.874 - did run pell-mell down the shore afterward. That's how she dried off. Yes, she did cut her hair by her 00:15:35.874 --> 00:15:42.170 - shadow that cast on the sand because she didn't have a mirror. But what she really wanted to talk about 00:15:42.170 --> 00:15:48.526 - with that reporter were the living dunes. The dunes that she had come to help save. There was a movement 00:15:48.526 --> 00:15:52.158 - afoot to make a national park there and she wanted to help. 00:15:52.642 --> 00:15:59.936 - And as a result of the tiny little bit that he included in his article, she would get to do that. But 00:15:59.936 --> 00:16:07.444 - that day when he left and he printed his story in July of 1916, not a week later there were 25 different 00:16:07.444 --> 00:16:14.666 - variations in other newspapers and the variations continue to this day about this Diana of the Dunes 00:16:14.666 --> 00:16:20.958 - as he dubbed her, although physically she was anything but a goddess. But there she was 00:16:21.186 --> 00:16:27.918 - on the shore and so as a result of this article some who were trying to create the National Park heard 00:16:27.918 --> 00:16:34.977 - of her and her love of the dunes and thought maybe they could use this story to help get more advertisement 00:16:34.977 --> 00:16:41.774 - and so they invited her to come speak and she was good. She was there on the stage at the Art Institute 00:16:41.774 --> 00:16:45.630 - of Chicago and she had her own way of sharing the science. 00:16:46.306 --> 00:16:53.393 - She talked about the significance of the dunes. She told the people how Lake Michigan is the parent, 00:16:53.393 --> 00:17:00.479 - and Chicago is one of its children, and the dunes, another child. And any good parent will take care 00:17:00.479 --> 00:17:07.566 - of their children, and any good child will take care of their parent. And if we were to take wrongly 00:17:07.566 --> 00:17:14.793 - care of the dunes, it would be sacrilegious, a sin. And people heard this in a different way than they 00:17:14.793 --> 00:17:16.126 - heard the science. 00:17:16.834 --> 00:17:25.295 - And so she was often asked to speak in Chicago and other places. But there was nothing she liked better 00:17:25.295 --> 00:17:33.676 - than to get back to her shack on the shore. And there she lived a very happy, mostly single life there 00:17:33.676 --> 00:17:41.974 - on the shores alone for seven years. Let's think about that for a moment. Seven Lake Michigan winters 00:17:41.974 --> 00:17:45.310 - in an uninsulated shack, feeding herself 00:17:46.210 --> 00:17:54.057 - a pioneer, a truly amazing woman. And she would have continued to be happy, except trouble came her 00:17:54.057 --> 00:18:02.217 - way, and his name was Paul Wilson. Oh, she fell hard for Paul Wilson, but nobody else really knew where 00:18:02.217 --> 00:18:10.064 - he came from. We know now that he was a ne'er-do-well for Michigan City. He'd had many run-ins with 00:18:10.064 --> 00:18:13.438 - the law and had been in jail for burglary, 00:18:13.570 --> 00:18:20.559 - But he was a big, strong, handsome man. And she just sort of forgave the fact that he had a violent 00:18:20.559 --> 00:18:28.036 - temper. But trouble came when Paul Wilson was invited into her life, into her shack, and took up residence 00:18:28.036 --> 00:18:35.165 - at the Driftwood with her. No longer was it a hermitage. Now it was a love nest. And so the reporters 00:18:35.165 --> 00:18:42.782 - were back. They'd heard there was a couple now. And then the headline read, Caveman Wins Diana of the Dooms. 00:18:45.186 --> 00:18:52.773 - But the trouble came, he was handy and he was good to have around. I mean he was a fisherman too and 00:18:52.773 --> 00:19:00.510 - he built the driftwood furniture as well and they would sell it to the summer folk and they lived this 00:19:00.510 --> 00:19:08.397 - life together for a little while until the trouble came in the form of a murdered man who had been found 00:19:08.397 --> 00:19:13.054 - buried in a shallow grave not far from the shack they shared. 00:19:13.282 --> 00:19:20.903 - And so Paul was taken in for questioning, as was Alice, but they were both cleared of the murder. But 00:19:20.903 --> 00:19:28.448 - of course, their home had been altered. So they left the Driftwood and moved east to Ogden Dunes and 00:19:28.448 --> 00:19:36.293 - claimed another shack, which they dubbed Wren's Nest. But trouble followed them there as well. At Wren's 00:19:36.293 --> 00:19:42.494 - Nest, the trouble came in the form of a local sheriff's deputy named Eugene Frank. 00:19:43.426 --> 00:19:50.763 - Eugene Frank already had it in for Paul Wilson and his reputation that preceded him. And Eugene Frank 00:19:50.763 --> 00:19:57.956 - took his business very seriously of watching over the summer cottages during the winter months. And 00:19:57.956 --> 00:20:05.220 - he soon started spreading a rumor about how Alice and Paul were stealing from the cabins that he was 00:20:05.220 --> 00:20:11.550 - in charge of. Well, they, knowing this was a lie, went to the deputy and confronted him 00:20:12.130 --> 00:20:19.656 - and some sort of horrible scuffle ensued whereby the deputy pistol-whipped Alice, hit her on the head 00:20:19.656 --> 00:20:27.182 - with his gun, fractured her skull. Somehow or other, Paul Wilson ended up with a gunshot to the foot. 00:20:27.182 --> 00:20:34.708 - And as they were whisked away to Mercy Hospital in Gary, the deputy was charged with his assault, but 00:20:34.708 --> 00:20:40.094 - not convicted. And while they were recuperating in the hospital in Gary, 00:20:40.418 --> 00:20:47.961 - Looters ransacked Wren's Nest and stole all of their belongings, including a couple of important manuscripts 00:20:47.961 --> 00:20:55.088 - that Alice had been working on about the dunes. But they did recover, and they came back to live again 00:20:55.088 --> 00:21:02.423 - for two more years there at Wren's Nest. But things were changing for the squatters along the shorelines. 00:21:02.423 --> 00:21:04.222 - Highway 12 was there now. 00:21:04.802 --> 00:21:13.176 - And access by automobile meant property values were going up and resentment was going up too. Resentment 00:21:13.176 --> 00:21:21.390 - for those who were squatting on property that was belonging to others. But it was Winter and Paul that 00:21:21.390 --> 00:21:29.365 - would do Alice in. He was very violent with her and yet she stayed on. And in February 9th of 1925, 00:21:29.365 --> 00:21:31.678 - he went running for a doctor 00:21:32.514 --> 00:21:39.282 - And he told the doctor it was bad, that he'd wanted to come sooner, but Alice wouldn't let him. But 00:21:39.282 --> 00:21:46.455 - now she was unconscious, and that they better hurry, but it was too late. By the time Paul and the doctor 00:21:46.455 --> 00:21:53.426 - got back to Wren's Nest, Alice died in Paul's arms. She died of uremic poisoning. Ironically, the same 00:21:53.426 --> 00:22:00.126 - arms that she died in were the ones that had caused the wounds that had resulted in the poisoning. 00:22:01.378 --> 00:22:07.850 - And so Alice's life came to a tragic, horrific end. And to add insult to injury, she wasn't even buried 00:22:07.850 --> 00:22:14.384 - the way she wanted to be. She had wanted her ashes to be sprinkled out on Mount Tom, there at the dunes, 00:22:14.384 --> 00:22:20.731 - one of the highest dunes. But her brother and sister, who she hadn't spoken to in a decade, the whole 00:22:20.731 --> 00:22:27.078 - decade that she'd lived on the dunes, they'd never, never had any contact. They were in charge of her 00:22:27.078 --> 00:22:30.750 - funeral, and they placed her at Oak Hill Cemetery in Gary. 00:22:31.042 --> 00:22:39.251 - right there in the middle of the city with that still mill looking over her. And there she is to this 00:22:39.251 --> 00:22:47.379 - day. But I would beg you to not remember the tragic ending, to go back and revisit her amazing youth 00:22:47.379 --> 00:22:55.427 - and the middle of the story where she decides to leave everything and pursue this pioneer life. And 00:22:55.427 --> 00:22:59.934 - when you think of Alice, you'll think about many people 00:23:00.098 --> 00:23:06.859 - like her, who helped to establish that national park here in our state of Indiana, there along the dunes. 00:23:06.859 --> 00:23:13.237 - It was established in 1917 with help of people like her. And maybe you've been to the dunes. I hope 00:23:13.237 --> 00:23:19.679 - my story will make you want to go again. And when you travel down Highway 12 and you see those brown 00:23:19.679 --> 00:23:26.313 - signs pointing out different points of interest to the State Park and the National Park, I hope because 00:23:26.313 --> 00:23:29.438 - of this story here tonight at Wintertelling, you 00:23:29.698 --> 00:23:58.142 - like me will think of Alice and remember her name was Alice. Thank you very much. Thank you, Stephanie. 00:24:02.338 --> 00:24:11.799 - I am Ken Ogus, storyteller from Indianapolis. And tonight, I'm going to share with you a story that 00:24:11.799 --> 00:24:22.206 - gives a wink to Hiroko Fujita, traditional storyteller of Japan, and a nod to the art of Rakugo storytelling. 00:24:36.386 --> 00:24:46.251 - Nearly 70 years ago, a great artist left the big city of Tokyo to the safety of the countryside. There 00:24:46.251 --> 00:24:56.308 - was a great war going on. And he came to the Fukushima Prefecture to find a village where he could spend 00:24:56.308 --> 00:25:06.078 - time. He found a place he could rent and set up his gallery and show people his wonderful sculptures. 00:25:07.138 --> 00:25:15.250 - And oh, the villagers, they came. They came into his house and they looked at all of the things that 00:25:15.250 --> 00:25:23.925 - he had carved, why there were birds, there were fish, there were large animals, and they all were uncannily 00:25:23.925 --> 00:25:31.956 - lifelike. It seemed as if they could just hop off their pedestals and breathe air and run away. One 00:25:31.956 --> 00:25:34.366 - of these days, a little girl, 00:25:35.682 --> 00:25:43.410 - who decided to come visit and see for herself what this great artist was like, came in with the other 00:25:43.410 --> 00:25:50.986 - villagers and looked at all of the sculptures. Now the artist lectured people, trying to teach them 00:25:50.986 --> 00:25:59.017 - about aesthetics and high art. Now, can you see how I've taken this fish and I've carved the fine scales? 00:25:59.017 --> 00:26:02.654 - Can you see that? Can you see the gills moving? 00:26:03.586 --> 00:26:13.014 - And can you see the horse's mane flying in the wind? And all the villagers nodded. And they were very 00:26:13.014 --> 00:26:21.610 - polite and listened very carefully. The little girl walked up to the artist and, what is it, 00:26:21.610 --> 00:26:30.946 - little one? What do you want? I have looked around your studio and I do not see a statue of a mouse. 00:26:30.946 --> 00:26:33.534 - Well, I don't have a mouse. 00:26:33.890 --> 00:26:42.754 - That's right. Well, maybe I should carve one now that I'm here in your village. Tell you what, I will 00:26:42.754 --> 00:26:51.530 - carve you the finest mouse. It will look just as if it were alive. What is it now, little one? I can 00:26:51.530 --> 00:27:00.220 - carve too, and I like to do art. I'll make a statue as well. Oh, you would make a statue of a mouse 00:27:00.220 --> 00:27:03.870 - as well? Shall we have a competition? Ah. 00:27:04.226 --> 00:27:13.257 - I look at all the villagers, who could be a judge for us today? The villagers all looked down. No one 00:27:13.257 --> 00:27:22.465 - wanted that responsibility. Oh, what is it now, young one? Well, if we're making statues of mice, maybe 00:27:22.465 --> 00:27:31.408 - we should have a cat as a judge. Oh, good idea. So you come back three days and we'll let the cat be 00:27:31.408 --> 00:27:32.382 - the judge. 00:27:33.634 --> 00:27:42.717 - Three days, that artist worked. He took his finest, sharpest knives and the finest grained wood and 00:27:42.717 --> 00:27:52.072 - carved and carved until he could see, ah, yes, the little beady eyes of the mouse and fine hairs. Even 00:27:52.072 --> 00:28:01.790 - the little tail curled around the body. It was ready. The little girl worked on hers, too, and she brought 00:28:02.210 --> 00:28:11.080 - her mouse statue on that third day. And she had an ordinary cloth over hers. Oh, the great artist said, 00:28:11.080 --> 00:28:19.865 - no, everybody observe. And he took off a fine silk cover off of his statue. And the people looked, oh, 00:28:19.865 --> 00:28:28.650 - why the ears were so thin and fine. Why you could see the sunlight through them. He set the mouse down 00:28:28.650 --> 00:28:30.782 - on the floor and waited. 00:28:31.522 --> 00:28:39.794 - The little girl came up and she took her ordinary cloth off her statue and she placed it down. And the 00:28:39.794 --> 00:28:47.905 - artist took a look and he said, oh my, oh my, it's about the right size for a mouse and I don't know 00:28:47.905 --> 00:28:56.177 - what you've made it out of, but I see a little twig for a tail. Very clever. I give you high marks for 00:28:56.177 --> 00:28:59.550 - being resourceful. Now we need the judge. 00:29:01.250 --> 00:29:11.605 - A farmer brought in a cat, an old farm cat. Set it down in the middle of the floor between the two statues. 00:29:11.605 --> 00:29:21.577 - The cat took one look at the little carved statue. Looked at the one the little girl had made. Its eyes 00:29:21.577 --> 00:29:30.206 - got big and it grabbed the statue up in its mouth and went running outside with it. Boom! 00:29:31.170 --> 00:29:40.493 - Villagers weren't sure what to do. No one said a word. Oh, the judge has decided, I guess. 00:29:40.493 --> 00:29:50.739 - You have one, young one. Yes, I have. But I don't know. How did you do it? How did you convince the 00:29:50.739 --> 00:30:00.062 - cat that mouse was alive? Well, I know some things about art, but I know a lot about cats. 00:30:02.242 --> 00:30:12.756 - So, oh, great artist, I made my statue out of smoked dried fish. Oh, you are very wise for your age. 00:30:12.756 --> 00:30:22.854 - Well, as a reward, you may come to my studio any time and I will tell you so much about art. Oh, 00:30:22.854 --> 00:30:30.974 - thank you. I will come to your studio and visit with you. And while I'm here, 00:30:31.618 --> 00:31:01.406 - I will teach you about cats. Want it up in front? No, I'll just sit on it. I'm over here, that's over there. 00:31:03.042 --> 00:31:14.742 - My name's Ginny Ritchie. I've been thinking. I've been thinking that sometimes as we get a little older, 00:31:14.742 --> 00:31:25.995 - we get a little grumpy. Some of us get a little feisty, and some of us get a little stubborn. I have 00:31:25.995 --> 00:31:31.678 - a story about that. You're not surprised, are you? 00:31:34.658 --> 00:31:42.109 - Jimmy and Johnny lived in one of those long, stretched out West Virginia places in between two tall 00:31:42.109 --> 00:31:49.560 - hillsides where there's just enough room for the creek and the house and the road and the railroad. 00:31:49.560 --> 00:31:57.085 - Johnny worked for the railroad. That is, he worked for the railroad until he got too old to work and 00:31:57.085 --> 00:32:01.630 - he went home with a little pension and that suited him just. 00:32:03.458 --> 00:32:09.560 - I don't mean he never went back to the station. Oh no, every morning he got up and went back to the 00:32:09.560 --> 00:32:15.967 - station just to see if the trains came in on time and also to watch everybody else work. Because there's 00:32:15.967 --> 00:32:22.191 - nothing more fun than watching other people work when you yourself don't have to. When sometimes he'd 00:32:22.191 --> 00:32:28.415 - go down to the store and he'd laugh and joke and he'd go to pick one thing up, he'd be there all day. 00:32:28.415 --> 00:32:31.710 - But if the weather was bad, he didn't have to go out. 00:32:32.194 --> 00:32:46.486 - He'd just sit in his rocking chair and doze. After a while, Anna Mae observed that while he was retired, 00:32:46.486 --> 00:32:56.830 - that she was not. In fact, she had just as much work to do as she ever had. 00:32:57.474 --> 00:33:07.750 - There was all the sweeping and the mopping and the cooking and the cleaning and the laundry and the 00:33:07.750 --> 00:33:18.643 - mending and the ironing and it just never seemed to stop. And it began, it began to strike her as unfair. 00:33:18.643 --> 00:33:27.070 - And this all came to a head one night when she served the last of a pot of beans. 00:33:28.482 --> 00:33:36.295 - This pot of beans had begun weeks before as a Sunday ham. And the Sunday ham had been served in one 00:33:36.295 --> 00:33:44.343 - way or another until there was nothing left of it but a bone. And the bone in a sack of beans had been 00:33:44.343 --> 00:33:52.156 - put on to soak overnight and then to simmer all the next day. And then they began to have a bowl of 00:33:52.156 --> 00:33:56.766 - beans for supper every night. And every night after they'd 00:33:57.282 --> 00:34:05.285 - had their bowl, Anna May would put the pot back on the cold part of the stove. And then the next night, 00:34:05.285 --> 00:34:13.441 - she would pull it up to the hot part of the stove and get it warm and cook it again. And oh, those beans, 00:34:13.441 --> 00:34:21.213 - that reduction of beans, that concentration of beans, they got rich and creamy. And by the time they 00:34:21.213 --> 00:34:25.214 - got to the bottom of that pot, they were delicious. 00:34:28.610 --> 00:34:39.106 - the inside of the pot. It was covered with rock hard baked on bean crust. And as Anna Mae finished her 00:34:39.106 --> 00:34:49.806 - beans, she thought of all the time it was gonna take her to get that pot clean. And just at that moment, 00:34:49.806 --> 00:34:55.614 - Johnny pushed his chair back and got ready to go to bed. 00:34:57.634 --> 00:35:06.943 - You wait a minute, she said. Wait a minute. She said, tonight, I want you to help me. I want you to 00:35:06.943 --> 00:35:16.345 - clean that pot, and I'll do everything else, and we'll go to bed together. Johnny looked at Anna Mae 00:35:16.345 --> 00:35:25.746 - as if she had fallen from the moon. It's only fair, she said. You've eaten plenty from that pot. You 00:35:25.746 --> 00:35:27.422 - can clean it now. 00:35:29.346 --> 00:35:39.288 - Honey, if you wait for me to clean that pot, it'll look just the same in the morning as it does right now." 00:35:39.288 --> 00:35:48.769 - And Johnny went off to bed. Well, it will look the same in the morning as it does right now, said Anna 00:35:48.769 --> 00:35:57.790 - Mae, because I am not going to wash that pot. And she went off to bed, and she slept pretty well. 00:35:59.970 --> 00:36:08.967 - But in the morning, when she woke up, she was lying there thinking the way you do, you know, about all 00:36:08.967 --> 00:36:18.139 - the chores she had to do that day, and she thought about supper, and she thought she'd put some potatoes 00:36:18.139 --> 00:36:25.214 - on for supper. Oh. The pot. Well, he could get up and wash the pot, couldn't he? 00:36:26.466 --> 00:36:34.674 - And she elbowed Johnny awake and informed him of what plans she had for him. And he responded with the 00:36:34.674 --> 00:36:42.643 - information for her that he did not do parts. And the conversation got sort of heated. And finally, 00:36:42.643 --> 00:36:49.974 - Johnny said, well, he said, I'm not going to get out of this bed until you go wash the pot. 00:36:49.974 --> 00:36:56.190 - And she said, I can outlast you. She said, I won't get out of the bed either. 00:36:56.770 --> 00:37:04.079 - I won't get out of the bed until you wash the pot. And what's more, I won't even say another word until 00:37:04.079 --> 00:37:11.318 - you wash the pot. You think you can outlast me, said Johnny. Honey, he said, I'm not going to move and 00:37:11.318 --> 00:37:18.417 - I'm not going to speak. But if I do move or speak before you do, I will get up and wash the pot. But 00:37:18.417 --> 00:37:25.726 - when you move and when you start talking, honey, you can just get up and do what you're supposed to do. 00:37:27.042 --> 00:37:38.194 - And she crushed her arms and she shut her mouth. And there they lay. The morning stretched on. And after 00:37:38.194 --> 00:37:48.920 - a while, the next door neighbor, the one that always keeps an eye on things, she noticed that Johnny 00:37:48.920 --> 00:37:54.974 - had not gone down to the station. And it was a fine day. 00:37:55.970 --> 00:38:07.164 - And she noticed that Annemay hadn't put her laundry out and it was a washing day. And she knew something 00:38:07.164 --> 00:38:17.825 - was wrong. And she better go find out what it was. So she ran next door and she called in the door, 00:38:17.825 --> 00:38:24.222 - Annemay, are you in there? Johnny, is everything all right? 00:38:28.386 --> 00:38:36.354 - be some terrible trouble in there. And she called her kids and sent them up and down the valley to get 00:38:36.354 --> 00:38:44.090 - everybody collected, because she didn't want to go in the house by herself. And so when there was a 00:38:44.090 --> 00:38:51.826 - good crowd there, all discussing and anticipating and speculating, well, a group of them went up to 00:38:51.826 --> 00:38:56.158 - the door. And they went in the front room. My goodness. 00:38:57.794 --> 00:39:06.024 - Last night's dirty dishes were still on the table. This was serious. The fire had gone out in the stove 00:39:06.024 --> 00:39:14.017 - and there was that pot. They set the children outside so that they wouldn't be disturbed by whatever 00:39:14.017 --> 00:39:18.686 - they found. And then bravely they went into the back room. 00:39:30.370 --> 00:39:38.167 - them by the shoulder and shook them. Oh, speak to me. Speak to me, anime. Johnny, Johnny, can't you 00:39:38.167 --> 00:39:46.042 - move? Well, you know they must hear us. Look at their eyes rolling back and forth. I believe they've 00:39:46.042 --> 00:39:53.996 - been poisoned. Oh, yeah. And it's paralyzed them. Well, said one of the men, if he's paralyzed and he 00:39:53.996 --> 00:39:58.206 - isn't going to get out of bed no more, you know what? 00:39:58.402 --> 00:40:06.407 - There's a mighty fine watch he's got over here. Anime thought, oh, he'll say something now. But Johnny 00:40:06.407 --> 00:40:14.334 - just pressed his lips together and he didn't say a word. And just about that time, one of the ladies, 00:40:14.334 --> 00:40:22.338 - she was taking Anime's Sunday hat down. Now this is a sweet little thing, isn't it? You know, it never 00:40:22.338 --> 00:40:27.390 - did fit too well on her curls, but look how nice it looks on me. 00:40:30.114 --> 00:40:40.530 - Oh, she's going to move now. But Anna Mae just clenched her fists tight and she just lay there. About 00:40:40.530 --> 00:40:51.253 - that time, the late comers were still straggling up and everybody heard Brother Edward coming. You could 00:40:51.253 --> 00:40:59.422 - always hear Brother Edward coming because he mumbled to himself. Unfortunately, 00:41:00.066 --> 00:41:07.756 - He was hard of hearing, and so in order to hear what he was mumbling to himself, he actually spoke in 00:41:07.756 --> 00:41:15.445 - quite a loud voice. He came up saying, oh, sad affliction, what a sad affliction has fallen upon this 00:41:15.445 --> 00:41:23.135 - house. You also could tell he was coming because of a certain whiff that preceded him. Brother Edward 00:41:23.135 --> 00:41:28.638 - believed that if you bathed or washed, you were likely to get pneumonia. 00:41:30.114 --> 00:41:40.627 - So he avoided those things and he had been known to clear a room as much quicker than a fox could clear 00:41:40.627 --> 00:41:51.039 - a chicken coop. He came in and he went straight to the bedside and he looked at Anna Mae and he looked 00:41:51.039 --> 00:41:58.014 - at Johnny and he said, do not be afraid, I'm going to stay with you. 00:41:59.650 --> 00:42:09.003 - I'm not going to leave you. I'm going to be here by your side day and night. And he leaned over so that 00:42:09.003 --> 00:42:18.176 - his fetid breath wafted across their faces. And he said, I will pray over you until the devil that is 00:42:18.176 --> 00:42:27.260 - in you is gone. He's gone, said anime. He's sitting straight up. And Johnny sat up at the exact same 00:42:27.260 --> 00:42:29.598 - time and said, he's gone. 00:42:33.378 --> 00:42:41.761 - This gave Brother Edward an entirely undeserved reputation for healing. There was a great deal of curiosity 00:42:41.761 --> 00:42:49.522 - and a great deal of questions, and Annemay and Johnny didn't want to answer any of those questions. 00:42:49.522 --> 00:42:57.051 - They just wanted everybody to leave. And it took quite a while to get them all out of the house. 00:42:57.051 --> 00:43:02.174 - But finally, finally, finally the door closed. There was Annemay. 00:43:03.586 --> 00:43:17.960 - There was Johnny, and there was the pot. Now they had both moved at exactly the same time. They had 00:43:17.960 --> 00:43:32.766 - both spoken at exactly the same time. So who was going to wash the pot? Hmm? Hmm? Well, they both did. 00:43:34.210 --> 00:43:44.170 - turned and turned about they scrubbed and scoured that pot clean and I would just like to think that 00:43:44.170 --> 00:43:50.974 - after that there were far fewer occasions where somebody was growing 00:44:14.466 --> 00:44:21.868 - My name's David Matlack. I'm a storyteller, educator, and veterinarian. And I'm the son of an Irish 00:44:21.868 --> 00:44:29.640 - woman. My mother is what they call the Black Irish. She had black hair, very dark eyes. And every summer 00:44:29.640 --> 00:44:37.190 - we used to have, I grew up in Richmond, Indiana, every summer we had to go to the coast. Just as soon 00:44:37.190 --> 00:44:43.038 - as she was done teaching, we would go to the seashore. And I think I know why. 00:44:45.122 --> 00:44:51.642 - Once, there was a man that lived on a tiny spit of land that jutted out into the sea. Now the eastern 00:44:51.642 --> 00:44:58.162 - shore, steep craggy cliffs that dropped down to rocky coves below. The western shore, smooth crescent 00:44:58.162 --> 00:45:04.682 - beach where men of the village kept their boats, fishermen all. The northern point of land jutted out 00:45:04.682 --> 00:45:11.202 - in the sea where the sound and the sea met and the water was boiling and roiling there. He never went 00:45:11.202 --> 00:45:14.590 - there. But every evening after fishing, he would go. 00:45:15.362 --> 00:45:24.283 - to those cliffs to the east, and sit with the sun setting to his back, staring out over the sound. He 00:45:24.283 --> 00:45:33.204 - would watch the moon rise, the stars fall, and he would dream his dreams. Now in Ireland they say the 00:45:33.204 --> 00:45:42.125 - east is the past, the west is the future. But this man, he somehow sensed that perhaps his future lay 00:45:42.125 --> 00:45:43.262 - in the past. 00:45:44.482 --> 00:45:52.485 - And so he would come here every night and dream his dreams. One evening, it was late in spring, the 00:45:52.485 --> 00:46:00.489 - rock still holding the warmth of the day's sun, but yet a chill rising off the smooth sound. A full 00:46:00.489 --> 00:46:08.572 - moon was rising. He watched as 13 ripples pierced that smooth surface of the sound. Those 13 ripples 00:46:08.572 --> 00:46:13.694 - converged on the rocky cove below. And he watched in amazement. 00:46:14.210 --> 00:46:23.833 - as thirteen seals slipped out of the water, stood upright, and slipped out of their skins, revealing 00:46:23.833 --> 00:46:33.456 - beautiful human beings. They were selkies, half-seals, half-human beings. And they joined hands, and 00:46:33.456 --> 00:46:40.126 - with uplifted tongues they sang an ulu-lein to the silvery moonlight. 00:46:40.610 --> 00:46:49.174 - Then they danced about the beach, and two by two they went off to the rocks to couple. Save one young 00:46:49.174 --> 00:46:57.739 - maiden seal. She busied herself, combing her long black hair, fancied her reflection in the moonlight 00:46:57.739 --> 00:47:06.219 - in the tide pools. Well, the man, silently, ever so silently, he snuck down the steep trail of those 00:47:06.219 --> 00:47:08.990 - cliffs, hid behind a large rock. 00:47:10.914 --> 00:47:19.096 - Just before dawn's first light, the others came back, slipped back into their skins and into the sound. 00:47:19.096 --> 00:47:27.200 - Save that one young maiden seal. She could not find her skin. She was frantic, looking to and fro, and 00:47:27.200 --> 00:47:34.674 - that man stepped out from behind a rock, holding up her seal skin. Her eyes met his, pleading. 00:47:34.674 --> 00:47:38.686 - Then her eyes, her head dropped. He turned around. 00:47:39.522 --> 00:47:48.615 - back up that steep trail with her following. For they both knew the legend of the selkie. Whatever mortal 00:47:48.615 --> 00:47:57.279 - human being possesses the skin of a selkie, then he too possesses the destiny of that selkie. And he 00:47:57.279 --> 00:48:05.342 - took her to his cottage, to his hut, and they made a life together. His dreams had come true. 00:48:07.906 --> 00:48:14.463 - It seemed she was a good and loving wife. And in time, she bore him seven children. It seemed she was 00:48:14.463 --> 00:48:21.019 - a good and loving wife and mother. Now, on some days, she would take those children into the village, 00:48:21.019 --> 00:48:27.833 - into the market there. And the people would see their dark hair, their dark eyes. And they would overhear 00:48:27.833 --> 00:48:34.390 - her talking to them in a strange tongue. And they knew she was a selkie. But it seemed she was a good 00:48:34.390 --> 00:48:36.190 - and loving wife and mother. 00:48:38.434 --> 00:48:46.697 - But now it was she that would go to those cliffs to the east every night, staring out over the sound, 00:48:46.697 --> 00:48:54.797 - watching the moon rise, the stars fall, dreaming her dreams. And when she would come back, he would 00:48:54.797 --> 00:49:02.979 - kiss her on the cheek. And he would not know if the saltiness he tasted there was from the salty sea 00:49:02.979 --> 00:49:06.462 - mists or bitter tears. And he never asked. 00:49:09.026 --> 00:49:15.955 - Now one day, it had been a late winter, but it was the first truly warm day of spring. The children 00:49:15.955 --> 00:49:22.884 - were up on the roof of that cottage, that hut, playing. It was half sod, half thatching. The oldest 00:49:22.884 --> 00:49:30.298 - son, he picked up a piece of that sod, and he saw an object most strange. And he trotted into the cottage, 00:49:30.298 --> 00:49:32.862 - holding it up. Mother, what is this? 00:49:34.978 --> 00:49:42.508 - When she saw that old, dried seal hide, she let out a shriek of joy so loud that far out at sea, the 00:49:42.508 --> 00:49:50.113 - fisherman heard it. There was something about it. It sent a chill up his spine. He knew he had to get 00:49:50.113 --> 00:49:57.718 - home. He pulled up his nets. He turned his skiff towards home, began rowing with all his strength. In 00:49:57.718 --> 00:49:59.582 - the back of the cottage, 00:50:00.418 --> 00:50:08.244 - the Selkie woman. She gathered her seven children around. She gave them supper, sent them to bed early, 00:50:08.244 --> 00:50:15.769 - kissed each one on the cheek, telling them, if ever you find me gone, know that I will love you for 00:50:15.769 --> 00:50:23.294 - always. Back out at sea, that man, he could see the beach. He was putting all his weight into those 00:50:23.294 --> 00:50:30.142 - oars as he approached the surf. He saw a seal head bobbing there. Their eyes met, her soft 00:50:30.466 --> 00:50:40.194 - Big eyes blinking, she slipped under the water and was gone. At last, he was on the beach. He ran up 00:50:40.194 --> 00:50:49.922 - to his cottage to find his children sleeping. And his wife was gone. And gone for good, he knew. For 00:50:49.922 --> 00:50:58.398 - he knew that neither chains of love nor chains of steel can keep a selkie from the sea. 00:51:06.306 --> 00:51:13.593 - Thank you. Thank you. Many versions of that. The closing sentence, chains of love nor chains of steel 00:51:13.593 --> 00:51:20.881 - can keep a selfie from the sea, is from a beautiful film, The Secret of Roniniche, which the backdrop 00:51:20.881 --> 00:51:22.238 - is about life on a 00:51:22.466 --> 00:51:34.258 - on an Irish island, but the backdrop is that story about the Selkie. And I haven't checked, but I bet 00:51:34.258 --> 00:51:45.819 - the library has it here. And it does on video. Awesome. Thank you. Yeah, it's a beautiful film. And 00:51:45.819 --> 00:51:52.062 - thanks to Friends Library. Thanks to the library. Hi. 00:51:52.258 --> 00:52:02.495 - I'm Carol Holding. I can still remember the day that dad brought that kitten home. He let us girls have 00:52:02.495 --> 00:52:12.536 - the honor of finding a name for our new pet. And oh, what a name we created. We called the cat Robert 00:52:12.536 --> 00:52:17.950 - Michael Drake, John Paul Jones, Sappenfield the first. 00:52:20.194 --> 00:52:28.889 - Well, what could you expect? We were children, after all, and it was a committee effort. Still, even 00:52:28.889 --> 00:52:37.670 - we understood that with a name that long, it would take half the night to call that poor cat home for 00:52:37.670 --> 00:52:46.451 - supper. So we shortened it to Bobby. Bobby grew into a glorious cat. He was huge, must have been some 00:52:46.451 --> 00:52:48.862 - Maine coon in his pedigree. 00:52:49.090 --> 00:53:00.926 - His fur was lush and thick and had beautiful markings. His eyes were the color of antique gold and they 00:53:00.926 --> 00:53:12.761 - look straight into your soul. But his most striking feature was his tail, his incredibly long and bushy 00:53:12.761 --> 00:53:17.086 - tail. Even Bobby seemed to understand 00:53:17.282 --> 00:53:25.034 - that his tail was his best feature. Whenever a stranger came to the house, Bobby would strut across 00:53:25.034 --> 00:53:32.942 - the floor like a fashion model, that glorious tail gracefully unfurled over his head. And he wouldn't 00:53:32.942 --> 00:53:40.772 - stop the performance until the newcomer said a few words of praise about the wonder that was Bobby's 00:53:40.772 --> 00:53:46.974 - tail. It's ironic that it was that lovely tail that nearly cost Bobby his life. 00:53:47.490 --> 00:53:55.817 - He went out one summer day and did not return. We searched everywhere calling his name. We asked the 00:53:55.817 --> 00:54:04.143 - neighbors. We put up posters. But a full week passed before Bobby finally dragged his poor emaciated 00:54:04.143 --> 00:54:12.800 - body up to our back stoop. Oh, he was a sorry sight. His fur was torn and matted. He was skin and bones. 00:54:12.800 --> 00:54:14.366 - His eyes were dim. 00:54:14.914 --> 00:54:22.613 - But the worst sight of all was that tail, that once glorious tail. It was mangled. The vet said that 00:54:22.613 --> 00:54:30.236 - it looked as though Bobby had gotten his tail caught in a rabbit snare, and that it must have taken 00:54:30.236 --> 00:54:37.934 - him that entire week to work his way loose. Gangrene had set in, and the doctor was going to have to 00:54:37.934 --> 00:54:41.822 - remove the tip of the tail to save the cat's life. 00:54:43.106 --> 00:54:50.557 - I remember sitting through that operation. Every so often, the nurse would stick her head into the waiting 00:54:50.557 --> 00:54:57.729 - room door and give us an update. It was never good news. In fact, the message was always the same. The 00:54:57.729 --> 00:55:04.693 - gangrene has spread further than we expected. The doctor is going to have to take off a little more 00:55:04.693 --> 00:55:05.598 - of the tail. 00:55:06.498 --> 00:55:14.705 - The gangrene has spread further than expected. The doctor is going to have to take off a little more 00:55:14.705 --> 00:55:22.832 - of the tail. The gangrene has spread further. By the time the operation was over, all that was left 00:55:22.832 --> 00:55:31.120 - of that exceptionally long and bushy tail was a tiny little one-inch stub. I guess you could say that 00:55:31.120 --> 00:55:35.102 - Bobby's physique finally matched his name. Well, 00:55:36.610 --> 00:55:44.108 - We were all concerned about how Bobby would react to the loss of his favorite appendage, but we needn't 00:55:44.108 --> 00:55:51.317 - have worried about it. As far as Bobby was concerned, nothing had changed. I walked into the living 00:55:51.317 --> 00:55:58.743 - room one day and Bobby was performing a sort of pantomime. He would reach back one of his forepaws and 00:55:58.743 --> 00:56:04.222 - he would drag it to the front and then he would lick the air above his paw. 00:56:06.594 --> 00:56:13.555 - I called mom in and said, what is our cat doing? She watched for a while and she said, well, 00:56:13.555 --> 00:56:21.115 - I can't be sure, of course, but I think he's grooming his tail. What tail, mom? She said, well, have 00:56:21.115 --> 00:56:28.675 - you never heard of a phantom limb? And sure enough, our cat had a phantom tail. If you were brushing 00:56:28.675 --> 00:56:35.262 - him and you failed to brush the entire length of that invisible tail, he would be myth. 00:56:36.642 --> 00:56:43.314 - And if you step too close to him, he might yell and rake your ankle with his claws and you couldn't 00:56:43.314 --> 00:56:50.120 - even blame him because you had evidently just trod upon his phantom tail. And when strangers came, he 00:56:50.120 --> 00:56:56.993 - would still do his strutting model routine and not stop until we convinced some poor confused stranger 00:56:56.993 --> 00:57:00.062 - that they need to praise a non-existent tail. 00:57:02.786 --> 00:57:10.189 - Well, Bobby may have lost something in his ordeal that summer, but he seemed to have gained something 00:57:10.189 --> 00:57:17.882 - as well. My baby sister was the first to notice. She said, Bobby is predicting the weather. And we looked 00:57:17.882 --> 00:57:25.430 - and she was right. Bobby would settle down in front of the best radiator in the house four hours before 00:57:25.430 --> 00:57:31.454 - the cold front came through. And if Bobby refused to go out on a bright sunny day, 00:57:31.586 --> 00:57:39.248 - You could wager money that it would be pelting down rain or sleet or snow by mid-afternoon. And it turned 00:57:39.248 --> 00:57:46.621 - out that the weather wasn't the only thing Bobby could predict. One day, Bobby took it in his head to 00:57:46.621 --> 00:57:54.211 - keep my father home. Anybody else could come and go as they wanted, but anytime Dad approached the door, 00:57:54.211 --> 00:58:01.150 - there would be that huge cat in the door frame blocking his way, teeth bared, claws unsheathed. 00:58:02.530 --> 00:58:09.058 - Finally, we all banded together to distract the cat long enough for Dad to sneak out by the back door. 00:58:09.058 --> 00:58:15.902 - But at dinner that night, Dad said, well, I wish I had listened to Bobby and stayed home. It was a horrible 00:58:15.902 --> 00:58:22.303 - day. And to make matters worse, on the way home, I had a fender bender. There's going to be hundreds 00:58:22.303 --> 00:58:25.662 - of dollars of damages there. I wish I'd stayed home. 00:58:27.522 --> 00:58:33.749 - It didn't happen very frequently, but every so often, Bobby would take it into his head to keep one 00:58:33.749 --> 00:58:40.163 - or the other of us at home. And at first, we always did our best to help his chosen victim escape. And 00:58:40.163 --> 00:58:46.951 - the results were always the same. They'd come home that evening and say, I wish I hadn't gone out. Something 00:58:46.951 --> 00:58:51.870 - bad would always happen. My sister Sue slipped on the ice and broke her ankle. 00:58:52.610 --> 00:59:01.376 - Mother spoke a few ill-chosen words and damaged a lifelong friendship. Well, a few more instances like 00:59:01.376 --> 00:59:09.886 - that and we started to pay attention to the cat. If Bobby wanted you to stay home, you stayed home. 00:59:09.886 --> 00:59:17.886 - We called it taking a Bobby day. Then came that fateful day when Bobby didn't want any of us. 00:59:18.050 --> 00:59:25.152 - to leave the house. No matter who approached the door, there would be Bobby blocking the way. I'm ashamed 00:59:25.152 --> 00:59:32.121 - to say that we had a bit of fun teasing the cat. We would head towards different doors at the same time 00:59:32.121 --> 00:59:39.290 - and watch the poor beast just run his little paws off trying to block us all. But he needn't have worried. 00:59:39.290 --> 00:59:46.125 - We knew enough to pay attention. We all stayed home. We settled in with books or records or knitting, 00:59:46.125 --> 00:59:47.934 - whatever struck our fancy. 00:59:48.898 --> 00:59:55.785 - Even though we were all home, Bobby was still in a state of high anxiety. The tension was just rolling 00:59:55.785 --> 01:00:02.472 - off him. He would pace from room to room and person to person. He would plant himself at your feet, 01:00:02.472 --> 01:00:09.360 - look into your eyes, and make this deep burbling sound in his throat that just epitomized worry. Well, 01:00:09.360 --> 01:00:14.910 - finally, Mother said, if I'm stuck at home, I might as well get some laundry done. 01:00:15.074 --> 01:00:22.120 - So she went down to the cellar with a load and as she was coming back up the basement steps there was 01:00:22.120 --> 01:00:29.028 - Bobby blocking her way. She said, Steve, I think you better come see this. Dad came down the stairs 01:00:29.028 --> 01:00:36.005 - to join her and now Bobby was blocking both of them. Dad gave the situation some thought and then he 01:00:36.005 --> 01:00:43.742 - called up. He said, girls, I want you to get some blankets, some pillows, some snack foods, some drinks, books, 01:00:43.906 --> 01:00:51.092 - whatever you need to entertain yourself, and come on down to the cellar. Bobby wants us to spend some 01:00:51.092 --> 01:00:58.278 - time in the basement. And that's what we did. We all came down there. We set up a little sort of camp 01:00:58.278 --> 01:01:05.324 - underneath the big wooden table that my mother used to fold the laundry on. And we played games and 01:01:05.324 --> 01:01:12.862 - read out loud. It was one of the nicest family days I can remember. Cloistered as we were in the basement, 01:01:13.346 --> 01:01:22.179 - We didn't notice what was happening outside. We didn't see how dark the sky was growing or notice that 01:01:22.179 --> 01:01:30.754 - green tinge to the clouds and we certainly didn't hear the change in tempo of the wind. We did hear 01:01:30.754 --> 01:01:39.501 - the siren when it went off and moments later all hell broke loose above us. Our little town with next 01:01:39.501 --> 01:01:40.702 - to no warning 01:01:41.122 --> 01:01:48.222 - was experiencing the worst tornado of its history. Pretty much any place a family member might have 01:01:48.222 --> 01:01:55.465 - chosen to go that day, the church, the school, the library, the grocery store, friend's house, all of 01:01:55.465 --> 01:02:02.778 - them reduced to rubble. Our own house was badly damaged, but down there in the cellar under that heavy 01:02:02.778 --> 01:02:09.310 - oak table, we came out unscathed. Well, the human members of the family came out unscathed. 01:02:09.666 --> 01:02:17.218 - Bobby had never left the staircase. He had stood sentinel there guarding us, and in that exposed position, 01:02:17.218 --> 01:02:24.346 - well, the storm just took him away. We clamored out of what was left of our home and began to try to 01:02:24.346 --> 01:02:31.757 - help our less fortunate neighbors, all the while keeping one eye open for our precious cat. And we would 01:02:31.757 --> 01:02:36.062 - ask people if they'd seen him, but the answer was always no. 01:02:37.186 --> 01:02:43.711 - Finally, just before dusk began to fall, a stranger approached us. He said, are you the folks that are 01:02:43.711 --> 01:02:50.046 - looking for a big bobtailed cat? We said, yes. He says, I think I found him. He led us two or three 01:02:50.046 --> 01:02:56.635 - blocks away to one of the few trees that was still standing. And he pointed up and sure enough dangling 01:02:56.635 --> 01:03:03.287 - there amid the branches was our Bobby. The man said, I think I know where I can get an extension ladder. 01:03:03.287 --> 01:03:05.694 - I'll bring it and we'll get him down. 01:03:06.338 --> 01:03:12.841 - But before the man left, he looked one more time up that tree and he said, you know, I've looked at 01:03:12.841 --> 01:03:19.474 - that cat from every angle and I cannot for the life of me figure out what's keeping him up there, why 01:03:19.474 --> 01:03:26.302 - he hasn't just plummeted to the earth. Well, after he left, we all looked up at Bobby and then we smiled 01:03:26.302 --> 01:03:32.870 - at each other for we understood what had happened. Our brave and resourceful cat had managed to save 01:03:32.870 --> 01:03:34.366 - himself. He'd done it. 01:03:34.562 --> 01:03:52.408 - by snagging a branch with that exceptionally long and bushy tail. I think she made that up. 01:03:52.408 --> 01:03:56.094 - What do you think? 01:03:58.626 --> 01:04:07.363 - So hi, I'm Christina Jones, and I'm so glad to see you all here tonight. The story I'm going to tell 01:04:07.363 --> 01:04:15.581 - you is called A Pottle of Brains. And pottle was a new word for me, so being a good librarian, 01:04:15.581 --> 01:04:24.490 - I looked it up, and I found out that it's Middle English for a smallish pot. Not a cauldron, we're not 01:04:24.490 --> 01:04:27.518 - talking a vat, but a very smallish 01:04:28.002 --> 01:04:40.278 - Humble pot. So now I'm going to tell you about Jack and his mother. Jack was so pretty. So pretty. He 01:04:40.278 --> 01:04:52.314 - had really nice, fine, fair hair. He had sparkly green eyes. And he had the sweetest ears that just 01:04:52.314 --> 01:04:56.286 - laid so nicely against his head. 01:04:56.610 --> 01:05:06.240 - between those ears was not a lot. Not a lot going on, but he was so pretty and such a good boy that 01:05:06.240 --> 01:05:15.869 - his mother, like most, just doted on her son and doted and doted. And as time went on, Jack grew up 01:05:15.869 --> 01:05:25.499 - to be a doted on beautiful boy. And his mother worked her fingers to the bone to keep body and soul 01:05:25.499 --> 01:05:26.558 - alive in a 01:05:26.754 --> 01:05:32.892 - roof over their head and in the meantime Jack would sit there and look pretty and he'd clean the house 01:05:32.892 --> 01:05:38.971 - and make sure dinner was made and be there for his mama when she came home. Well time went on and his 01:05:38.971 --> 01:05:45.110 - mama was getting tired. She was farming herself out to clean this and that and finally the only person 01:05:45.110 --> 01:05:51.069 - that would take her was the blacksmith and she was scrubbing on that anvil all day and just getting 01:05:51.069 --> 01:05:56.254 - all sooty and tired and she got home and she was pretty grumpy. Jenny, she was grumpy. 01:05:57.058 --> 01:06:03.197 - It was her time. And she threw herself on the chair, and she said, Jack, I'm tired. What you need to 01:06:03.197 --> 01:06:09.337 - do is get yourself a bottle of brains and help out around here. Get yourself a bottle of brains, why 01:06:09.337 --> 01:06:15.597 - don't you? Yes, ma'am, said Jack. And he sprung up, and he ran out the house. And he started shouting, 01:06:15.597 --> 01:06:21.797 - who's got a bottle of brains? I need a bottle of brains. Help, help. My mama needs me to get a bottle 01:06:21.797 --> 01:06:26.174 - of brains. Well, everybody took pity on Jack, because he was so pretty. 01:06:27.458 --> 01:06:34.407 - And one of them suggested that he go see the henwife. Well, the henwife was a very controversial figure 01:06:34.407 --> 01:06:41.422 - in this village. Now, there are half of them that thought she was a wise woman. And half of them thought 01:06:41.422 --> 01:06:48.772 - she was a witch. And Jack landed in the latter category. So he approached this henwife with some trepidation. 01:06:48.772 --> 01:06:55.320 - He walked up to her cottage, and there she was on the porch with all her hens all over the place. 01:06:55.320 --> 01:06:56.990 - He said, hello, henwife. 01:06:57.922 --> 01:07:06.226 - Nice day, huh? Nice hens you got there." Well, the hen wife knew what she was looking at, and she said, 01:07:06.226 --> 01:07:14.371 - Jack, what have you come for? What do you need from me? Oh, well, he said, I was wondering if perhaps 01:07:14.371 --> 01:07:22.515 - you had a bottle of brains about, just, you know, in the corner collecting dust. Maybe you don't need 01:07:22.515 --> 01:07:25.310 - any more. Maybe I could have them. 01:07:27.778 --> 01:07:35.441 - said the henwife, I might, I might, but you can't get something for nothing. So what I need for you 01:07:35.441 --> 01:07:43.257 - to do is bring me the heart of the thing you love the best. Thought Jack, all right. And so he turned 01:07:43.257 --> 01:07:51.149 - around and he started walking home and he was getting kind of lightheaded because he hadn't eaten that 01:07:51.149 --> 01:07:55.134 - nice supper that he had made for he and his mother. 01:07:55.330 --> 01:08:01.287 - His stomach was growling and he was thinking and thinking was always a really hard thing for him to 01:08:01.287 --> 01:08:07.245 - do. It did not enjoy it. It took a lot of energy. And so he was thinking and hungry and he thought, 01:08:07.245 --> 01:08:13.202 - the thing I love the best, of course, it's the steak that I made for tonight. It's beef, of course, 01:08:13.202 --> 01:08:19.219 - that's the thing. And so he got a spring in his step. He knew just what to do. So he ran home and he 01:08:19.219 --> 01:08:23.806 - burst into the cottage and he said, mother, mother, we have to kill the cow. 01:08:25.346 --> 01:08:32.149 - kill the cow, said the mother, why? Well, and he explained about the henwife and the heart of the thing 01:08:32.149 --> 01:08:38.691 - he loved the best. All right, Jack, all right. I guess there's nothing for it. So Jack took out his 01:08:38.691 --> 01:08:45.233 - knife and he pulled out his belt and he started to sharpen his knife. And he took that knife and he 01:08:45.233 --> 01:08:51.840 - went out into the pasture. And I'm sorry to say he in fact killed that poor cow. And he filleted and 01:08:51.840 --> 01:08:54.718 - he did this and that, what they do to cows. 01:08:54.850 --> 01:09:03.711 - He cut out that heart, and he wrapped it up in brown paper. And he walked in triumph to the henwife's 01:09:03.711 --> 01:09:12.659 - house. And he laid this bloody heart on her table. Well, here it is, the heart of the thing I love the 01:09:12.659 --> 01:09:21.780 - best. Hm, said the henwife. And she looked at the bloody package, and she said, all right, we're halfway 01:09:21.780 --> 01:09:24.126 - there. Now answer me this. 01:09:25.506 --> 01:09:35.698 - What has four stiff standers, four dilly danders, two lookers, two croakers, and a wig wag? Can you 01:09:35.698 --> 01:09:46.400 - answer that? Oh, Jack hated riddles. They were the worst. He was never good at riddles. He always relied 01:09:46.400 --> 01:09:53.534 - on his mother to think of him. I'm sorry. I just don't know. Too bad. 01:09:54.338 --> 01:10:03.544 - No puddle of brains for you this time. Try harder." And so Jack went home, dejected. And he opened the 01:10:03.544 --> 01:10:12.482 - cottage door and he said, mother, mother. But there was no reply. He looked for her in the barn. He 01:10:12.482 --> 01:10:21.419 - looked for her all until he remembered, oh, well, she was tired. And so he went upstairs. And there 01:10:21.419 --> 01:10:24.190 - he found his poor mother lying 01:10:24.386 --> 01:10:34.027 - on the bed, still lifeless. Oh, said Jack, and he fell to his knees, and he moaned, and he cried, and 01:10:34.027 --> 01:10:43.763 - he held his mother's hand, and he said, Mother, you birthed me, you raised me, you worked your fingers 01:10:43.763 --> 01:10:53.310 - till the bone, until now you're here. Oh, Mother, I loved you best. Best. And he let go of her hand. 01:10:54.402 --> 01:11:03.150 - picked up his knife and he reached out and he started to sharpen his knife and he raised his knife but 01:11:03.150 --> 01:11:11.644 - he couldn't do it. He just couldn't do it. So he put his knife back into his belt and he lifted his 01:11:11.644 --> 01:11:20.222 - poor mother and he hoisted her over his shoulder and that's how he went to the house of the henwife. 01:11:21.890 --> 01:11:31.036 - And he burst into her door and he laid his mother there on the table. And he said, here, here, inside 01:11:31.036 --> 01:11:40.002 - this woman is the heart of the thing that I love the best. Hmm, said the henwife. Now we're getting 01:11:40.002 --> 01:11:48.610 - somewhere. All right, all right, let me think. Okay, okay, okay, answer me this. Oh, said Jack. 01:11:48.610 --> 01:11:51.838 - All right, what's greater than God? 01:11:52.354 --> 01:12:04.541 - worse than the devil. The dead can eat it, but if we eat it, we die. I was so close. Sorry, Jack, not 01:12:04.541 --> 01:12:17.205 - good enough. Try harder. And so Jack lifted his poor mother and he walked out into the road until finally 01:12:17.205 --> 01:12:20.670 - he just collapsed in despair 01:12:20.802 --> 01:12:29.946 - Oh, he said, my poor cow is gone. My mother's gone. I have no brains. I have nothing. And he wept and 01:12:29.946 --> 01:12:39.090 - he cried for his mother and his cow and his lack of brains until his cries reached the ear of a young 01:12:39.090 --> 01:12:48.414 - farmer named Meg, who happened to be tilling her land, land that she bought from her hard earned money. 01:12:49.794 --> 01:12:57.191 - And she went to see what this poor boy was all troubled about. And he told her, and she held his head 01:12:57.191 --> 01:13:04.588 - and stroked his head as if he were one of her lambs, one of her very own. She was looking at how very 01:13:04.588 --> 01:13:12.275 - fine his head was and how very sweetly his ears laid right against its head. And she noticed there wasn't 01:13:12.275 --> 01:13:18.366 - much in between which could make for a fine husband. So after he calmed down a bit, 01:13:19.330 --> 01:13:30.557 - Meg said, Jack, tell me this. Are you a married man? Oh, I have nothing. You know this. All right. How 01:13:30.557 --> 01:13:41.456 - do you feel about cleaning pots? Oh, I'm actually pretty good at it. Cooking? Yes, yes. I just made 01:13:41.456 --> 01:13:49.086 - a very fine steak for my mother and me. How about shopping? Yes, yes. 01:13:50.114 --> 01:13:58.863 - Yes, why? Why? I think you and I would make a great match. And it was decided. So that evening, they 01:13:58.863 --> 01:14:08.219 - had a very somber and proper funeral. And that morning, they had a lovely, lovely wedding. And the confetti 01:14:08.219 --> 01:14:16.968 - from their wedding blew with the wind over the fresh dirt of the grave of his mother. And they lived 01:14:16.968 --> 01:14:19.134 - happily in Meg's cottage 01:14:20.674 --> 01:14:31.258 - Days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months, and they were so full of bliss. One evening, Jack 01:14:31.258 --> 01:14:41.435 - had made an exceptionally fine bean stew, and Meg had her feet up by the fire. And Jack looked over 01:14:41.435 --> 01:14:48.254 - at Meg, and he said, Meg, I think I love you best of... Best of... 01:14:50.338 --> 01:14:58.644 - his knife, and he pulled his belt, and he started to sharpen it. And he felt Meg's hand on his wrist. 01:14:58.644 --> 01:15:06.949 - He looked up. She said, a beating heart is better than a dead one. Let's go see the henwife together. 01:15:06.949 --> 01:15:15.173 - Why don't we? So that's how they went, hand in hand, to the henwife's cottage. And she was very glad 01:15:15.173 --> 01:15:20.222 - to see them. And he said, here she is, as I live and breathe. 01:15:20.354 --> 01:15:29.832 - the heart of the thing that I love the best." And the henwife's eyes grew bright and she said, all right, 01:15:29.832 --> 01:15:38.951 - now we're getting somewhere. Okay, all right. Your first riddle, if you're ready. What has four stiff 01:15:38.951 --> 01:15:47.893 - standers, four dilly danders, two lookers, two croakers, and a wig wag? Meg whispered into his ear. 01:15:47.893 --> 01:15:49.502 - A cow, said Jack. 01:15:49.794 --> 01:15:57.297 - with utter confidence. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. You're right, said the henwife. Yes, yes, yes. All right, 01:15:57.297 --> 01:16:04.446 - you're ready for the next one. Okay. What's greater than God, worse than the devil, the dead can eat 01:16:04.446 --> 01:16:11.808 - it. But if we eat it, we die. Now I've been thinking about this one. When he thought so hard that sweat 01:16:11.808 --> 01:16:16.126 - was beating on his forehead, and Meg whispered into his ear. 01:16:16.994 --> 01:16:25.459 - Meg, I can't say nothing. I have to give this woman an answer. Oh, nothing, nothing, nothing. Yes, yes, 01:16:25.459 --> 01:16:34.087 - yes, said the henwife. All right, your final riddle and you'll have your paddle of brains. Are you ready? 01:16:34.087 --> 01:16:42.308 - Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Okay, what is the golden box that has no top and no bottom, but it's filled 01:16:42.308 --> 01:16:46.622 - with bone and flesh and skin? And it has the ability 01:16:46.850 --> 01:16:57.847 - to turn two into one. Hmm, said Jack. That's a tricky one. And Meg kissed his sweet ear and whispered. 01:16:57.847 --> 01:17:08.844 - A wedding ring, said Jack. And the hen wife merely danced around the cottage. Yes, yes, yes. Jack, you 01:17:08.844 --> 01:17:16.638 - found your puddle of brains. At last, you've must married a clever wife. 01:17:18.306 --> 01:17:35.186 - Finally Jack understood, and he and Meg lived out their day in utter bliss. Thank you. I have a story 01:17:35.186 --> 01:17:48.094 - about a pot of beans. No. The motif of the evening. Actually, I have a story. 01:17:48.226 --> 01:17:57.717 - I come from a long line of storekeepers. And in fact, one of them was reputed to be not a very nice 01:17:57.717 --> 01:18:07.587 - person. Well, that's not the story that he came to a dastardly end, by the way. It's a different story. 01:18:07.587 --> 01:18:16.414 - I'll work on that one. But this story is about just such a storekeeper. He was kind of mean. 01:18:17.634 --> 01:18:26.353 - gruff. When people came into his stores, you had to keep your eye on that storekeeper. Because if you 01:18:26.353 --> 01:18:35.242 - were going to get some salt or some beans or, or anything else that needed to be measured on the scale, 01:18:35.242 --> 01:18:44.217 - you needed to watch that he didn't slip his thumb up there and kind of add a little weight, short weight 01:18:44.217 --> 01:18:47.294 - you. You also had to watch when you 01:18:47.618 --> 01:18:55.777 - got something off the shelf, and it said it was going to sell for a certain amount, and you'd get up 01:18:55.777 --> 01:19:04.178 - there, and you'd kind of up the price a little bit, hoping you wouldn't notice. So you had to keep your 01:19:04.178 --> 01:19:12.337 - eye on this fellow. You had to use some caution. Now, you might be saying to yourself, then don't go 01:19:12.337 --> 01:19:17.022 - to his store. But his was the only one in about 10 miles. 01:19:18.242 --> 01:19:27.015 - had to go there. They just knew that they needed to use caution when dealing with him. Now they were 01:19:27.015 --> 01:19:35.874 - a religious folk that lived in this area and there was a big revival going on. The Baptist Church was 01:19:35.874 --> 01:19:44.126 - having a revival. It had been a tremendous success going on three weeks this revival had been. 01:19:44.354 --> 01:19:53.887 - And many of them had been there and they had been spiritually uplifted. They felt moral and good in 01:19:53.887 --> 01:20:04.087 - their relationship to God and to Jesus. Some of them got together and said, we need to get the storekeeper 01:20:04.087 --> 01:20:12.094 - to the revival. We need to make him a moral man. We need to have him see the light. 01:20:12.770 --> 01:20:20.093 - And so they started working on the feller and telling him he needed to go to the revival. Well, they 01:20:20.093 --> 01:20:26.908 - badgered him so that finally he agreed on the very last night that, yeah, all right, I'll go. 01:20:26.908 --> 01:20:34.303 - And he did. And he marched right down front, right in front of the preacher man, and he sat down just 01:20:34.303 --> 01:20:37.566 - so everybody could see that he'd gone there. 01:20:42.594 --> 01:20:55.924 - Well, they started singing, and the preacher preached. Everybody was hallelujah-ing. And finally, the 01:20:55.924 --> 01:21:09.515 - storekeeper down front said, amen. And his neighbors came up, people that traded with him and they took 01:21:09.515 --> 01:21:11.998 - him by the elbows, 01:21:12.258 --> 01:21:24.812 - And when the altar call came, they took him down to the front where he pledged that he had been saved. 01:21:24.812 --> 01:21:37.245 - Most people didn't feel like it was probably true. So a few of them went to the store the next day to 01:21:37.245 --> 01:21:40.414 - see what might transpire. 01:21:43.330 --> 01:21:55.307 - Nearer, my God, to thee. While the storekeeper was going around, he was singing hymns and quoting scripture. 01:21:55.307 --> 01:22:06.516 - They still didn't believe it. But after a while, a little boy came in. And they all knew that the old 01:22:06.516 --> 01:22:10.142 - storekeeper couldn't stand kids. 01:22:15.362 --> 01:22:26.168 - him a bit. He was mean to him. And when this little boy came in, the storekeeper looked at him and said, 01:22:26.168 --> 01:22:36.975 - Howdy, young man. What can I do for you today? Well, I got a nickel. I'd like a nickel's worth of candy, 01:22:36.975 --> 01:22:43.870 - please. And he handed the storekeeper the nickel and the neighbors 01:22:44.098 --> 01:22:54.748 - People in the store watched as the storekeeper went around and filled a sack with not a nickel's worth, 01:22:54.748 --> 01:23:04.989 - but at least 25 cents worth of candy. Rolled the top of that sack and gave it to the young man. And 01:23:04.989 --> 01:23:13.182 - the little boy headed out, took the nickel and dropped it in the till and said, 01:23:14.978 --> 01:23:25.172 - suffer the little children to come unto me. They were impressed. Well, it wasn't too much longer before 01:23:25.172 --> 01:23:35.170 - Mrs. Myers came into the store and, well, it was her father's 90th birthday and she wanted to pick up 01:23:35.170 --> 01:23:42.718 - some useful things to give to him as a gift. Well, humming rock of ages, the 01:23:43.138 --> 01:23:53.218 - The storekeeper went around and he pulled out a bandana handkerchief, a Barlow knife, and some sock 01:23:53.218 --> 01:24:03.701 - supporters. Put them in a bag. Now that was at least $2 worth of merchandise. But the storekeeper said, 01:24:03.701 --> 01:24:11.966 - that would be 50 cents, Mrs. Myers. She gave him the 50 cents and went on her way 01:24:13.730 --> 01:24:25.424 - He took the 50 cents and he put it in the till and said, honor thy father and thy mother. Well, they 01:24:25.424 --> 01:24:37.697 - were really impressed. They had really changed this man. Now, about this time, they heard a sound outside 01:24:37.697 --> 01:24:43.486 - the store. Well, it was a great big pickup truck, 01:24:43.746 --> 01:24:53.998 - a full pickup truck, much nicer than what they had around there, and it had a long horse trailer on 01:24:53.998 --> 01:25:04.250 - it. And pretty soon in the door walked a tall fella in fancy cowboy boots, 10 gallon hat. He walked 01:25:04.250 --> 01:25:12.862 - up. The storekeeper said, what can I do for you, sir? I am needing a horse blanket. 01:25:14.338 --> 01:25:25.729 - for my horse," said the storekeeper. Now, he hadn't sold a horse blanket in probably 10 years, but he 01:25:25.729 --> 01:25:37.790 - had a stack of old ones out in the feed shed. So he went out, he found this cruddy old brown horse blanket, 01:25:37.790 --> 01:25:43.262 - kind of flicked off the insects and the bugs and 01:25:44.162 --> 01:25:55.169 - Brought that blanket in and laid it on the counter. He said, now that's a fine horse blanket. Now it's 01:25:55.169 --> 01:26:06.390 - probably worth about $2. But the storekeeper said, I'll sell that to you for $9.98. I have a horse worth 01:26:06.390 --> 01:26:10.878 - thousands of dollars out in that trailer. 01:26:11.874 --> 01:26:23.378 - blanket is not good enough for my horse. Got something else?" And so the storekeeper went back out to 01:26:23.378 --> 01:26:35.107 - that stack of old horse blankets all alike, different colors, and he pulled out a green one. And again, 01:26:35.107 --> 01:26:41.310 - he made sure there weren't any pigeon droppings on it. 01:26:41.634 --> 01:26:49.843 - sort of thing. Well, it was a little moth eating around the edge, but he brought in the green blanket 01:26:49.843 --> 01:26:57.890 - and he laid it down on the counter. He said, now this is a finer blanket than the one I just showed 01:26:57.890 --> 01:26:59.902 - you. This one is $49.98. 01:27:03.330 --> 01:27:17.368 - That blanket is not good enough for this Tennessee walker horse that I have out in the trailer. I want 01:27:17.368 --> 01:27:31.678 - your finest blanket. All right. And the storekeeper went out to the feed shed, pulled out a red blanket. 01:27:33.250 --> 01:27:43.664 - and folded it, gave it a shake, got all the bits and insects and so forth, all of it. Notice that it 01:27:43.664 --> 01:27:54.594 - was kind of faded on one side, so he folded it so the bright side was up. And he brought out that blanket 01:27:54.594 --> 01:28:02.430 - and he put it on the counter and he said, there is my finest horse blanket. 01:28:03.362 --> 01:28:16.196 - $99.98. And the stranger looked at it and he pulled out a $100 bill and he handed it to him and said, 01:28:16.196 --> 01:28:29.030 - keep the change. And he picked up the horse blanket and he walked out. And the neighbors all heard as 01:28:29.030 --> 01:28:33.182 - that pickup truck started up and 01:28:33.282 --> 01:28:49.841 - went away, and they all turned to look at the storekeeper. Just as I am. And he held up that $100 bill, 01:28:49.841 --> 01:29:00.350 - looked at it, and said, for he was a stranger, and I took him in. 01:29:05.154 --> 01:29:16.574 - And that's the story of the storekeeper. Thank you all for joining us tonight. We do invite you to join 01:29:16.574 --> 01:29:27.664 - us out in the atrium for refreshments and to meet the tellers. We are really rare people, aren't we? 01:29:27.664 --> 01:29:33.374 - And again, thank you to the friends of the library. 01:29:33.506 --> 01:29:40.913 - Thank you to Adult Services of the Monroe County Public Library, and most of all, thank you to you, 01:29:40.913 --> 01:29:41.950 - our audience.