Cooke - Golden-rod and Aster - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

It's beautiful seeing the goldenrod and purple asters decorating roadsides and fields right now.

Lately I've been looking a lot at The Topaz Story Book's many stories for autumn. So when I went looking for stories about goldenrod and asters I was delighted to see a story about both plants in the same tale.  I also saw it was in The Topaz Story Book.  Read it there and noted it was "adapted."  Since the original author, Flora J. Cooke, was also easily located at Project Gutenberg, I compared the two.  Differences are minimal...almost as if the Skinner sisters wanted to take credit for "adapting" it.  

Ms Cooke was active during the first half of the twentieth century's "Progressive" school movement and especially for the secondary school.  As a result her book title of Nature Myths and Stories with the title continuing as For Little Children I think is a bit misleading as we would apply it today.  Similarly her other book, Greek Myths for Children, might today have a slightly broader audience than the title of the two books implies.  (Another view of her work is an essay at Thefreelibrary.com.)

Here's her story of why these two plants are so often seen together.  May it pop into your head when you see them!

GOLDEN-ROD AND ASTER.

OLDEN HAIR and Blue Eyes lived at the foot of a great hill.

On the top of this hill in a little hut lived a strange, wise woman.

It was said that she could change people into anything she wished. She looked so grim and severe that people were afraid to go near her.

One summer day the two little girls at the foot of the hill thought they would like to do something to make everybody happy.

“I know,” said Golden Hair, “Let us go and ask the woman on the hill about it. She is very wise and can surely tell us just what to do.”

“Oh, yes,” said Blue Eyes, and away they started at once.

It was a warm day and a long walk to the top of the hill.

The little girls stopped many times to rest under the oak trees which shaded their pathway.

They could find no flowers, but they made a basket of oak leaves and filled it with berries for the wise woman.

They fed the fish in the brook and talked to the squirrels and the birds.

They walked on and on in the rocky path.

After a while the sun went down. The birds stopped singing.

The squirrels went to bed.

The trees fell asleep.

Even the wind was resting.

Oh, how still and cool it was on the hillside!

The moon and stars came out.

The frogs and toads awoke.

The night music began.

The beetles and fireflies flew away to a party.

But the tired little children climbed on towards the hilltop.

At last they reached it.

There at the gate was the strange, old woman, looking even more stern than usual.

The little girls were frightened. They clung close together while brave Golden Hair said, “we know you are wise and we came to see if you would tell us how to make everyone happy.”

“Please let us stay together,” said timid Blue Eyes.

As she opened the gate for the children, the wise woman was seen to smile in the moonlight. The two little girls were never seen again at the foot of the hill. The next morning all over the hillside people saw beautiful, waving golden-rod and purple asters growing.

It has been said that these two bright flowers, which grow side by side, could tell the secret, if they would, of what became of the two little girls on that moonlight summer night.

***

The story was also anthologized in Bailey and Lewis's For the Children's Hour; Hall and Gilman's Story Land. 2d reader; McFee's Treasury of Flower Stories;  Pratt's Fairyland of Flowers as well as by the Skinners.  Obviously a sign of a story considered worth "Keeping the Public in Public Domain.

*******************

This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.  

At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience.  Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week.  This is a return to my regular posting of a research project here.  (Don't worry, this isn't dry research, my research is always geared towards future storytelling to an audience.)  Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my other postings as often as I can manage it.

Other Public Domain story resources I recommend-

• There are many online resources for Public Domain stories, maybe none for folklore is as ambitious as fellow storyteller, Yoel Perez's database, Yashpeh, the International Folktales Collection.  I have long recommended it and continue to do so.  He has loaded Stith Thompson's Motif Index into his server as a database so you can search the whole 6 volumes for whatever word or expression you like by pressing one key. http://folkmasa.org/motiv/motif.htm

• You may have noticed I'm no longer certain Dr. Perez has the largest database, although his offering the Motif Index certainly qualifies for those of us seeking specific types of stories.  There's another site, FairyTalez claiming to be the largest, with "over 2000 fairy tales, folktales, and fables" and they are "fully optimized for phones, tablets, and PCs", free and presented without ads.
  Between those two sites, there is much for story-lovers, but as they say in infomercials, "Wait, there's more!"

The email list for storytellers, Storytell, discussed Online Story Sources and came up with these additional suggestions:        

         - David K. Brown - http://people.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/stories.html

         - Karen Chace - http://karenchace.blogspot.com/search?q=public+domain

         - Richard Martin - http://www.tellatale.eu/tales_page.html

         - Spirit of Trees - http://spiritoftrees.org/featured-folktales

         - Story-Lovers - http://www.story-lovers.com/ is now only accessible through the Wayback Machine, described below, but the late Jackie Baldwin's wonderful site lives on there, fully searchable manually (the Google search doesn't work), at https://archive.org/ .  It's not easy, but go to Story-lovers.com snapshot for December 22 2016  and you can click on SOS: Searching Out Stories to scroll down through the many story topics and click on the story topic that interests you.

       - Tim Sheppard - http://www.timsheppard.co.uk/story/storylinks.html

       - World of Tales - http://www.worldoftales.com/ 

 
           - Zalka Csenge Virag - http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com doesn't give the actual stories, but her recommendations, working her way through each country on a continent, give excellent ideas for finding new books and stories to love and tell.

     
You're going to find many of the links on these sites have gone down, BUT go to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to find some of these old links.  Tim's site, for example, is so huge probably updating it would be a full-time job.  In the case of Story-Lovers, it's great that Jackie Baldwin set it up to stay online as long as it did after she could no longer maintain it.  Possibly searches maintained it.  Unfortunately Storytell list member, Papa Joe is on both Tim Sheppard's site and Story-Lovers, but he no longer maintains his old Papa Joe's Traveling Storytelling Show website and his Library (something you want to see!) is now only on the Wayback Machine.  It took some patience working back through claims of snapshots but finally in December of 2006 it appears!

Somebody as of this writing whose stories can still be found by his website is the late Chuck Larkin - http://chucklarkin.com/stories.html.  I prefer to list these sites by their complete address so they can be found by the Wayback Machine, a.k.a. Archive.org, when that becomes the only way to find them.

You can see why I recommend these to you. 

Have fun discovering even more stories

Wood - Romance of Treasure-Trove - Keeping the Public in Publis Domain

From http://talklikeapirate.com/wordpress/

 

Every year, since 2002, September the 19th has been International Talk Like a Pirate Day.  If you go to the link above you will find how it started with "pirate guys" John Baur and Mark Summers with some help from columnist Dave Barry.  Their story may or may not interest you, but let's shout "AHOY, MATEYS!" and dive into a story worth retelling.

There are many tales of Blackbeard the pirate ( Captain Edward Teach) and Sir Henry Morgan, but I want to give a lesser known incident about treasure hunting that may have originated with buried pirate treasure.  It (along with stories of Blackbeard and Morgan) is one of many stories in Eric Wood's The Boy's Book of the Sea.  It's in the section called

ROMANCE OF TREASURE-TROVE 

Which goes on to say "These are True Stories of Treasure, and they are as Strange as Fiction."  Dropping down within that chapter, the storyteller in me was taken by this very true story of shipwreck and a fight to the death.

Sometimes the romance of treasure-trove is over-clouded by tragedy; and very often for nothing. The story is told of the foundering of the American ship Reliance, Captain Harding and his crew of twelve men barely escaping with their lives in the boats. Then a storm broke upon them and separated the boats, and Hiram Manly, mate, and nine men found themselves alone on the watery waste, being buffeted about, in danger every minute of being swamped. They worked desperately to keep her afloat, happy to be so far safe. Then one man was washed overboard by a huge wave, another fell dead from his exertions, and the survivors, day after day under pitiless sun, and night after night, held on their way, economising the few provisions and little water they had, becoming delirious as the anxiety told on them. Two more men were lost one night—perhaps the madness seized them, and they flung themselves overboard to end it all; perhaps a wave took them. But, whatever it was, they disappeared without a sound. The survivors, after what seemed an eternity of suffering, were at last flung upon a coral island, where they found water, which, because of the uncontrolled thirst upon them, killed two of them. Then fish was found; Hiram built a fire from drift wood, lighted it by the crystal glass of a watch and the sun’s rays, and then went to rouse his sleeping comrades. One man was dead.

Then the three castaways fell to eating their first good meal for many a day, and afterwards set out to explore the island, Manly going in one direction and the other two—Dillon and Harper—in another. They found no sign of human beings, and presently Dillon and Manly met.

“Where’s Harper?” asked Manly.

“We’ll never see him again,” was the reply. “He’s dead.”

“Dead!” cried Manly. “Where did it happen, and how?”

“Sharks!” said Dillon. “He went to bathe, and—and they got him!”

“Did the body come ashore?” Manly asked, filled with horror, and wondering when his own turn would come. “Let’s go and see!”

“No!” exclaimed Dillon. “It’s no use. We should never find him!”

But Manly persisted, and ran off in the direction from which Dillon had come; and in half an hour came upon the body of Harper, with a knife wound in his chest!

Instantly Manly’s thought flew to the agitation of Dillon when he suggested seeking the body, and he knew that there had been treachery. But why? Why should Dillon kill Harper, a man with nothing of value on him? Not even his clothes were worth having, torn and ragged as they were.

Manly raised himself from beside the dead man, turned, and, turning, saw Dillon creeping towards him with an open knife in his hand. Weaponless, Manly for a moment was filled with terror; then, catching up a handful of sand, he flung it into the murderer’s eyes, blinding him for the minute. Then, with a bound, Manly was upon him, clutching him by the throat and wrestling for the knife. For a long time the two men fought, biting, scratching, Dillon seeking to use his knife, Manly trying to seize it; but at last, with a sharp twist, Manly sent the murderer headlong to the ground, and the next instant was upon him, and, joy! he had the knife.

Again they fought.... And Dillon met the fate of the man he had killed.

Panting from his exertions, Manly sat on the sand beside the dead man, and his bleared eyes looked out to sea. He leapt to his feet, weariness all gone, all thought of the tragedy forgotten; he waved his hands frenziedly, yelled hysterically:

“A sail! A sail!”

Away out there was a ship.

Tearing his shirt from his back, Manly rushed to the water’s edge and waved it long and feverishly, waved it till there came from the ship the boom of a gun, that told him he had been seen. And then reaction set in; he dropped senseless to the earth.

They found him thus; found Dillon, too, lying dead, and knew that some tragedy had been enacted on the silent, lonely strand. When Manly came round he blurted out his story, telling all.

“But why should he have killed Harper?” said the officer who had come ashore with the boat party.

“It fails me,” said Manly.

The next moment the pair were startled as a seaman rushed towards them with a cry upon his lips. He placed something in the officer’s hand. They were two small golden coins.

They were coins such as Manly knew none of his comrades had possessed, and there was a gleam in his eyes as he looked at the officer, neither speaking a word.

Quietly they walked over to Dillon, searched him, and found three more coins of the same kind.

“Reckon that was the motive, sir,” said Manly. “They found these while they were exploring the island, and Dillon, thinking he had come across treasure-trove, decided to kill us both off. Harper went first, and my turn would have come very soon. Thank God I went in search of Harper!”

The officer agreed with Manly in his suggestion, and soon had his men searching the beach; but not another coin was discovered. Instead, they found the skeleton of a man—of some poor mariner, no doubt, who had been cast ashore, his worldly possessions consisting of the five gold coins that had roused the cupidity of Dillon, and had brought tragedy upon them.

Presently Manly was taken on board the Bristol, and sailed away from the coral island, the scene of a tragedy of treasure that never existed.

Everyone has heard of the treasure of Cocos Islands, off Panama, to which many expeditions have been sent, though without success. The treasure was hidden by a pirate named Beneto Bonito, and hidden so securely that, although many expeditions—some of them recent ones—have been sent out to find it, none has yet succeeded. But, despite failure, year after year men go forth, secretly and well equipped, seeking the hoards of riches that they fondly believe they will some day find.

Perhaps they will.

***

Love that part about the coins being found on a skeleton, an earlier castaway on the island.

I'm uncertain if the mention at the end of Cocos Island or Beneto Bonito is meant to be part of this story.  I doubt it, but would certainly agree with the final two sentences: But, despite failure, year after year men go forth, secretly and well equipped, seeking the hoards of riches that they fondly believe they will some day find.

Perhaps they will.  

AARGH!

May you enjoy tales of pirates and treasure and. . . September the 19th when you, too, can join in  International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

If you find yourself at a loss for sufficient pirate commentary, batten down the hatches and go to "40 useful pirate phrases for international talk like a pirate day"

*********** 

This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.  

At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience.  Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week.  This is a return to my regular posting of a research project here.  (Don't worry, this isn't dry research, my research is always geared towards future storytelling to an audience.)  Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my other postings as often as I can manage it.

Other Public Domain story resources I recommend-

• There are many online resources for Public Domain stories, maybe none for folklore is as ambitious as fellow storyteller, Yoel Perez's database, Yashpeh, the International Folktales Collection.  I have long recommended it and continue to do so.  He has loaded Stith Thompson's Motif Index into his server as a database so you can search the whole 6 volumes for whatever word or expression you like by pressing one key. http://folkmasa.org/motiv/motif.htm

• You may have noticed I'm no longer certain Dr. Perez has the largest database, although his offering the Motif Index certainly qualifies for those of us seeking specific types of stories.  There's another site, FairyTalez claiming to be the largest, with "over 2000 fairy tales, folktales, and fables" and they are "fully optimized for phones, tablets, and PCs", free and presented without ads.
  Between those two sites, there is much for story-lovers, but as they say in infomercials, "Wait, there's more!"

The email list for storytellers, Storytell, discussed Online Story Sources and came up with these additional suggestions:        

         - David K. Brown - http://people.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/stories.html

         - Karen Chace - http://karenchace.blogspot.com/search?q=public+domain

         - Richard Martin - http://www.tellatale.eu/tales_page.html

         - Spirit of Trees - http://spiritoftrees.org/featured-folktales

         - Story-Lovers - http://www.story-lovers.com/ is now only accessible through the Wayback Machine, described below, but the late Jackie Baldwin's wonderful site lives on there, fully searchable manually (the Google search doesn't work), at https://archive.org/ .  It's not easy, but go to Story-lovers.com snapshot for December 22 2016  and you can click on SOS: Searching Out Stories to scroll down through the many story topics and click on the story topic that interests you.

       - Tim Sheppard - http://www.timsheppard.co.uk/story/storylinks.html

       - World of Tales - http://www.worldoftales.com/ 

 
           - Zalka Csenge Virag - http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com doesn't give the actual stories, but her recommendations, working her way through each country on a continent, give excellent ideas for finding new books and stories to love and tell.

     
You're going to find many of the links on these sites have gone down, BUT go to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to find some of these old links.  Tim's site, for example, is so huge probably updating it would be a full-time job.  In the case of Story-Lovers, it's great that Jackie Baldwin set it up to stay online as long as it did after she could no longer maintain it.  Possibly searches maintained it.  Unfortunately Storytell list member, Papa Joe is on both Tim Sheppard's site and Story-Lovers, but he no longer maintains his old Papa Joe's Traveling Storytelling Show website and his Library (something you want to see!) is now only on the Wayback Machine.  It took some patience working back through claims of snapshots but finally in December of 2006 it appears!

Somebody as of this writing whose stories can still be found by his website is the late Chuck Larkin - http://chucklarkin.com/stories.html.  I prefer to list these sites by their complete address so they can be found by the Wayback Machine, a.k.a. Archive.org, when that becomes the only way to find them.

You can see why I recommend these to you. 

Have fun discovering even more stories

Beecher - Coming and Going - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

Southeastern Michigan has been what I call "the garden spot of the U.S." this year.  We've barely touched the 90s until this past week.  (I recall starting school in St. Louis -- Missouri, not Michigan -- as summer took its last attack on students stuck in classrooms with the original air conditioning . . . open windows!)  Detroit and Pontiac have shortened school days and Southfield has canceled classes while they work on their air conditioning.  A few days using fans is as close as I've come to wanting air conditioning this summer.  Air conditioning always makes adjusting to the real temperatures outside difficult and, after a time, isn't even comfortable.  Obviously the rest of the country has been a whole different story.

Those 90s this week are about to disappear as we return to our 60s and 70s.  That and seeing a flock of Canadian Geese on our lawn gave me hope that autumn in Michigan is indeed about to start.  

Trees turning colors were hopeful signs, but it's reassuring to know a biological clock in a dozen birds says they need to start their long journey to places with different temperatures.

I'm no real lover of winter, but all the talk of Climate Change makes this seasonal activity beyond the control of humans worth noting.

Just two weeks ago I posted a story from The Topaz Story Book by the Skinner sisters.  The long subtitle for that book is "Stories and Legends of Autumn, Hallowe’en, and Thanksgiving", so it's still worth your checking for months to come.  Back on September 29, 2018 I printed the Henry Ward Beecher story of "The Anxious Leaf" also from The Topaz Story Book.  Today I want to give another brief tale of his that migrating Canadian "Honkers" makes me appreciate.  Geese are certainly not songbirds like in this story, but they, too, leave Michigan for warmer weather.

COMING AND GOING

Henry Ward Beecher

There came to our fields a pair of birds that had never built a nest nor seen a winter. How beautiful was everything! The fields were full of flowers, and the grass was growing tall, and the bees were humming everywhere. Then one of the birds began singing, and the other bird said, “Who told you to sing?” And he answered, “The flowers told me, and the bees told me, and the winds and leaves told me, and the blue sky told me, and you told me to sing.” Then his mate answered, “When did I tell you to sing?” And he said, “Every time you brought in tender grass for the nest, and every time your soft wings fluttered off again for hair and feathers to line the nest.” Then his mate said, “What are you singing about?” And he answered, “I am singing about everything and nothing. It is because I am so happy that I sing.”

By and by five little speckled eggs were in the nest, and his mate said, “Is there anything in all the world as pretty as my eggs?” Then they both looked down on some people that were passing by and pitied them because they were not birds.

In a week or two, one day, when the father-bird came home, the mother-bird said, “Oh, what do you think has happened?” “What?” “One of my eggs has been peeping and moving!” Pretty soon another egg moved under her feathers, and then another and another, till five little birds were hatched! Now the father-bird sang louder and louder than ever. The mother-bird, too, wanted to sing, but she had no time, and so she turned her song into work. So hungry were these little birds that it kept both parents busy feeding them. Away each one flew. The moment the little birds heard their wings fluttering among the leaves, five yellow mouths flew open wide, so that nothing could be seen but five yellow mouths!

“Can anybody be happier?” said the father-bird to the mother-bird. “We will live in this tree always, for there is no sorrow here. It is a tree that always bears joy.”

Soon the little birds were big enough to fly, and great was their parents’ joy to see them leave the nest and sit crumpled up upon the branches. There was then a great time! The two old birds talking and chatting to make the young ones go alone! In a little time they had learned to use their wings, and they flew away and away, and found their own food, and built their own nests, and sang their own songs of joy.

Then the old birds sat silent and looked at each other, until the mother-bird said, “Why don’t you sing?” And he answered, “I can’t sing—I can only think and think.” “What are you thinking of?” “I am thinking how everything changes: the leaves are falling off from this tree, and soon there will be no roof over our heads; the flowers are all going; last night there was a frost; almost all the birds are flown away. Something calls me, and I feel as if I would like to fly far away.”

“Let us fly away together!”

Then they rose silently, and, lifting themselves far up in the air, they looked to the north: far away they saw the snow coming. They looked to the south: there they saw flowers and green leaves! All day they flew; and all night they flew and flew, till they found a land where there was no winter—where flowers always blossom, and birds always sing.

***

Far away that snow is indeed coming.  All too soon I'll be looking forward to it ending, but for now I'll think of this story while hiking with my dog, seeing migrating geese and hearing the last songs of birds. 

**************************

This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.  

At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience.  Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week.  This is a return to my regular posting of a research project here.  (Don't worry, this isn't dry research, my research is always geared towards future storytelling to an audience.)  Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my other postings as often as I can manage it.

Other Public Domain story resources I recommend-

• There are many online resources for Public Domain stories, maybe none for folklore is as ambitious as fellow storyteller, Yoel Perez's database, Yashpeh, the International Folktales Collection.  I have long recommended it and continue to do so.  He has loaded Stith Thompson's Motif Index into his server as a database so you can search the whole 6 volumes for whatever word or expression you like by pressing one key. http://folkmasa.org/motiv/motif.htm

• You may have noticed I'm no longer certain Dr. Perez has the largest database, although his offering the Motif Index certainly qualifies for those of us seeking specific types of stories.  There's another site, FairyTalez claiming to be the largest, with "over 2000 fairy tales, folktales, and fables" and they are "fully optimized for phones, tablets, and PCs", free and presented without ads.
  Between those two sites, there is much for story-lovers, but as they say in infomercials, "Wait, there's more!"

The email list for storytellers, Storytell, discussed Online Story Sources and came up with these additional suggestions:        

         - David K. Brown - http://people.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/stories.html

         - Karen Chace - http://karenchace.blogspot.com/search?q=public+domain

         - Richard Martin - http://www.tellatale.eu/tales_page.html

         - Spirit of Trees - http://spiritoftrees.org/featured-folktales

         - Story-Lovers - http://www.story-lovers.com/ is now only accessible through the Wayback Machine, described below, but the late Jackie Baldwin's wonderful site lives on there, fully searchable manually (the Google search doesn't work), at https://archive.org/ .  It's not easy, but go to Story-lovers.com snapshot for December 22 2016  and you can click on SOS: Searching Out Stories to scroll down through the many story topics and click on the story topic that interests you.

       - Tim Sheppard - http://www.timsheppard.co.uk/story/storylinks.html

       - World of Tales - http://www.worldoftales.com/ 

 
           - Zalka Csenge Virag - http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com doesn't give the actual stories, but her recommendations, working her way through each country on a continent, give excellent ideas for finding new books and stories to love and tell.

     
You're going to find many of the links on these sites have gone down, BUT go to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to find some of these old links.  Tim's site, for example, is so huge probably updating it would be a full-time job.  In the case of Story-Lovers, it's great that Jackie Baldwin set it up to stay online as long as it did after she could no longer maintain it.  Possibly searches maintained it.  Unfortunately Storytell list member, Papa Joe is on both Tim Sheppard's site and Story-Lovers, but he no longer maintains his old Papa Joe's Traveling Storytelling Show website and his Library (something you want to see!) is now only on the Wayback Machine.  It took some patience working back through claims of snapshots but finally in December of 2006 it appears!

Somebody as of this writing whose stories can still be found by his website is the late Chuck Larkin - http://chucklarkin.com/stories.html.  I prefer to list these sites by their complete address so they can be found by the Wayback Machine, a.k.a. Archive.org, when that becomes the only way to find them.

You can see why I recommend these to you. 

Have fun discovering even more stories

Mail bombing and a look back at "How the Good Gifts Were Used by Two"

As a storyteller I must have my contact information, including my email address, in many places all over the internet.  Unfortunately someone has taken it and managed to "mail bomb" me with thousands of emails from all over the world.  At the same time, and possibly inter-related to keep me occupied, my financial identity has been hacked.  To say I feel swamped is an understatement.  The story of "How the Good Gifts Were Used by Two" popped into my head without realizing I had presented it here back on April the 14th, 2018.

It's a wonderful story taking the old idea of saints returning to earth and the consequences.  It shows what should happen to those offering hospitality and those who don't.  It's no wonder it popped into my mind in this instance as both those with good intentions and those who are selfish wind up doing an activity all day long.  It would be worth going to Project Gutenberg for the entire book of The Wonder Clock.  The subtitle says it is "Four & twenty marvelous tales, being one for each hour of the day."  The stories are indeed marvelous, as are Pyle's sly illustrations.

I'm currently trying to find a way to resolve both of my issues, but hope you can understand if something gets lost in my email at this time.

Ewald - The Weeds - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

There's a tree near my home that always gives the first warning that summer is leaving.  It has turned into a fiery scarlet, now being joined by other trees starting to show a bit of color.  I believe it has something to do with the amount of sugar in its sap, the moisture hitting it from dew, and maybe its position on the road.  The many oaks here in Oakland County don't make the gorgeous autumns of some areas, so these glimpses of autumnal color are appreciated.

What is not appreciated are the "weeds" getting ready for the cold winter.  Taking my dog on hikes can often have an after-hike activity...removing burrs!  Do an online search for burrs and find it sometimes with one "r" and often with two, but always about how to remove them from clothing and dog fur.

The Burdock is a frequent and fairly obvious pest.  Healthbenefitstimes.com assures us it has both health and nutritional values, but I'm not a fan.  Let a naturalist sing their praises, my dog and I just want to leave them alone.  

My real puzzle is the tiny burrs.  What do they look like before becoming persistent little burrs?  I love wildflowers, so I'd really like to know if they are something I enjoy before they become invaders on clothing and fur.  They are sneaky enough that you often don't spot them, unlike burdock, until it's too late.

Autumn nearing means it's time to take out The Topaz Story Book anthology, subtitled "Stories and Legends of Autumn, Hallowe'en, and Thanksgiving" by the Skinner sisters, Ada and Eleanor.  In there I found a story and a half (one is barely big enough to be a full story) about "weeds" entering this time of year.

The main story is by turn-of-the-previous-century Danish author, Carl Ewald.  He's little known and appreciated these days, but I recommend going to Project Gutenberg for his books translated into English (mainly by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos), including the lovely source of today's story, "The Weeds" in The Old Willow Tree, and Other Stories, which includes charming drawings by Helen M. Jacobs and G.E. Lee.  I'm giving the version in The Topaz Story Book as it's a bit simplified and closer to telling.  My suggestion in retelling it is to change to plants in your own locality as some are wild plants in the author's Denmark. (Here in the United States wheat also is more likely than rye for the farmer's crop.)  Definitely keep the personification of the Breeze and various "Weeds."

Illustration by Helen M. Jacobs and G.E. Lee

 

THE WEEDS

Carl Ewald

It was a beautiful, fruitful season. Rain and sunshine came by turns just as it was best for the corn. As soon as ever the farmer began to think that things were rather dry, you might depend upon it that next day it would rain. And when he thought that he had had rain enough, the clouds broke at once, just as if they were under his command.
So the farmer was in good humour, and he did not grumble as he usually does. He looked pleased and cheerful as he walked over the field with his two boys.
“It will be a splendid harvest this year,” he said. “I shall have my barns full, and shall make a pretty penny. And then Jack and Will shall have some new trousers, and I’ll let them come with me to market.”
“If you don’t cut me soon, farmer, I shall sprawl on the ground,” said the rye, and she bowed her heavy ear quite down towards the earth.
The farmer could not hear her talking, but he could see what was in her mind, and so he went home to fetch his scythe.
“It is a good thing to be in the service of man,” said the rye. “I can be quite sure that all my grain will be cared for. Most of it will go to the mill: not that that proceeding is so very enjoyable, but it will be made into beautiful new bread, and one must put up with something for the sake of honour. The rest the farmer will save, and sow next year in his field.”
At the side of the field, along the hedge, and the bank above the ditch, stood the weeds. There were dense clumps of them—thistle and burdock, poppy and harebell, and dandelion; and all their heads were full of seed. It had been a fruitful year for them also, for the sun shines and the rain falls just as much on the poor weed as on the rich corn.
“No one comes and mows us down and carries us to a barn,” said the dandelion, and he shook his head, but very cautiously, so that the seeds should not fall before their time. “But what will become of all our children?”
“It gives me a headache to think of it,” said the poppy. “Here I stand with hundreds and hundreds of seeds in my head, and I haven’t the faintest idea where I shall drop them.”
“Let us ask the rye to advise us,” answered the burdock.
And so they asked the rye what they should do.
“When one is well off, one had better not meddle with other people’s business,” answered the rye. “I will give you only one piece of advice: take care you don’t throw your stupid seed on to the field, for then you will have to settle accounts with me.”
This advice did not help the wild flowers at all, and the whole day they stood pondering what they should do. When the sun set they shut up their petals and went to sleep; but the whole night through they were dreaming about their seed, and next morning they had found a plan.
The poppy was the first to wake. She cautiously opened some little trap-doors at the top of her head, so that the sun could shine right in on the seeds. Then she called to the morning breeze, who was running and playing along the hedge.
“Little breeze,” she said, in friendly tones, “will you do me a service?”
“Yes, indeed,” said the breeze. “I shall be glad to have something to do.”
“It is the merest trifle,” said the poppy. “All I want of you is to give a good shake to my stalk, so that my seeds may fly out of the trap-doors.”
“All right,” said the breeze.
And the seeds flew out in all directions. The stalk snapped, it is true; but the poppy did not mind about that.
“Good-bye,” said the breeze, and would have run on farther.
“Wait a moment,” said the poppy. “Promise me first that you will not tell the others, else they might get hold of the same idea, and then there would be less room for my seeds.”
“I am mute as the grave,” answered the breeze, running off.
“Ho! ho!” said the harebell. “Haven’t you time to do me a little, tiny service?”
“Well,” said the breeze, “what is it?”
“I merely wanted to ask you to give me a little shake,” said the harebell. “I have opened some trap-doors in my head, and I should like to have my seed sent a good way off into the world. But you mustn’t tell the others, or else they might think of doing the same thing.”
“Oh! of course not,” said the breeze, laughing. “I shall be as dumb as a stone wall.” And then she gave the flower a good shake and went on her way.
“Little breeze, little breeze,” called the dandelion, “whither away so fast?”
“Is there something the matter with you too?” asked the breeze.
“Nothing at all,” answered the dandelion. “Only I should like a few words with you.”
“Be quick then,” said the breeze, “for I am thinking seriously of lying down and having a rest.”
“You cannot help seeing,” said the dandelion, “what trouble we are in this year to get all our seeds put out in the world; for, of course, one wishes to do what one can for one’s children. What is to happen to the harebell and the poppy and the poor burdock I really don’t know. But the thistle and I have put our heads together, and we have hit on a plan. Only we must have you to help us.”
“That makes four of them,” thought the breeze, and she could not help laughing out loud.
“What are you laughing at?” asked the dandelion. “I saw you whispering just now to the harebell and poppy; but if you breathe a word to them, I won’t tell you anything.”
“Why, of course not,” said the breeze. “I am mute as a fish. What is it you want?”
“We have set up a pretty little umbrella on the top of our seeds. It is the sweetest little plaything imaginable. If you will only blow a little on me, the seeds will fly into the air and fall down wherever you please. Will you do so?”
“Certainly,” said the breeze.
And hush! it went over the thistle and the dandelion and carried all the seeds with it into the cornfield.
The burdock still stood and pondered. Its head was rather thick, and that was why it waited so long. But in the evening a hare leapt over the hedge.
“Hide me! Save me!” he cried. “The farmer’s dog Trusty is after me.”
“You can creep behind the hedge,” said the burdock, “then I will hide you.”
“You don’t look able to do that,” said the hare, “but in time of need one must help oneself as one can.” And so he got in safely behind the hedge.
“Now you may repay me by taking some of my seeds with you over into the cornfield,” said the burdock; and it broke off some of its many heads and fixed them on the hare.
A little later Trusty came trotting up to the hedge.
“Here’s the dog,” whispered the burdock, and with one spring the hare leapt over the hedge and into the rye.
“Haven’t you seen the hare, burdock?” asked Trusty. “I see I have grown too old to go hunting. I am quite blind in one eye, and I have completely lost my scent.”
“Yes, I have seen him,” answered the burdock; “and if you will do me a service, I will show you where he is.”
Trusty agreed, and the burdock fastened some heads on his back, and said to him:
“If you will only rub yourself against the stile there in the cornfield, my seeds will fall off. But you must not look for the hare there, for a little while ago I saw him run into the wood.” Trusty dropped the burrs on the field and trotted to the wood.
“Well, I’ve sent my seeds out in the world all right,” said the burdock, laughing as if much pleased with itself; “but it is impossible to say what will become of the thistle and the dandelion and the harebell and the poppy.”
Spring had come round once more, and the rye stood high already.
“We are pretty well off on the whole,” said the rye plants. “Here we stand in a great company, and not one of us but belongs to our own noble family. And we don’t get in each other’s way in the very least. It is a grand thing to be in the service of man.”
But one fine day a crowd of little poppies, and thistles and dandelions, and burdocks and harebells poked up their heads above ground, all amongst the flourishing rye.
“What does this mean?” asked the rye. “Where in the world are you sprung from?”
And the poppy looked at the harebell and asked: “Where did you come from?”
And the thistle looked at the burdock and asked: “Where in the world have you come from?”
They were all equally astonished, and it was an hour before they had explained. But the rye was the angriest, and when she had heard all about Trusty and the hare and the breeze she grew quite wild.
“Don’t be in such a passion, you green rye,” said the breeze, who had been lying behind the hedge and hearing everything. “I ask no one’s permission, but do as I like; and now I’m going to make you bow to me.”
Then she passed over the young rye, and the thin blades swayed backwards and forwards.
“You see,” she said, “the farmer attends to his rye, because that is his business. But the rain and the sun and I—we attend to all of you without respect of persons. To our eyes the poor weed is just as pretty as the rich corn.”
(Abridged.)

***I promised a short tale, too, about Weeds from The Topaz Story Book and no source is given.

THE LITTLE WEED
“You’re nothing but a weed,” said the children in the fall. The little weed hung its head in sorrow. No one seemed to think that a weed was of any use.
By and by the snow came and the cold winds blew. There were many hungry little birds hunting for food.
“Twit! Twit Twee! See! See! See!” sang a merry little bird one cold morning.
“Here is a lovely weed full of nice brown seeds!” And he made a good meal from those seeds that morning. Then three other little birds came to share the feast.
The little weed was so happy that she held her head up straight and tall again.
“That is what I was meant for,” she said. “I am good for something. Four hungry little birds had as many seeds as they wished for their breakfast. Next year I’ll grow as many seeds as I can to feed many more hungry little birds. Good-bye, little birds,” she called out to the little feathery friends. “Come again next year. I’ll have another dinner for you.”
“Good-bye, little weed,” sang the birds. “We have had a fine meal and we thank you very much. You’ll see us again next year. It is so hard to get enough to eat during the cold weather, and we are grateful to you for holding your seeds for us.”
“It’s nice to find that one is of some use after all, isn’t it?” called out the little weed to her neighbour in the next field.
—Selected.

***Happy telling and hiking among the "weeds."  If the definition of a weed is something that grows where you don't want it, I find grass sneaking into garden areas a frustrating weed.  (As for those of you thinking about a different kind of "weed" legal in some areas and not in others. . . "that's a whole 'nother story.")

Chandler - Why the Bat Is Blind - Keeping the Public In Public Domain

Today's blog also could be called "Going Batty."

A group where I enjoy telling asked me to return with some more "spooky, but not too scary tales."  They always end their sessions with extra time to make a craft.  There are lots of crafts for bats.  You might start, as I did, with https://www.redtedart.com/bat-crafts-kids/.  I know this group loves individualizing whatever it makes and there are plenty of possibilities there.  I don't want to give away which craft I plan to offer at this point, but what you might choose is up to you.

When I went looking for bat stories in the public domain I found Katherine Chandler's 1905 book of varied pourquois tales, In the Reign of Coyote.  She retold stories from the Pacific Coast of the U.S.  This is a story from California's Native Americans found in papers by Albert Samuel Gatschet in The United States Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region Contributions to North American Ethnology. 

 The word "pitch" is critical to the story and I suspect most of my listeners won't be familiar with it.  It has many meanings (see https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pitch) and while tar might seem the most common as it's used in the story, in thinking about how this is a story with all animal characters, I will use the word and then say Lizard used the sap or resin from a nearby pine tree.  It's one of the definitions and seems the most logical.

 

That might not seem to fit the "spooky, but not too scary tales" requirement, but I plan to follow it up with a story of "The Bloody Vampire."  Colleague and friend, Richard Martin has it on his website -- which is jam-packed with material. 

It's only 2 minutes long & Richard tells it with great style!

As Richard points out, it's " A great tale, and not just for Hallowe’en: it makes a good encore at any time"

Richard beyond his website mentioned his source: an anonymous 11-year old.  Stories traveling is called folklore and this little tale is a perfect example.

Whenever I do a "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" story I always add on a standard list of resources.  You will find Richard is indeed among them. 

****************

This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.  

At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience.  Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week.  This is a return to my regular posting of a research project here.  (Don't worry, this isn't dry research, my research is always geared towards future storytelling to an audience.)  Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my other postings as often as I can manage it.

Other Public Domain story resources I recommend-

• There are many online resources for Public Domain stories, maybe none for folklore is as ambitious as fellow storyteller, Yoel Perez's database, Yashpeh, the International Folktales Collection.  I have long recommended it and continue to do so.  He has loaded Stith Thompson's Motif Index into his server as a database so you can search the whole 6 volumes for whatever word or expression you like by pressing one key. http://folkmasa.org/motiv/motif.htm

• You may have noticed I'm no longer certain Dr. Perez has the largest database, although his offering the Motif Index certainly qualifies for those of us seeking specific types of stories.  There's another site, FairyTalez claiming to be the largest, with "over 2000 fairy tales, folktales, and fables" and they are "fully optimized for phones, tablets, and PCs", free and presented without ads.
  Between those two sites, there is much for story-lovers, but as they say in infomercials, "Wait, there's more!"

The email list for storytellers, Storytell, discussed Online Story Sources and came up with these additional suggestions:        

         - David K. Brown - http://people.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/stories.html

         - Karen Chace - http://karenchace.blogspot.com/search?q=public+domain

         - Richard Martin - http://www.tellatale.eu/tales_page.html

         - Spirit of Trees - http://spiritoftrees.org/featured-folktales

         - Story-Lovers - http://www.story-lovers.com/ is now only accessible through the Wayback Machine, described below, but the late Jackie Baldwin's wonderful site lives on there, fully searchable manually (the Google search doesn't work), at https://archive.org/ .  It's not easy, but go to Story-lovers.com snapshot for December 22 2016  and you can click on SOS: Searching Out Stories to scroll down through the many story topics and click on the story topic that interests you.

       - Tim Sheppard - http://www.timsheppard.co.uk/story/storylinks.html

       - World of Tales - http://www.worldoftales.com/ 

 
           - Zalka Csenge Virag - http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com doesn't give the actual stories, but her recommendations, working her way through each country on a continent, give excellent ideas for finding new books and stories to love and tell.

     
You're going to find many of the links on these sites have gone down, BUT go to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to find some of these old links.  Tim's site, for example, is so huge probably updating it would be a full-time job.  In the case of Story-Lovers, it's great that Jackie Baldwin set it up to stay online as long as it did after she could no longer maintain it.  Possibly searches maintained it.  Unfortunately Storytell list member, Papa Joe is on both Tim Sheppard's site and Story-Lovers, but he no longer maintains his old Papa Joe's Traveling Storytelling Show website and his Library (something you want to see!) is now only on the Wayback Machine.  It took some patience working back through claims of snapshots but finally in December of 2006 it appears!

Somebody as of this writing whose stories can still be found by his website is the late Chuck Larkin - http://chucklarkin.com/stories.html.  I prefer to list these sites by their complete address so they can be found by the Wayback Machine, a.k.a. Archive.org, when that becomes the only way to find them.

You can see why I recommend these to you. 

Have fun discovering even more stories

An Email Conversation on Memorization and Storytelling

 

Fellow storyteller, Priscilla Howe, has a blog called More Storytelling Notes and her article "On Storytelling and Memorization" sparked an online conversation between the two of us.  First go to that link and then think a bit about it.  This is what I emailed her: 

Oh I definitely agree!  I've seen some of those who memorize get hopelessly stuck.  At the same time, my years of storytelling this way has caused me HUGE difficulties when I started to return to my background of theatre.  I'm doing it as a mental discipline while pampering my inner ham. I also prefer supporting roles to avoid letting my fellow actors down if I can't regurgitate it 100%.  (My theatre training said you should listen to your colleagues, but I find some -- if they were storytellers they'd definitely memorize! -- expect that 100%.)

I believe in storytelling.  It's alive and adapts to its audience.  At the same time I know there were some societies, like the Druids, who believed in memorization to guarantee passing a story unchanged through the ages.

At the same time I'm finding some of historical storytelling needs me cheating a bit to guarantee (a) getting all the topic into the presentation and (b) getting facts presented accurately.

I'd love a way for you to "guest" on my blog on this topic, Priscilla. 

I was never paid for my memorization (maybe I'd have grown to love it), but my mom, too, loved to spout bits from her own memory including that RLS couplet.  I'm still trying to figure out what in her youth prompted her to exclaim with delight "the old man spilled his bag of gold!" upon seeing a lawn scattered with dandelions.  I'm attaching a poem from Annette Wynne's For Days and Days; A Year-Round Treasury of Child Verse.  It was published in 1919, so it would have been a recent book when she was in grade school.  Still that ending couplet of "Miser, miser, here's God's gold, Gather some before you're old!" seems to have problems with being both memorable enough AND it's about gathering, not spilling.

LoiS(earching & wishing I'd asked her to say more)

This was that poem (with a bonus poem on the same first page):

To which she responded:

Thanks for the comments, and for the poem. My mother had vast quantities of poetry floating around in her brain, but it was not always accurate.

On a totally different note, she would sing "Wilberforce, get off your horse, and bring him in to lunch!" but no other verses. Do you know that song? There are SO many things I wish I could ask my mother now.

I've been doing a presentation for Humanities Kansas that is about 3/4 storytelling and 1/4 lecture. For that, I do use notes. Facts don't stick in my head as well as stories do. I think that's why I don't do many historical pieces. When I tell a story I wrote about the Siege of Leningrad, I always have to go over and over the specific facts, and still wonder if I've bungled them.

I'd be happy to be a guest blogger. Do you want to use this Substack post, or something new?

Be well!

Priscilla

Learn about my programs, recordings and calendar on my website. You can also read my blog and sign up for my Substack newsletter there. You'll find lots of videos on my youtube channel.

Our conversation continued 

Oh, Priscilla, I know exactly what you mean about wishing you could talk to your mother yet again.  Where's a true time machine that would permit that?  As storytellers we do the best we can, but always know it's imperfect.

I definitely agree that I, too, need ways to see notes relating to facts.  I've found ways to do it as a reporter in my Prohibition program and as a school teacher in my One Room School program.  My WWI Hello Girl program, because I have the audience hold up photos (also in the Prohibition program) has me look at notes.  My Underground Railroad/Civil War program has me study beforehand like a spy learning a cover story!  I'm getting my plans together for a woman who led a Minute Women's group and can't think of a way to "cheat."  Spy style learning will probably have to return & that's so tough.  I think it's on a par with what you say about your Siege of Leningrad story.

I've been thinking about how we can do this.  My blog has stayed print rather than podcast, but it can always take a link and embed it.  That's how we could use your Substack post, by printing the article, mentioning it's followed by the minute-long Jabberwocky and giving a plug to your Substack blog.  Beyond that I guess it's my comments and yours from these emails.  I'd love to find a way to break them up more like a conversation, but I guess calling it An Email Conversation On Storytelling and Memorization is the best we can do.  Brief intro to your post then our emailed reactions.

Your further thoughts on this?  You ask about "something new" and admit I'm open to it, but this is where my head sees it currently.

LoiS<MILE> & well wishes your way, too

Oh, Priscilla, I know exactly what you mean about wishing you could talk to your mother yet again.  Where's a true time machine that would permit that?  As storytellers we do the best we can, but always know it's imperfect.

I definitely agree that I, too, need ways to see notes relating to facts.  I've found ways to do it as a reporter in my Prohibition program and as a school teacher in my One Room School program.  My WWI Hello Girl program, because I have the audience hold up photos (also in the Prohibition program) has me look at notes.  My Underground Railroad/Civil War program has me study beforehand like a spy learning a cover story!  I'm getting my plans together for a woman who led a Minute Women's group and can't think of a way to "cheat."  Spy style learning will probably have to return & that's so tough.  I think it's on a par with what you say about your Siege of Leningrad story.

Your further thoughts on this?  You ask about "something new" and admit I'm open to it, but this is where my head sees it currently.

LoiS<MILE> & well wishes your way, too

Priscilla:

Oh, yes, the spy cover story! In fact, my uncle wrote backstories for German spies who had been "turned" by the Americans, and who were being sent back into Germany. He wrote a novel about his experiences, Call it treason, which was made into the movie Decision before dawn. I've been thinking about telling his story, and the story of a cousin on the other side of the family who was in the French resistance in WWII (caught, almost hanged, saved at the last moment!), and my great-aunt and great-uncle who were in WWI (one a nurse and the other a pilot). One of these days...And of course, the pressure to keep to facts is intense. 

Here are a few more points:

Though I don't memorize, when I've told the same story hundreds of times, it tends to come out almost the same every time.

One of the benefits of not memorizing is that I can personalize it to the audience or location. For example I mention the local co-op when I tell The ghost with the one black eye (a story I heard from my good friend Mike Rundle, who worked at said co-op for decades).

Maybe we could ask readers if they memorize, and if they do, what they prefer about that way.

Just mullling.

Priscilla

Lois: 

Some great history lurking in your past!

Talking about expanding the conversation, telling often on a story (as opposed to those factual tales) I find tends to simplification a la the great story synthesizer, Pleasant DeSpain.

As for personalizing (singing:) Aaaa-men, AMEN! AMEN.  I dearly love it's freedom to match the audience and also incorporate things happening which would be a distraction if using memorization.

The audience response is worthwhile, giving another viewpoint.  I confess it's no longer for me after finding the benefits of telling.  To my mind it's a straitjacket or a support that can't be trusted.

LoiS(melling the mulled thoughts & like mulled cider, I like it)

********

So this is where we ask for reactions.  Do you memorize?  Why do you prefer memorization?

This blog offers some limited options to reply here.  I also mention it each week on Facebook and will be posting about it on Storytell, the email list for storytellers.