Esenwein and Stockard - The Woodman and the Goblins - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

Have you ever heard of Goblin Eggs?  I hadn't.  In searching to learn more I find they can be many things.  Pumpkins, hand-sized gourds, deviled eggs, or an element in the mini-game SkyBlock -- which I really don't understand, but those are so pixelated that they look like something out of Minecraft.  

The idea of such a thing, however, captivated me in a Scottish story about a woodman finding and raising baby goblins.  The closest I came to an illustration was this picture at one time, but no longer, sold on Etsy.com.  I would gladly credit the artist, but the signature isn't helpful enough to be an identifier.  My apologies as it's delightful and fits the story quite well. 

While I'm apologizing, I'm sorry downloading left two different sizes.  My own copy, found in Wilhelmina Harper's Ghosts and Goblins, has a binding making copying impossible.  It also has a delightful illustration of the poor woodman and his goblins hatching out of their eggs.  The book has another ten years before it enters Public Domain, so the illustration is not available unless you borrow or buy the 1936 edition of the book.  The revised edition in 1965 has William Wiesner's illustrations instead.  His illustrations of the goblins don't have the eggs nor the woodman.  You might enjoy comparing them IF you can locate both.

The previous century had a wealth of books on storytelling right around the turn of that century.  They are also good sources of tales that tell well.  In 1917 Joseph Berg Esenwein and Marietta Stockard published Children's Stories and How to Tell Them.  The first part is the "how to tell" and, after the basics, includes chapters on Inventing Stories from Pictures; Adapting Stories from Great Sources; Telling Original Stories; Helping Children to Invent Stories.  The 50 actual stories are categorized into nine chapters.  The book ends with an additional dozen pages of further resource lists and even an index.  There are two ways to read the book, online at Archive.org or a free download from Google Books.

I second the editors' review of it having "just enough of the supernatural element" and agree "It is a pure fun-story of a high order."  The "pictures" in the collection by Esenwein and Stockard are all in the mind of the teller and the audience. . . that includes YOU!

So if you ever find some very large eggs laying unattended, leave them alone!  It's probably a Trick and, except for this story, a doubtful Treat.

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

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 October 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

Danielson - A Legend of the Golden-Rod - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

The work of Ada and Eleanor Skinner have been represented here before.  Sometimes it has been their original work or stories they adapted.  This is especially true because of their anthologies for each of the seasons.  Autumn stories and poems are gathered in The Topaz Story Book.  The subtitle says why now it is worth returning to and prowling for "Stories and Legends of Autumn, Halloween, and Thanksgiving."  I'm not always certain how authentic the "legends" may be, but they do give us a chance to think about how something came to be.  Such stories are called "Pourquis" tales, from the French word for "Why."  As frost starts to kill off flowers it's no wonder the few remaining catch our attention.  So it is with the Goldenrod.  Fields with asters and goldenrod take our eyes off the changing leaves both in the trees and on the ground.  Topaz has two short poems and two stories about this plant.  Like the plants, let us enjoy it while it lasts.

 

Photo by Isabella and Zsa Fischer on Unsplash.com

BY THE WAYSIDE

On the hill the golden-rod,  

And the aster in the wood,  

And the yellow sunflower by the brook, 

In autumn beauty stood.  

                 William Cullen Bryant.

 

Just as that poem mentions both goldenrod and aster, one of the two stories is about both.  This story is about the goldenrod alone. 

A LEGEND OF THE GOLDEN-ROD

Frances Weld Danielson

(From “Story-Telling Time.” Used by permission of Pilgrims Press.)

Once there were a great many weeds in a field. They were very ugly-looking weeds, and they didn’t seem to be the least bit of use in the world. The cows would not eat them, the children would not pick them, and even the bugs did not seem to like them very well.

“I don’t see what we’re here for,” said one of the weeds. “We are not any good.”

“No good at all,” growled a dozen little weeds, “only to catch dust.”

“Well, if that’s what we’re here for,” cried a very tall weed, “then I say let’s catch dust! I suppose somebody’s got to do it. We can’t all bear blueberries or blossom into hollyhocks.”

“But it isn’t pleasant work at all,” whined a tiny bit of a weed.

“No whining allowed in this field,” laughed a funny little fat weed, with a hump in his stalk. “We’re all going to catch dust, so let’s see which one can catch the most. What do you say to a race?”

The little fat weed spoke in such a jolly voice that the weeds all cheered up at once, and before long they were as busy as bees, and as happy as Johnnie-jump-ups. They worked so well stretching their stalks and spreading out their fingers that before the summer was half over they were able to take every bit of dust that flew up from the road. In the field beyond, where the clover grew and the cows fed, there was not any to be seen.

One morning, toward the end of summer, the weeds were surprised to see a number of people standing by the fence looking at them. Pretty soon some children came and gazed at them. Then the weeds noticed that people driving by called each other’s attention to them. They were much surprised at this, but they were still more surprised when one day some children climbed the fence and commenced to pick them.

“See,” cried a little girl, “how all the dust has been changed to gold!”

The weeds looked at each other, and, sure enough, they were all covered with gold-dust.

“A fairy has done it,” they whispered one to the other.

But the fairies were there on the spot, and declared they had had nothing to do with it.

“You did it yourselves,” cried the queen of the fairies. “You were happy in your work, and a cheerful spirit always changes dust into gold. Didn’t you know it?”

“You’re not weeds any more, you’re flowers,” sang the fairies.

“Golden-rod, golden-rod!” shouted the children.

***

According to Find-A-Grave.com Frances Weld Danielson was "an acclaimed writer of children's books" and it lists some of her early 20th century work.  Her publisher, The Pilgrim Press, is "North America's oldest English language publishing tradition" going back to "the Bay Psalm Book produced in 1640 by the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay Colony."  Certainly Danielson's story and its publisher deserve their place in the Public Domain.

The following Goldenrod poem is attributed to Anna E. Skinner.  At first I thought it might be a typo, but the name looks like it might honor Eleanor in its middle initial.  <SIGH!>  The work of the authors in Public Domain don't always tell us much about them.  Their work must speak for them.

Photo by Emily Thompson on Unsplash

GOLDEN-ROD

 

Pretty, slender golden-rod, 

Like a flame of light,  

On the quiet, lonely way,

Glows your torch so bright.

 

With your glorious golden staff,  

Gay in autumn hours,  

Now you lead to wintry rest,  

All the lovely flowers.

Cheering with a joyous face, 

All that pass you by,  

How you light the meadows round,  

With your head so high.  

                 

                Anna E. Skinner.

 

 

As I write this, the ground is starting to be coated by wet snow that the weather report says, as of this weekend, will be replaced by temperatures in the 60s and 70s.  Fortunately Goldenrod will still survive a while longer to brighten our fields!

 

Similarly the stories, poetry, illustrations, and music will survive in Public Domain as long as we continue to pay attention to 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 October 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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lakeview Cemetery Walk and the story of Elizabeth Vliet

I know many reading my articles can't make the Cemetery Walks I do in September and October.  For Oak Hill I've been a guide taking people around to hear the stories of the people buried there.  In Clarkston both last year at the first Cemetery Walk and again this year I have become one of the buried people.  I believe the story of Elizabeth Vliet has a lot worth hearing.  She was a "war widow" and some of my research for her includes information I already knew from my portraying Liberetta Lerich Green, whose two brothers were in the Civil War (I always say there was nothing Civil about that war!) and each lived after being "guests of the Confederacy" at Libby Prison.  (Their lifespan was reduced by what they endured.)

One of the things I love about storytelling is each time is tailored to its audience.  It's rather like a snowflake in that no telling is exactly alike.  It's also why I have chosen to have my stories told to an actual audience rather than just recorded and imagining audience reactions.  Additionally I include as much audience participation as I can.  In this case asking if anyone in the groups knows what being a "guest of the Confederacy" means.  (It gives me a hint of their possible Civil War knowledge.) Similarly I ask if people know what "Decoration Day" is now called.  In this story it's quickly obvious the audience members who know and can relate to what I'm saying about the Civil War.

Here is Elizabeth Vliet's story as I told it (with slight variations not affecting the facts).  You might also go to various genealogy sites, especially Find A Grave. 

Elizabeth Vliet Bower and family

Welcome to my City of the Dead! 

Entrance to Lakeview Cemetery

So many families came here from New York in the 1830s and 40s, around the time of Michigan becoming a state in 1837, that it's no wonder we all know each other. Here in Clarkston we all lived within three blocks of each other.  My big sister, Sarah, and I came across Lake Erie and landed in Detroit, then traveled north to come to Clarkston where we already knew some of the people. She married Jedediah Yager, the town blacksmith, while I earned my way as a dressmaker.  I stayed in touch with our sister, Maggie, back home in New York, especially when she became a war widow.

I, too, am one and don't know who had it worse -- me being left with three small children, Joshua, Helen, and baby Josephine or my sister, Maggie, who later lost her young son.  He was her only child, named after her soldier husband, Florian, who never had a chance to meet him. Yes, it was hard raising my children, but at least they helped me cope with the loss of my husband, Nelson Vliet, but Maggie soon lost everyone. Even in death my children and their families gather here. My youngest, Josephine, and my son, Joshua are right here. A bit further away is my daughter, Helen, who married into the Clark family.

Fortunately Clarkston families all knew and supported each other within our three blocks. I was so relieved that Jedediah came back to my sister, Sarah! There were five Vliet cousins serving along with Nelson. Many people lost family members in the War of Rebellion (there was nothing Civil about that war). Another of Nelson's cousins, Mary, and I both have husbands who are not here. Both were “Guests of the Confederacy” dying in their prisons. Her's was at Libby Prison and my Nelson is buried at Andersonville Prison. This stone with his name on it is called a cenotaph. A cenotaph memorializes someone buried elsewhere.

Cenotaph at Lakeview  

 

 Andersonville Prison Cemetery with 13,714 P.O.W. graves, of which 921 are marked "unknown"

N. Vliet tombstone at Andersonville

I don't like to talk about Andersonville, but maybe it's sufficient to say that after the war the camp commander was tried by a military tribunal for war crimes, found guilty, and hung. Even at that it was a quick death for him unlike the men he held prisoner. It's a miracle anyone lived to walk out of there. When they did, they looked like skeletons. Even then it shortened the lives of the survivors from dysentery. The water you see down there in Cemetery Lake is cleaner than what they had to drink at Andersonville.

But before all of that, and even before I married Nelson, he built our family house that stands near the intersection of Holcomb, just down the street at 11 South Holcomb. He did it with his father “Wiltsie” or Wilson Vliet. 

Nelson was the oldest of nine and the first generation after his parents came from Germany.  Wiltsie was the town cabinet maker and carpenter and would even make you a boat if you needed one! Nelson lived in that house with his first wife, Sarah, and their infant son, Alonzo. Sarah and their baby died in the same year. That happened a lot back then. Some of Clarkston's knowing and supporting each other came naturally since Nelson and I had both lived in the same New York town, Ludlowville. It was no surprise when Nelson and I went back there to get married in front of our relatives a year later.

It was a good start to our family, but too soon the war took him away with the 22d Michigan Volunteer Infantry. He mustered out in Pontiac under the command of former Governor Moses Wisner as their Colonel. Governor Wisner so wanted to take our Oakland County boys to defend the Union and end slavery. Wisner was a known abolitionist and even had his barn burned for championing that too often unpopular position. Wisner, too, didn't survive, but instead died of Typhoid Fever just a month later.

With their being the twenty-second infantry regiment you can see why Lincoln had been so happy with the many volunteer regiments from Michigan.  He was known for saying “Thank God for Michigan!” At first it looked like the 22d would be spared. They were in Kentucky until the spring of '63, then on to Nashville to guard the railroad which carried Union supplies through the summer. Unfortunately in September they were sent to Georgia for the Battle of Chickamauga. (My sister, Sarah's husband, Jedediah Yager, as a blacksmith was at Chickamauga with his Michigan cavalry regiment and will tell you more as you go further on your Cemetery Walk.) We all went down to the Clarkston rail depot to get the Detroit newspapers telling about how the war was going and learn of any casualties.  Chickamauga was the first major defeat for the Union. Only Gettysburg had higher casualties, but the main cause of Union deaths overall during the war was disease and that included my Nelson.

You may notice his grave also has the marker saying G.A.R. That stands for Grand Army of the Republic which after the war is the name for the Union Army veterans. Nelson was part of that army even though he didn't live to march in their reunions.

After the war I was one of many war widows. I supported our little family with my dressmaking. I also took solace in something called Decoration Day which eventually spread all over the country, even the south. We didn't have these paved roads, or even gravel roads from town to here at the time, but every year I gathered flowers and flags and walked down the hill from Clarkston, then up the hill to here, and decorated the ever increasing number of veterans from that war. Then it was down this hill and back up the hill to Clarkston again and home.

But children grow up and start their own lives. Here at the cemetery you passed the pink marble obelisk (they look like a finger pointing up to heaven) near your entrance. It was made for Charles Bower, who came from the same county in New York as I did. He, too, had lost a spouse, his wife. Their's had been a long marriage and we were both alone as our children were finally grown. After two years of talking and sharing our losses, we were ready to share our old age and my big empty home. He was 65 and I was 49. <sigh!> It was only for a year. At 50 I was twice a widow.

Over time my daughters, Helen a bit, but especially Josephine had also become involved in recognizing those who “gave their all.” Josephine even learned to become a dressmaker like me. When I died after still more years as a widow, she continued Decoration Day although it became Memorial Day and, shortly before she died, she passed the ceremony on to the American Legion. On what you call Memorial Day they remember all the veterans here complete with ladies in black dresses putting roses on the graves around the flag pole as part of the presentation.

This is a City of the Dead and here the people of Clarkston continue to know and support each other. I just wish my Nelson could be here instead of at Andersonville. 

***

As you may have noticed last week from the bottom of the poster for the Cemetery Walk it was: Sponsored by the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, Sashabaw Plains Chapter with funds going to the Restoration of Lakeview Cemetery historic gravestones.  

Monthly during warm weather volunteer gravestone cleaning proceeds along with professional assistance from Carter Cemetery Restoration Company.  It was also in May the Eagle Scout project for James Lazur, a Clarkston High School senior. Dave Carter of Carter Cemetery Restoration Company  mentored James and his swim teammates as they learned to restore some of the historic headstones at the cemetery. James brought Scouts, family and friends to the cemetery to wash headstones. He planned, fundraised, and executed his project.

Clarkston Junior High students at the Vliet cenotataph, Elizabeth's grave marker is in the lower left

 

In addition to the professional and monthly volunteer cleaning, Clarkston involvement continues with Clarkston Junior High School students in Mr. Alexander Sennabaum's American History classes coming to Lakeview Cemetery on Tuesday, May 24. They washed headstones in the historic area just to the left of the entrance to the cemetery. As a class project and Service Learning project, the students had researched the early citizens of Clarkston, and especially the Civil War soldiers from Clarkston. They had created a three to five minute video about the life of the early settlers or soldiers. Working with their Technology teacher, Mr. Sennabaum, and Mrs. Rogers, the Academic Service Learning Coordinator, they created a QR code for their video and it is printed on a blue plastic stake that is placed right next to the gravestone. Community members that visit the cemetery can scan the QR code, listen to the students' presentations and learn about the early settlers who founded Clarkston.

This is what you find from the QR code at Nelson Vliet's cenotaph.

Clearly Clarkston continues to know and support each other.

 

 

 

Lakeview Cemetery Walk and Richards - The Silver Crown - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

Hope to see you at this Cemetery Walk and I have a bit of information on why cemeteries are important plus a very brief story.  If you know Clarkston, I will become the owner of the green house at the intersection of Holcomb and Washington.  Elizabeth Vliet's husband was a "Guest of the Confederacy" and died at Andersonville Prison. 

I went looking and found this explanation of why cemeteries are important.  It originated with the Texas Historical Commission and my only changes are changing the state to Michigan because it's certainly true here and wherever you may be.

Importance of Cemeteries

Cemeteries are among the most valuable of historic resources. They are reminders of various settlement patterns, such as villages, rural communities, urban centers, and ghost towns. Cemeteries can reveal information about historic events, religions, lifestyles, and genealogy.

Names on gravemarkers serve as a directory of early residents and reflect the ethnic diversity and unique population of an area. Cultural influence in gravemarker design, cemetery decoration, and landscaping contribute to the complete narrative of Michigan history. Established in large part for the benefit of the living, cemeteries perpetuate the memories of the deceased, giving a place character and definition.

Unfortunately, historic cemeteries do not necessarily remain permanent reminders of our heritage. Across Michigan, they are threatened by development and expanding urban areas, natural forces such as weathering and uncontrolled vegetation, lack of fences to keep cattle from toppling headstones, and vandalism and theft, including removal of headstones and objects. Neglect accelerates and compounds the process.

If not recorded and cared for, these reminders of early settlements could be lost forever.

***

I tend to think of cemeteries as being Cities of the Dead -- rather like Spoon River Anthology, by Edgar Lee Masters and also adapted into a play and similarly the play, Our Town, by Thornton Wilder.  Just think of all the stories in any cemetery!

That started me looking for a story about cemeteries.  I found the title story in The Silver Crown; Another Book of Fables, but was surprised to discover a different Laura E. Richards story about The  Grave Diggers was here back in September 23, 2020 before other cemetery walks.  Richards has the skill to write something just big enough to cover the subject and keep it interesting.

THE SILVER CROWN

"And shall I be a king?" asked the child, "and shall I wear a crown?"

"You shall surely wear a crown," said the Angel, "and a kingdom is waiting for you."

"Oh, joy!" said the child. "But tell me, how will it come about? for now I am only a little child, and the crown would hardly stay on my curls."

"Nay! that I may not tell," said the Angel. "Only ride and run your best, for the way is long to your kingdom, and the time short."

So the child rode and ran his best, crossing hills and valleys, broad streams and foaming torrents. Here and there he saw people at work or at play, and on these he looked eagerly.

"Perhaps, when they see me," he said, "they will run to meet me, and will crown me with a golden crown, and lead me to their palace and throne me there as king!"

But the folk were all busy with their tasks or their sport, and none heeded him, or left their business for him; and still he must fare forward alone, for the Way called him.

Also, he came upon many travellers like himself, some coming toward him, others passing him by. On these, too, he looked earnestly, and would stop now one, now another, and question him.

"Do you know," he asked, "of any kingdom in these parts where the crown is ready and the folk wait for a king?"

Then one would laugh, and another weep, and another jeer, but all alike shook their heads.

"I am seeking crown and kingdom for myself," cried one; "is it likely that I can be finding one for you, too? Each one for himself, and the Way for all!"

Another said: "You seek in vain. There are no crowns, only fools' caps with asses' ears and bells that jingle in them."

But others, and these they who had been longest on the way, only looked on him, some sadly, some kindly, and made no answer; and still he fared onward, for the Way called him.

Now and then he stopped to help some poor soul who had fallen into trouble, and when he did that the way lightened before him, and he felt the heart light within him; but at other times the hurry was strong on him, so that he would turn away his face, and shut his ears to the cries that rang in them; and when he did that, the way darkened, and oftentimes he stumbled himself, and fell into pits and quagmires, and must cry for help, sometimes on those to whom he had refused it.

By and by he forgot about the crown and the kingdom; or if he thought of them, it was but as a far-off dream of dim gold, such as one sees at morning when the sun breaks through the mist. But still he knew that the way was long and the time short, and still he rode and ran his best.

At the last he was very weary, and his feet could carry him no further, when, looking up, he saw that the way came to an end before him, and there was a gate, and one in white sitting by it, who beckoned to him. Trembling, yet glad, the child drew near, and knew the Angel who had spoken to him at the beginning.

"Welcome!" said the Angel, "you come in good time. And what of the Way?"

"I came as fast as I could," said the child, "but many things hindered me, and now I am weary, and can go no further."

"But what did you find on the way?" asked the Angel.

"Oh! I found joy and sorrow," said the child, "good measure of both; but never a crown, such as you promised me, and never a kingdom."

"Oh, dear, foolish child," said the Angel. "You are wearing your crown. It is of purest silver, and shines like white frost; and as for your kingdom, the name of it is Rest, and here the entrance to it."

***

Cemeteries should make us think and want to know the stories there.  May you, too, earn a crown.

******************** 

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 October 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