Before we leave "March is Reading Month" I want to have a bit of fun with the alphabet which our reading needs. Carl Sandburg wrote not one, not two, but three stories about "the Letter X and How It Got into the Alphabet." My favorite of the three is "Pig Wisps."
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| ILLUSTRATION BY MAUD AND MISKA PETERSHAM |
Just as the concept of leaving out the letter X is fanciful, Project Gutenberg describes Rootabaga Pigeons, the book where it appears, as "a whimsical collection of children's stories." It concludes by saying "The stories are rich with imaginative details, capturing the essence of childhood curiosity and the power of storytelling."
Normally I suggest retelling literary stories to make them more tellable, but with a fanciful poet like Sandburg the language is an important part of the fun! (Project Gutenberg has both Rootabaga Pigeons and the earlier Rootabaga Stories.) Both were "Originally created for Sandburg's own daughters", so don't let the whimsy keep you from enjoying it with or without an audience!
Pig Wisps
There was an oyster king far in the south who knew how to open oysters and pick out the pearls.
He grew rich and all kinds of money came rolling in on him because he was a great oyster opener and knew how to pick out the pearls.
The son of this oyster king was named Shovel Ears. And it was hard for him to remember.
“He knows how to open oysters but he forgets to pick out the pearls,” said the father of Shovel Ears.
“He is learning to remember worse and worse and to forget better and better,” said the father of Shovel Ears.
Now in that same place far in the south was a little girl with two braids of hair twisted down her back and a face saying, “Here we come—where from?”
And her mother called her Pig Wisps.
Twice a week Pig Wisps ran to the butcher shop for a soup bone. Before starting she crossed her fingers and then the whole way to the butcher shop kept her fingers crossed.
If she met any playmates and they asked her to stop and play cross-tag or jackstones or all-around-the-mulberry-bush or the-green-grass-grew-all-around or drop-the-handkerchief, she told them, “My fingers are crossed and I am running to the butcher shop for a soup bone.”
One morning running to the butcher shop she bumped into a big queer boy and bumped him flat on the sidewalk.
“Did you look where you were running?” she asked him.
“I forgot again,” said Shovel Ears. “I remember worse and worse. I forget better and better.”
“Cross your fingers like this,” said Pig Wisps, showing him how.
He ran to the butcher shop with her, watching her keep her fingers crossed till the butcher gave her the soup bone.
“After I get it then the soup bone reminds me to go home with it,” she told him. “But until I get the soup bone I keep my fingers crossed.”
Shovel Ears went to his father and began helping his father open oysters. And Shovel Ears kept his fingers crossed to remind him to pick out the pearls.
He picked a hundred buckets of pearls the first day and brought his father the longest slippery, shining rope of pearls ever seen in that oyster country.
“How do you do it?” his father asked.
“It is the crossed fingers—like this,” said Shovel Ears, crossing his fingers like the letter X. “This is the way to remember better and forget worse.”
It was then the oyster king went and told the men who change the alphabets just what happened.
When the men who change the alphabets heard just what happened, they decided to put in a new letter, the letter X, near the end of the alphabet, the sign of the crossed fingers.
On the wedding day of Pig Wisps and Shovel Ears, the men who change the alphabets all came to the wedding, with their fingers crossed.
Pig Wisps and Shovel Ears stood up to be married. They crossed their fingers. They told each other other they would remember their promises.
And Pig Wisps had two ropes of pearls twisted down her back and a sweet young face saying, “Here we come—where from?”
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So did you cross your fingers?
Now just for fun grab a book and try reading it without the letter X!
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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 them.
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.
See the sidebar for other Public Domain story resources I recommend on the page “Public Domain Story Resources."
