Once upon a time, there was a boy named Matt. He was a very normal little boy. He liked to play baseball with his friends and play out in the woods, get his jeans dirty, and stick food in his pockets. And most children, from time to time, will stick food in their pockets when they’re playing outside and don’t want to go home to eat, things like peanuts or raisins. Sometimes they even stick a chocolate bar in there, thinking it was going to stay all summer day. They’d reach in there to get that chocolate and they come out with a handful of goo, but it still tasted good.

Now, there was something peculiar about Matt. He liked to put even food he didn’t like in his pockets. Because when he was out playing, he did not want to go back for a long time. So whatever he had for lunch, he’d roll it up in a ball, stick it in his pocket, and go outside and play. Now, I mean like mashed potatoes, cauliflower, beans, and even a little piece of chicken. Tasted good to him, but his mom didn’t like it any. She said, “Matt, when are you going to learn to stop putting food in your pockets? It’s a terrible mess.” He just looked at his mom and smiled and said, “I don’t know.” He’d go outside to play. I told you he was normal.

But one day, mom got real tired of it. So she got down on her knees and started saying her prayers, that that boy would one day learn not to put food in his pockets. And now every child knows that if a mother starts praying, whatever he’s doing has got to stop. And there’s no way around it because God loves the prayers of mothers. And sure enough, that came to be.

One day, grandma called up and said, “I’d like to take Matt to town so I could buy a birthday present for grandpa and, well, I might buy him something too.” When Matt heard about that, he was all excited and ready when grandma came and they got on the bus. And grandma was saying, “Now, I don’t know what I should get you. Maybe I’ll get you a nice big candy bar.” Matt said, “No, can’t do that. My daddy said I got too many holes in my teeth.” “Oh, well, that’s a good thought. Um, how about if I get you a new toy?” “That’d be nice.” “No, daddy’s been tripping over my toys and he said no more toys till I get rid of some of them.” “Oh, well, that’s a good idea too. But what should I get you?” “I know. I want some new pants with big pockets.” “What a nice grandson you are. Well, asking for clothes, I will do that.”

Well, grandma bought a nice shirt and tie for grandpa for his birthday and she bought the boy a nice new pair of jeans with lots of pockets. He liked them so much, he put them on right then and there. But by that time, they were hungry, so they went to the restaurant where the lady with a striped dress was and grandma ordered hamburgers and french fries and coke. And he was so hungry and thirsty, he ate it all up. But he still had room for more. And that’s when grandma called the lady over and said, “We’d like two hot fudge sundaes, please.” The lady brought over two big hot fudge sundaes. It was mounds and mounds of ice cream and whipped cream on top of that and chocolate sauce dribbled on top of that and a cherry. And he ate and ate and ate and ate but he couldn’t eat it all up. There was just too much.

So when grandma went to pay the bill, he reached into that dish, pulled up that ice cream that was left over and stuck it in his pockets. “I’ll eat it later,” he said. Grandma came and on the way down to the bus stop she spied a pretty dress. “I’ll be right back,” she said, “just stay here with this store lady, she’ll take care of you for a minute,” and she went in to try on a dress. Well, Matt was standing there waiting and waiting and waiting and suddenly he felt something wet and squishy and dribbly going down the side of his leg. Oh, it felt terrible and grandma came out she said, “I liked that dress but it didn’t fit right. Come on, let’s go.” But Matt said, “Grandma, I’m cold and wet.” Grandma said, “Cold and wet, you’re not cold and wet. Oh, I know what you’re doing, you’re playing that just foolin’ game with me. You say something totally peculiar and then I get all worried about it and then you say just foolin’, but today I’m on to you. Come on, we got to get down to that bus.” And he went on down to the bus with grandma.

Well, it took a while for the bus to come and it was real hot outside, about 80 degrees, and I don’t know if you know what happens to 80 degrees and ice cream but it’s usually the ice cream that gets the worst end of the deal. So while Matt was waiting, he was rocking back and forth on his heels and suddenly his feet started to make noises in his shoes, kind of sounded like criss, criss, criss, criss, criss, criss, and he felt awful bad. So he said to grandma, “Grandma, I’m cold and wet.” Grandma said, “Oh, cold and wet, I’ve got you on that, you can’t say you just foolin’ joke to me today. I wonder if I should have a coconut cake or a chocolate cake for grandpa’s party.” Well, that kind of upset Matt. He didn’t say anything more about it even when he got on the bus and sat down and squished all over the seat.

When he got home mama looked at him and said, “Well, did you have a good time today boy?” “Well yeah but I’m cold and wet.” Mama said, “Cold and wet, what do you mean?” Then grandma told her about the just foolin’ joke that he was trying to play and they began to laugh but it wasn’t funny to Matt anymore. In fact, he started to cry, “but I am cold and wet.” Mama felt so bad she reached down and gave him a great big hug and said, “I’m cold and wet now and so are you. What did you do? I think you might be getting into trouble now.” He tried to devise a way not to answer her. So he said, “Well I pushed him to do it.” Mama said, “I didn’t hear you. In this time you have to say it so I do. Just slow it up a bit.” “Well I put ice cream in my dungarees.” Mama said, “That’s enough. You better tell me now or you’re going to be in big trouble.” “Well I put ice cream in my pocket.” Mama started to laugh. Then grandma started to laugh. And very glad he wasn’t in trouble, Matt started to laugh too.

Mama took him into the bathroom, cleaned him up and put some clean clothes on him and then they went into the kitchen where mom had already prepared a fine meal for grandma and them. Papa had come home from dinner and so they were sitting down and enjoying the food. After dinner, Papa went out on the porch to read his paper and grandma and mama had gone out to the back looking at the new plants. And Matt, well he saw a lot of really good leftover food. So he put it in a great big ball, stuffed it in his pocket, and went outside to play. And that’s the end of that story.

Long time ago, there was a little girl named Matsmeg and she was in a whole heap of trouble. She lived in a home with her stepmother and her stepsisters, and none of them liked her. She tried her best to like them, but it did no matter.

Well, that old woman, she started to get sick. She said she might die, so she called in the girls and said to her stepdaughters, “I got that field of cabbage out there for you and this old shack is the only thing I have to leave you. You can eat all the cabbage you want and give some to that girl, Matsmeg, and I’ll meet you on the other side.” Before long, she did pass and those girls, they didn’t know nothing about planting cabbages. They just knew about eating them. So what was there they ate? And they decided that they’d take off and didn’t tell Matsmeg.

Matsmeg heard them whispering; she knew what they were saying. So the next morning, when they were going to take off, she watched them go. And then she ran after them. “Hey, hey, I’m coming! I’m here!” And those girls looked around and said, “Oh yeah, you are.” By the time that she got up to them, they were laughing and jeering. Matsmeg said, “What you laughing about?” “Oh, nothing,” they said. But what they were laughing about was the plan they had to get shed of her.

Up the road a piece, there was an old outhouse that hadn’t been used in a long time. They opened that outhouse door, threw her in, broke off the lock on the inside, and locked it from the outside. Then they went on down the road. “Hey, hey, we’re shed of her!”

Matsmeg used the only thing she knew to get herself out of trouble. “Help! Help! You gotta come and help me now! Oh, this is the stinkiest place and it’s so little, it’s creepy crawlers and I don’t like no creepy crawlers. Help!” All the critters in the woods heard Matsmeg and had a meeting. They said, “Which one of us is going to go and get her out of there?” Fox said, “I’ll do it.”

He came to that outhouse and said, “What’s wrong with you girl?” She said, “Oh, it’s a terrible place, you just gotta get me out of here. If you do, I’ll take you to Farmer Brown’s house and he’s got 12 fat hens. He’ll give you one of them hens and you can have yourself a nice meal. Help me too, please.” Fox said, “Okay,” so he reached up his paw and opened up that lock and Matsmeg came out.

Now Matsmeg, she was a girl of her word so she took that fox right away to Farmer Brown’s and he picked out a nice hen and that fox had himself a nice meal and a much quieter day. Matsmeg, she was taking off after her sisters lickety-split and she saw them and she said, “I’m coming, I’m coming, I’m here.” “I know,” said the girls, “I know. What we gonna do now?”

They fixed up a plan because they were going down the road and saw a big old tree. At the bottom of the tree where the tree root was put into the ground, the ground had fallen away and there was just a big old tree root sticking out with nothing but pure air and about a thousand feet of that pure air till it was down by the road. That was a fine thing. They had brought some rope with them just in case so they got a hold of Matsmeg and tied her up to that tree root. She wasn’t gonna get out of that and they went on down the road just laughing. The thing is, they didn’t tie up her mouth.

“Oh please, you gotta help me, you gotta help me now, you gotta get me out of this, please help me now.” An eagle was flying above and they have perfect hearing. That eagle was very disturbed by that screeching sound and he came down and looked at her and said, “What can I do to get you to shut up?” Matsmeg said, “Well, I got me an idea here and I won’t bother your ears no more if you can help me out. Well, you got them real sharp claws so you can just cut open these ropes and I start to fall and you catch me and put me on the road and I promise from now on I won’t be disturbing you.” Eagle said, “That’s fine with me.”

He ripped open those ropes and she started to fall and he picked her up and put her right on the road and he went soaring and had himself a nice quiet day. Matsmeg, she was running after her sisters, “I’m here, I’m here, I’m coming.” They said, “Oh Lord, you are? What are we gonna do?”

By that time it was about nighttime so they went on into the woods and found a nice place right in the midst of those woods where they could lay down and go to sleep. They did, but they were awakened in the middle of the night by a horse’s snorting and they looked up to see twelve horsemen with arrows pointed right at the girls. They stood up straight and the horsemen said, “We’re the king’s soldiers and no strangers should be here. Normally what the king does is he takes off your head and I’m sure he’ll do that tonight when we bring you by.” They reached and pulled up the girls and took them right before the king.

The king wasn’t feeling too good. “What are you bringing these girls to me for in the middle of the night?” The soldier said, “You said if anybody was here at any time to bring them to you.” “Why don’t you just cut their heads off and leave me alone and leave me out of it because you got to make the decision.” “Well, yeah, I guess I do.” Matsmeg found her voice and said, “Mr. King, I got a plan to help you out. You see, the house here is kind of dusty. I don’t know if you have maids or not but they’re not doing very good and I notice that you’re kind of skinny and you could probably use a good cook. And by the way, since you’re being so grouchy you probably don’t have anybody telling you stories and I can tell you stories like you never heard before. If you would just let my sisters go I will stay here and take care of you, clean your house, tell you stories in the evening, and make you iced tea too for the story time.”

Well, that sounded real good to the king. So he said, “All right, you can stay and those girls, they can take off. Hope to never see them again in this territory.” As the girls ran out the door they said, “You won’t!” And no one ever heard from those girls again which is usually what happens to cruel people.

Matsmeg stayed in that castle. She made good food for the king and cleaned up the house and every night she told stories to the king. After a while they got to be friends. The king looked forward to those stories that Matsmeg told and she put a lot of brightness into the castle that hadn’t been there before. But by and by, Matsmeg began to get tired and sadder. The king finally asked her one night, “Is there something I can do for you that could help you because you’ve been so nice to me and I just want to know why you’re sad.” Matsmeg said, “Well king, I really like being here. It’s a nice place and I don’t mind cooking and cleaning for you and telling stories. But I like my freedom. Everybody’s got to have freedom and I don’t have mine.”

The king said, “Well, I never did really think about that but I guess you’re right. And you’ve been doing a lot for a long time so. But I’d miss your stories if you go back. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll give you a big twenty-acre plot of land that you can call your own. I’ll have my men build you a nice little house and you can come and go as you please just so once in a while you come by the castle and tell me some stories.” Matsmeg said, “Well, that sounds just fine.” And sure enough, in time and not a long time, the king kept his promise.

From that day on, Matsmeg lived very well in that place and one of those king’s men became her man. By and by they’d come with their iced tea and sit on the porch and tell stories to one another, the king and Matsmeg and her kin. And that’s the end of the story.

Everybody’s got an Aunt Irma. You know, she’s the one who comes into the house and comes right at you and pinches your cheek just a little too hard when she says, “Hello and how are you today?” She’s the one that tells you how to be polite when you’re eating dinner, and that it’s good for you to eat broccoli and cauliflower together. Well, I had an Aunt Irma too.

When I was little, I was a foster child, and I was taken to this wonderful home of an old lady who took care of me most of the years that I grew up there. In the beginning, we had to take time to get used to each other. And I remember one particular day we both took a big leap in that. It was a sunny afternoon, and I was down in the garden, making the most beautiful mud pies, and my mother’s pansies, I thought, would look really good on top of those mud pies. So I had them all set there, and I had those pretty pansies on top, when I heard a terrible sound above me.

It was my mother. I’d been with her long enough to call her mom and mother, and she said, “Margaret, what have you done to those pansies? Get upstairs, I’m going to give you a spanking.” Now up to that point, I’d thought my foster mother was a very wise woman, but she should have known that any child in their right mind was not going to come upstairs in order to get a spanking. I’d remembered spankings, and I wasn’t going to have another one of those. So I had to look for a place to hide, and my mom told me that down in the woods wasn’t a safe place to go, unless I was with my friends, and she knew where I was, so I couldn’t go there.

I decided to go in the basement, way in the back, where the coal used to be. We didn’t need coal in the summer, so it was a nice, dark place. I thought for a long time and couldn’t figure out what to do. Then I heard my foster father coming down the steps with his cane, click, click, click, click, and then across the basement floor, looking for me and calling my name. I was right there, but I didn’t want to let him know. I felt really bad that I had let that old man come all the way down those steps, and I hadn’t told him anything. But I was just too scared.

Time passed, and I still couldn’t figure out what to do. I mean, I could just go and tell her I was sorry. I knew what would happen, so I decided that I would go upstairs on the third floor, where that soft, beautiful bed was, and I’d lay down on it and think about it a while. When I got up there, I decided instead to climb under the bed. And I fell asleep.

Sometime later, I heard a terrible, awful sound. “Margaret, look at you, you little wicked girl. You’ve caused everybody trouble, nothing but trouble, trouble, trouble. And you’re up here asleep.” I opened my eyes, and all I could see was that dust ruffle pulled up, and Aunt Irma’s big feet, and her arm reaching out for me. She pulled me by the ear and held me up. “You’re gonna get in trouble, you’re gonna get a spanking now, like you’ve never had before, and you deserve it, you little child. Why? Your mother has called all of us to look for you, and she’s even called the police, and she’s so upset.” Oh! And she pulled me by the ear, bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, down all those steps.

I found myself standing in front of my mother, who had just hung up the phone, asking the police if they’d found me. She looked at me, and she said, “You’re okay. You’re all right! Oh! Oh, that’s great! That’s just really, really wonderful!” And she gave me a great big hug and a kiss, and all she did was smile. And I looked at her and said, “You’re not gonna spank me or nothing?” She said, “No! I’m just glad you’re okay! You’re not gonna do that again, are you?” “No. I won’t never do that again.” And that made her smile even wider, and I smiled, and we both looked at Aunt Irma, but she wasn’t smiling.

That was the day that I learned the measure of my mother’s love.

When I was a little girl, I was very excited to go to school, partly because I would stop by at Rosie Galardi’s house and see if she was making her wonderful spaghetti sauce. And when she was, I’d knock on the door and she’d let me in and give me a little spaghetti and her sauce, and tell me a few stories, and then send me on my way. Rosie Galardi had been a friend of our family for a long time, and she was immediately my friend when I tasted that wonderful sauce.

When I grew up, I found a story which I felt perfectly matched Rosie Galardi. And so this is an adaptation of a Streganuna story, and the name of my story is Rosie Galardi.

Rosie Galardi, she could make the spaghetti. She was better at making spaghetti than anyone in the whole town where she lived in Italy. And this is not easy to do because everyone in Italy makes spaghetti. But not only was she good at making spaghetti, she could make spaghetti for anyone who came to the house. One, five, twenty—it didn’t matter. In a flash, it was there. They were eating spaghetti and telling stories and all wondering, how does she do this thing? And many times people tried to look and see, but every time she would see and say, “Go sit down or no spaghetti.” So it was a long time and no one knew how she did this thing.

But the mayor’s wife, she said, “I want Rosie Galardi’s recipe. I want it.” And the mayor thought, how can I do this? “We’ll have a big festival in town. A little special tent just for Rosie. She can make the spaghetti all day long and give the spaghetti to whoever comes. She will be very busy. Then maybe you can get the recipe.” And so the day of the festival came, and Rosie Galardi brought her pot and she made her spaghetti. And it was so good and she made for everyone who came. And all through the day, the mayor’s wife would try to peek and all through the day, Rosie Galardi would see and say, “Go away or no spaghetti for anybody in the town.”

At the end of the day, Rosie Galardi was so tired. She got her pot and her spoons and started up the hill. “It was a good day, but I’m weary from it.” And just then a little boy ran after her and said, “Rosie, Rosie Galardi, I have something to say.” “Yes, yes, what is it, boy?” “Well, you’re an old lady. And I’m just a little skinny boy. I help you and you help me. Every day after school, I come to your house. I sweep, I help. At the end of the day, two bowls of spaghetti is all I ask.” “Oh,” Rosie Galardi said, “this is very good. Yes, this will work fine. You come tomorrow.”

And so from that day on, the boy came and he had his spaghetti after he cleaned. And it was a fine arrangement. But one day Rosie Galardi said, “I have to go to town. I’m going to buy me new hats. Yes. When I come back, I’ll make the spaghetti.” And the boy said, “Oh, I’m so hungry. Can I have spaghetti now?” Rosie Galardi said, “All right.” So she went in the kitchen and she got down the pot and she made the fire. She poured in the water and a little bit of salt. She let that water boil. And then she leaned over it and prayed a blessing over it and said, “Oh, bless the little pot, boil for me. Bless the little pot, bloom with spaghetti.” And sure enough, spaghetti swirled about and around the pot. She took out two bowls, one for herself, one for the boy. And she brought them and they ate.

What she did not know was that the boy was watching to see what she did. And when she went to town, he said, “Oh, now I will be the greatest in making the spaghetti just like Rosie Galardi. I will be famous in my whole town. Oh, this will be wonderful.” And he went out back of the house where he had put seven large pots ready to be filled with spaghetti. He got the pot, made the fire, put the water in, and a little bit of salt. He bent over and he said, “Uh, bless the little pot, boil for me. Yeah, that’s what she said. Bless the little pot, bloom with spaghetti.” And sure enough, the spaghetti swirled and swirled in the pot. He made enough spaghetti for all seven of those pots filled to the top.

Then he remembered that Rosie Galardi leaned over the pot and said a word to make the spaghetti stop. So he leaned over the pot and said, “What did she say? Malt. Yeah, malt. Dalt.” But the spaghetti was not stopping. “You can quit now.” The spaghetti kept coming and it began to fill up the house. It was up to his knees. “You can be done now.” But it was not done. It came up to his waist. “Finish. Quit. Now. Do it.” And now it was up to his chin. The spaghetti still was not stopping and he could not remember the word. The spaghetti became so heavy that it pushed the boy against the door, the door swung open, and he found himself swimming on a river of spaghetti into the town.

It wound around the trees, around the children playing there, and even around the fountain. Then it began to slither and slink into the businesses and into the houses. One old woman leaned against her wall and said, “Somebody better get Rosie Galardi before we all die of spaghetti.”

Rosie Galardi, she was in the hat shop. “Oh, I like this hat. I want one for each day of the week. Different colors, of course. Blue would be nice

for Sunday.” And then the little boy ran in, he said, “Rosie Galardi, Rosie Galardi, you gotta help to save us! There’s spaghetti all over the town!”

Rosie Galardi said, “Spaghetti all over the… I know what you have done, boy.” She opened the door, shook her head, and went through the town. She had to swim up the river of spaghetti to her house, and that is not easy for an old woman to do. But she got to the pot and leaned over it and said, “Halt!” and it halted.

The boy came to Rosie Galardi, “I’m so sorry. I made a big mistake. Can you ever forgive me?” Rosie Galardi said, “The good book says I should forgive fools, even like you. So I do. As a matter of fact, I have something to give you.” She reached into her pocket and handed him a fork and said, “Eat your mistakes, boy.”

And as far as I know, he’s still eating. And that’s the end of that.

Once upon a time, long ago, there was a mother and a father, a little boy and a little girl, who lived up in the mountains, and they had a pet squirrel. Now the thing they all liked to do in the morning was to get up and have some of grandma’s Sody Sallyradus biscuits. Sody Sallyradus? Well, that’s the country name for Baking Soda, and everybody knows biscuits are best when they got Baking Soda in them.

Well, one morning, Ma got up and she looked in the pantry and she said, “Why? There’s no Sody Sallyradus! We can’t have no biscuits today.” Pa said, “Well that won’t do,” and the children squealed. Ma sent the boy down to the store to get the Sody Sallyradus, and he was real happy about it. Why? He could just think about all those biscuits he’d get, and he’d get the better share, seeing how he’d done the favor.

So being happy, he just went a-singing along, “Sody, Sody, Sody Sallyradus,” and it was no time before he got to the store and got that Sody Sallyradus. And because he was in a hurry, he decided to take the shortcut home by the bridge. That was a shortcut that Ma and Pa told him never to take because there was trouble. But he said he’d just skitter, and he’d be okay.

He was skittering across that bridge, but underneath the bridge, there was a great big mean ugly bear, and he was just waiting for somebody to come through. He popped up and leaned over that little boy and said, “Oh, I like Sody Sallyradus, and I like little boys, and I’m going to eat you both,” and he did. In one swallow. Lordy mercy.

Well, Ma and Pa waited and waited and waited, but that little boy didn’t come back. Ma said, “I bet he’s playing in the woods right next to that store is what he’s doing. I’m just going to hot-tail it to him when he gets back, that’s what I’m going to do. Well, you go on down to the store and get your brother, and you both come back.” So the little girl went down, and she was real happy. She knew she’d get some extra Sody Sallyradus biscuits from doing the favor, and she would get her brother in trouble in the process. Oh, that made a good day for her.

Lickety-split, she was right down there, and she asked the man, “You seen my brother around?” “Why, yeah,” he said, “not long ago, he’d come and bought some Sody Sallyradus for the biscuits. I’m sure he’s home by now. He might have taken that shortcut by the bridge because he seemed in a big hurry.” The little girl said, “Oh, we’re not supposed to go there. We’re not supposed to because Ma and Pa said it was dangerous. But I’ll just go quick. I’ll probably see my brother, then we’ll both go home.”

So she went over by the bridge, but waiting for her underneath the bridge was a great big mean, ugly bear, and he jumped up and said, “Oh, I like Sody Sallyradus, and I like little boys, and I like little girls too, so I’m gonna eat you!” And he did, in one swallow.

Well, Ma and Pa waited and waited and waited, but nobody came. Even that squirrel was skittering around looking and looking, and finally, Ma said to Pa, “Well, I guess you better go down and get those youngins.” So he got his cane and went, clickity-click, clickity-click, on down to the store. He got to the store and asked about the youngins, and the store man said they’d both been there, probably down by the bridge taking the shortcut. Pa said, “Oh no, oh no, oh no, I can’t believe they went there.”

He went clickity-click, clickity-click, on down to the bridge, and well, waiting at the bridge was that great big mean, ugly bear, and he said, “I like Sody Sallyradus, and I like little boys, and I like little girls, and I like old men too, and I’m gonna eat you just like I did them,” and he did, in one swallow.

Well, Ma was waiting and waiting and waiting, but nobody came, and she said, “Well, it’s plain to see that if a woman’s got to get something done, she’s just got to get it done herself.” So she put on her shawl and went on down to the store. She got to the store and asked about her family, and found out they were probably down by the bridge. “I am gonna tell them what they ought to be doing, and Pa himself at the bridge, I can’t imagine.”

She went down to the bridge, but waiting there was that great big mean, ugly bear, and he popped up and said, “Well, you know, I like Sody Sallyradus, and I like little boys, and I like little girls, I like old men, and I like old ladies too. I ate them, now I’m gonna eat you,” and he did, in one swallow.

Now that squirrel was getting tired of waiting for that family, so he decided to take matters into his own two paws. He came off the mountain and skittered right on down to the store, got up right on top of the counter and said to the store man, “Squeak, squeak, squeak,” which in squirrel language means, “Where in the heck did everybody go?”

He went on down to the bridge. He jumped up on that side of the bridge, and he was looking this way and that, and suddenly popped up that great big mean, ugly bear, and he said, “Well, I guess you’re my dessert, because I ate the whole family and I liked them, and I’m gonna like you too,” and he reached up for that squirrel. But the squirrel jumped up to the topmost branch of the tree nearby, and the bear said, “Well, if you can do that, I can do it too, three times better.” He jumped up to the branch, but he didn’t make it, and he fell, splat, down on the ground and split wide open. Out came the mother and the father, and the little boy and little girl, and they were quite a mess, but they were okay.

As they were walking home, Ma said to the boy, “Did you get that Sody Sallyradus?” and he said, “Oops, I forgot.” He ran back to the bear, picked up that Sody Sallyradus, and went on home, and Ma made those Sody Sallyradus biscuits. And the one that got the greater portion was the squirrel. And that’s the end of that story.

Storytelling is great fun. There’s no better fun for me than telling stories to my grandchildren and every other child I come in contact with. But sometimes even a storyteller gets tired of telling stories. One day, I had done a three-week residency and it was the end of the last day. I was packing up my things and the teacher had assigned a little boy to help me carry my things out to the car.

Every time he carried something to the car, he said to me, “Storyteller, can I hear just one more story?” I was so tired and my brain was burning from all the things I’d done all that day and all the stories I told. I said, “Take my suitcase and put it in the car and I’ll think about it.”

“Why are you here? Hardly anybody ever comes to visit me,” the old woman asked. The little boy said that he was lost. So the old woman opened the door and let the little boy in. Come to find out, she was kin from a long time ago, somebody many stories had been told about in the family, but she never came to visit.

He had a great day and he was just about ready to leave when, “Little boy, little boy. Wake up. You’re sleeping in your ice cream.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I was dreaming about that story. Did you finish it?”

And I said, “Yes, I did. And it was a grand story.”

That was the only time I ever told another little tiny, tiny story to a little boy.