How the Animals Lost their Tails - April 07, 2023

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1. 0:00Today's story is how the animals lost their tails and got them back,
2. 0:07traveling from Philadelphia to Medicine Hat.
3. 0:12It appeared in the book, Rutabaga Stories, by Carl Sandberg, published in 1922.
4. 0:22Sandberg was a very famous American poet.
5. 0:26He wrote rutabaga stories for his three daughters, Margaret, Janet, and Helga.
6. 0:36The stories make liberal use of repetition and nonsense language, a fun form of wordplay.
7. 0:45Listen closely to the language of this story about talking animals with a big problem.
8. 0:59Far up in North America near the Saskatchewan River
9. 1:04in Winnipeg wheat country not far from the town of Moosejaw where nobody works unless
10. 1:12they have to and they nearly all have to there is a place known as Medicine Hat
11. 1:21there on top of a high tower in a high chair sits the head spotter of the weather-makers.
12. 1:31When the animals lost their tails it was because the head-spotter got careless.
13. 1:39You see, the tails of the animals were hard and dry because of a stretch of hot, dusty weather.
14. 1:48Then, at last, came a rain.
15. 1:51It poured down on the animals' tails and softened them.
16. 1:55them. But then a cold wind came, and froze all the tails solid.
17. 2:03A big wind followed, and blew and blew and blew,
18. 2:08until all the animal's tails flew off their bodies.
19. 2:14It was easy for the hogs with their short tails,
20. 2:18but it was not so easy for the blue fox, rocks,
21. 2:23who uses his tail to run and to write secret letters in the snow.
22. 2:29It was easy for the rabbit and her little white tail,
23. 2:34but it was hard for the yellow flung-boo, who lights up her home in the hollow tree with her bright tail.
24. 2:43The animals decided to choose a committee of representatives,
25. 2:48to represent them in parley-hoo, to see what steps could be taken by talking to do something.
26. 2:57There were sixty-six representatives on the committee.
27. 3:02They decided to call it the Committee of Sixty-Six.
28. 3:08For a chairperson they picked the top flong-boo.
29. 3:13When there was a fight among the flong-boo families,
30. 3:18she was the one who would say who was right, and who was wrong.
31. 3:23She was from Chappaquiddick, and lived there in a horse-chestnut tree between South Hadley and Northampton.
32. 3:34After her nomination and election she brought the Committee of 66 to order.
33. 3:42It is no picnic to lose your tale, and we are here for business, she said, banging the gavel.
34. 3:50Then a blue fox from Waco, Texas stood up and said,
35. 3:56Madam Chairwoman, do I have the floor?
36. 4:00That is a way of saying, May I speak?
37. 4:05I make a motion, said the blue fox.
38. 4:09I move that this committee get on a train at Philadelphia, and ride on the train until it stops,
39. 4:19and then take another train until we get to Medicine Hat, where the head-spotter of the weather-makers sits.
40. 4:29There we will ask if he will bring back our tails.
41. 4:35The chairwoman said, all in favor of the motion will clean their right ears with their right paws.
42. 4:44and all the blue foxes and yellow flongbous began cleaning their right ears with their right paws.
43. 4:54All who oppose the motion will clean their left ears with their left paws, said the chairwoman,
44. 5:04and all the blue foxes and yellow flongbous began cleaning their left ears with their left paws.
45. 5:14The motion is carried both ways.
46. 5:19It's a razzamatazz," said the chairwoman.
47. 5:24Once again all in favor of the motion will stand up on their toes.
48. 5:32And all the blue foxes and all the yellow flong-boos stood up.
49. 5:38And now, said the Chairwoman, all who are against the motion will stand on the top
50. 5:45of their heads, stick their hind legs up in the air, and make a noise like woof-woof.
51. 5:54No one opposed the motion.
52. 5:57The motion is carried, said the Chairwoman.
53. 6:02So the committee went to Philadelphia to get the train to Medicine Hat.
54. 6:09The chairwoman asked a policeman there,
55. 6:12"'Would you be so kind as to tell us the way to the Union Depot?'
56. 6:19"'It pays to be polite,' said the policeman.
57. 6:25"'May I ask you again if you would kindly direct us to the Union Depot, where the train is?"
58. 6:33asked the flong-boo again.
59. 6:36"'Pelite persons and angry persons are different kinds,' said the policeman.
60. 6:45The flong-boo's eyes changed their light, and a slow fire burned from where her tail used to be.
61. 6:54She said,
62. 6:57Sir, I must inform you that we are the committee of sixty-six.
63. 7:04We are distinguished representatives from places you do not know.
64. 7:10This committee is going to ride to Medicine Hat with a special message and a secret errand
65. 7:18for the head-spotter of the Weathermakers.
66. 7:21I
67. 7:24am a polite friend of all respectable people," said the policeman, touching the star on his chest.
68. 7:33"'This is the first time ever in the history of the United States that a committee
69. 7:39of sixty-six has ever visited a city in the United States,' said the flong-boo.
70. 7:48I beg to be mistaken," finished the policeman.
71. 7:52men. The Union Depot is under that clock, and he pointed to a big clock nearby.
72. 8:01Over to Union Depot train station they went, all sixty-six, half foxes, half flong-boos.
73. 8:11They are speaking in some strange language from where they come from, said one passenger.
74. 8:18They have secrets to keep among each other and never tell us," said another passenger.
75. 8:26"'We will find out all about it in the newspapers to-morrow,' said a third passenger.
76. 8:34Then the foxes and flong-boos climbed into a special car.
77. 8:41The train left the station.
78. 8:44It came to the Horseshoe Curve near Altoona, where the tracks bend in a half-circle.
79. 8:52Then it went on toward Ohio.
80. 8:57Two baby-blue foxes, the youngest on the committee, sat at the front of the car.
81. 9:05Crossing Ohio and Indiana at night, the flongbous took off the top of the car.
82. 9:13The conductor told them, I must have an explanation.
83. 9:18It is between us and the stars, they told him.
84. 9:23The train ran on to Chicago.
85. 9:27There were pictures in the newspapers that afternoon,
86. 9:32showing foxes and flongbous eating pink ice-cream with iron axes.
87. 9:37boxes. Each blue fox and yellow flangboo got their own newspaper.
88. 9:46Crossing to the north, the sky began to fill with the snow ghosts of Minnesota.
89. 9:54Again, the foxes and flangboos lifted the top off the car so they would not miss the show.
90. 10:03Some went to sleep, but the two baby-blue foxes stayed up,
91. 10:09watching the snow-ghosts and telling snow-ghost stories to each other.
92. 10:17Early in the night the first baby-blue fox said to the second,
93. 10:22''Who were the snow-ghosts the ghosts of ?''
94. 10:26The second baby blue fox answered, Snowmen, snow foxes, and snow fishes,
95. 10:35everybody has a snow ghost.
96. 10:38And that was only the beginning of their talk.
97. 10:42They would talk until morning about where the snow ghosts go on Christmas morning,
98. 10:48and how the snow ghosts watch the new year.
99. 10:52Somewhere, between Winnipeg and Moose Jaw, they stopped the train and all ran out in the snow.
100. 11:02The white moon was shining down a valley of birch trees.
101. 11:08At last they came to Medicine Hat,
102. 11:12near the Saskatchewan River in Winnipeg wheat country, not far from the town of Moose Jaw,
103. 11:19where nobody works unless they have to, and they nearly all have to.
104. 11:25There they ran to the place where the head-spotter of the weather-makers sits,
105. 11:32in a high chair, on a high tower, watching the weather.
106. 11:39Let loose another big wind to blow back our tails.
107. 11:44Let loose a big freeze to freeze our tails back on,
108. 11:49and let us get back our lost tails, they said to the head spotter,
109. 11:57which was just what he did, giving them exactly what they wanted.
110. 12:03So they all went back home,
111. 12:06satisfied.