A Hand-Me-Down Harvest; If Only One Cow Showed Up

<v Man 1>There's a reason the hills are steep in Vermont, the old timers figured that if you <v Man 1>tilted the land on edge, you could ?have? <v Man 1>both sides of it, you see. <v Helen Hartness Flanders>[singing] Amos Eaton of South Royalton Vermont now sings for the Flanders Ballad Collection, Middlebury College, Middlebury Vermont. The Vermont Farmer's Song. <v Amos Eaton>This here the tall and manly Green Mountain Boys I seen <v Amos Eaton>so called because the mountains are not, the boys are green. <v Amos Eaton>They always fight to win the right and to resist the wrong. <v Amos Eaton>?inaudible? My dear light, on a summer's night to sing the farmer's <v Amos Eaton>song. Tra la la la <v Amos Eaton>la tra la la la la, tra la, la, la, la <v Amos Eaton>la la. <v Betty Smith>In the 1930s, 40s and early 50s. <v Betty Smith>Helen Hartness Flanders collected thousands of ballads and songs and <v Betty Smith>other examples of New England folklore. <v Betty Smith>Several of the songs in the collection are humorous and humor is even more common <v Betty Smith>in the traditional stories still told by present day Vermonters.

<v Man 1>When I was up in Hanksville, I should explain the geography of that place a little <v Man 1>tiny bit. It's rather rocky and hilly land, basically it's it's glacial <v Man 1>till I guess you could call it. <v Man 1>This is in the Green Mountains. <v Man 1>It's right next to Burnt Rock Mountain and it's, oh, maybe five miles south <v Man 1>of Camel's Hump. <v Man 1>Um anyways, I had a next door neighbor there, Archie and he wanted to know if I'd plow <v Man 1>him up a garden down near his place. <v Man 1>So I went down. I plowed this piece of farm and course I turned up a couple <v Man 1>of huge rocks. And I realize before I ?inaudible? <v Man 1>exposed it out and stuff enough to get those rocks out. <v Man 1>So I'm down there struggling away, rolling these rocks way when this car comes up. <v Man 1>Now the long trail goes up there. So there's quite a bit of traffic, you see. <v Man 1>And so this car ?inaudible? folks from away comes up and the <v Man 1>guy sees me struggling with this rock. And he says, whatcha doin'? <v Man 1>Pickin' stone, I say, without lookin' up. <v Man 1>Where'd that come from? He says.

<v Man 1>Glacier brought it, I say. And I'm pushin' the stone head all the time. <v Man 1>He says, Well, where's the glacier now? <v Man 1>I stood up and looked down and I says, If you must know, it went back for more stone. <v Man 2>Most outsiders have a hard time and they get here, but they don't understand <v Man 2>the way things are here. <v Man 2>Like the time that a guy came with a Model T Ford way back in <v Man 2>the days when roads weren't all that good. <v Man 2>And ?Mark? was doin' some milkin' there in the barn, and the <v Man 2>guy came in and said, Hey, he said you own that pig down the road, <v Man 2>?inaudible? I said probably I said, I own most of 'em around here. <v Man 2>Well, he says, you're right in the middle ?inaudible?. <v Man 2>Well, my uncle said, that's good. And I says I want to have ?inaudible?. <v Man 2>Well, he says it's not good I can't get by her. Well, uncle says when I get done milking, <v Man 2>he says I'll go down and help ya, he says I can't wait. <v Man 2>Well he says I know you'll have to, he says I'm not gonna leave my milk and to go down <v Man 2>there and help some of your foreigners out, he said.

<v Man 2>And the guy began to stew. I'm gonna show em, and I don't know what I was gonna do. <v Man 2>?inaudible? says, you won't be able to do that until you get by, will ya. <v Man 2>He says if you're gonna do that, let's make you go back. <v Man 2>Says I'm not going down like it on milking. <v Man 2>So when he get done milkin' and he took the wheelbarrow and he went down, and loaded the <v Man 2>pigs into it, started up the hill and the ol' ?inaudible? <v Man 2>horse followed him up there with the little pigs in the wheelbarrow squealin' away. <v Man 2>He told him he says now you be careful. You ought to take a shovel ?inaudible? <v Man 2>you get stuck. And then fellow says I know more about driving cars than you do. <v Man 2>Well, that's all right. He says I feel, if you feel that way about it, you'll go ahead. <v Man 2>Course it got stuck. So then he come up and tried to hire ?inaudible? <v Man 2>off and go down to the auction and pull it out. <v Man 2>And so my uncle told him he would for a slight favor he says, is your pig? <v Man 2>It plowed up the road. He says all right if you wanna stay there. <v Man 2>You say you're gonna sue me, he says. <v Man 2>But finally, the guy pulled out five dollars an- and give it to him and he went down and <v Man 2>pulled him out. <v Man 3>Those ?inaudible?

<v Man 3>clergymen might come up from down south. <v Man 3>You just substitute for church up here in the northern country. <v Man 3>You come up through and you come to the churches clear near the little white church <v Man 3>in the center of it. Come Sunday decide well you- go <v Man 3>there. ?inaudible?. <v Man 3>He did, but only one person showed up.Oh he <v Man 3>would only spoke to him and they ?inaudible?, ask him different things <v Man 3>?inaudible? I think that it oughtta go on to the sermon. <v Man 3>The farmer said, well, you know, he says, I'm a farmer you know, <v Man 3>don't have a good education. <v Man 3>He says if I took the wagon went down the back bashin' and feed the cows. <v Man 3>Only one of 'em showed up I'd feed 'em. <v Man 3>We went on with the idea and he went through the whole sermon <v Man 3>and 'bout an hour, hour and a half later he asked ?inaudible?

<v Man 3>what he thought of it. Well, he says, I told ya I'm only a poor farmer. <v Man 3>But he says if I put a load of hay on the wagon and I <v Man 3>go down to the back pasture to feed the cows, and only one of them showed up, <v Man 3>I ?don't? give 'em the whole damn load. <v Beatrice Le Duke>[singing] My grandmother, she at the age of 83, one day in May was taken ill and died. <v Beatrice Le Duke>And after she was dead, the will, of course, was read by a lawyer as he ordered by the <v Beatrice Le Duke>side. To my brother it was found he had ?inaudible? <v Beatrice Le Duke>a hundred pounds and the same is to my sister, I declare. <v Beatrice Le Duke>But when it came to me the lawyer said ya see, your granny's only left to you her <v Beatrice Le Duke>old arm chair. How the ?inaudible? and how the ?inaudible?, <v Beatrice Le Duke>how my brother and my sister laughed. <v Beatrice Le Duke>When they heard that all you declare, granny's only left to you her old <v Beatrice Le Duke>arm chair. I thought that her ?inaudible? <v Beatrice Le Duke>and yet it didn't cash. In the evening I took the chair away. <v Beatrice Le Duke>My brother had to laugh my sister at the time said it will come useful, John, <v Beatrice Le Duke>someday. When you settle down in life, find some girl to be your wife, you will find

<v Beatrice Le Duke>it very handy I declare. <v Beatrice Le Duke>On a cold, stormy night when the fire is burning bright. <v Beatrice Le Duke>You may sit down in the old arm chair. <v Beatrice Le Duke>?Now I heard? how the child, how my brother and my sister <v Beatrice Le Duke>laughed when they heard the lawyer declare Granny's only left to <v Beatrice Le Duke>you, her old arm chair. <v Beatrice Le Duke>What my brother said was true for in a year or two ?inaudible? <v Beatrice Le Duke>to say I settled down and married life. <v Beatrice Le Duke>I first ?inaudible? in court, and then the ring above took her to the church and then <v Beatrice Le Duke>she was my wife. The old girl and me, were as happy as could be and when the <v Beatrice Le Duke>work was over, I declare. I'd hear about the ?inaudible?, but each night would stay <v Beatrice Le Duke>at home and be sitted in my old armchair. <v Beatrice Le Duke>How the ?inaudible?, how the chap, how my brother and my <v Beatrice Le Duke>sister laughed when they heard the lawyer declare <v Beatrice Le Duke>granny's only left to you her old arm chair. <v Beatrice Le Duke>One day the chair fell down. I picked it up and found the seat had fallen out upon

<v Beatrice Le Duke>the floor, and that, to my surprise, I saw before my eyes a lot of <v Beatrice Le Duke>notes, a thousand pounds or more. <v Beatrice Le Duke>When my brother heard of this the fellow, I confess, went really mad with rage and tore <v Beatrice Le Duke>his hair. I only laughed at him, and said to him, Jim, don't you wish you <v Beatrice Le Duke>had the old arm chair? <v Beatrice Le Duke>How they twittered, how they chapped. How my brother and my sister laughed, when they <v Beatrice Le Duke>heard the lawyer declare granny's only left to you her old arm chair [laughs]. <v Man 2>Well, ?Aldine? was always telling about the time that they went <v Man 2>to Berrien, and uh the bear came down and <v Man 2>got into their bucket that they had and <v Man 2>uh couldn't get his head out and started to run around. <v Man 2>Couldn't catch the bear and the bear went right over the mountain. <v Man 2>And the next bear season, this old bear had a lot of little bears that had <v Man 2>pails over their heads.

<v Man 1>One type of folklore that is extremely popular in the United States is the tall tale, <v Man 1>it's the exaggerated story, usually works this way. <v Man 1>The story begins very believable. <v Man 1>Slowly, though, the teller begins to exaggerate what's going on in it. <v Man 1>The listener doesn't know what to believe. <v Man 1>The story is getting more outlandish, but yet it's being told <v Man 1>straight face. <v Man 1>Part of the nature of the tall tale is to exaggerate, to see how <v Man 1>long you can drag out your listeners belief <v Man 1>until the listener finally realizes they're being had. <v Mike>I was trapped in Muskrat in the spring I guess would be about, oh 5th of April, somewhere <v Mike>around there uh, up on Lake Iroquois ?inaudible?. <v Mike>I have a little John boat, about twelve foot boat and it was raining quite some. <v Mike>I had a hard time getting in there. Anyways, I was running my trap line and <v Mike>water kept risin' and risin' and risin'. <v Mike>And I noticed it because cattail mass and stuff, they float, but but

<v Mike>some things that are on hard ground underneath the water, they don't float. <v Mike>And I noticed it was getting harder and harder to reach my ?inaudible?. <v Mike>Well, I ?inaudible? out my catch as I went along. <v Mike>I didn't have much of a catch and I figured, go back to the fishing access and walk home. <v Mike>Well I got back to the fishing access, and it was under about four and a half, five feet <v Mike>of water. So I just pulled my boat right on by the fishing access. <v Mike>I got to Martel's Heyfield. <v Mike>Martel's Heyfield being right next to fishing access. <v Mike>Well the water's a bit shallower there. Maybe a foot, foot and a half, understand this is <v Mike>normally dry ground. This is Vermont spring. <v Mike>And I pull my boat right up to the edge of Martel's dairy barn and I tied my boat there. <v Mike>Well, now there's about six inches of water around the barn. <v Mike>So I just sort of walk there. But the mud was deep, so I sort of had to hang on to the <v Mike>barn. I made it up to the top of the hill. <v Mike>And I realize there is no way I was going to make it across the road because the mud was <v Mike>deeper. So I jumped from the barn on to the nearest maple tree I could. <v Mike>You know the round the roots is pretty solid and I jumped from that one to the next <v Mike>one. 'Til I finally got up to the crest of the hill.

<v Mike>Well I could almost walk from tree to tree there and nothing happened really bad. <v Mike>Then I got over the crest of the hill and I jumped from tree to tree, and finally I took <v Mike>on a jump from one tree onto the next and my God, just my weight started that maple tree <v Mike>to like to sag. I realized by jumping the one next one, I was just gonna take and capsize <v Mike>the tree and all. I looked at the road. <v Mike>It was nothing but a solid ooze of mud, just oozing and undulating down the hill. <v Mike>[sighs] Boy. I didn't know what I was gonna do here, except maybe wait. <v Mike>All the while it was rainin' and gettin' muddier. <v Mike>I was sunk up to my ankles and hanging onto this tree. <v Mike>By and by I see this hat floatin' down. <v Mike>As it gets closer I recognize it. I recognize it as being Howard Russel's hat. <v Mike>Howard, that you? I say. <v Mike>And I hear bubblin' up from below. Sure is, Mike. <v Mike>I says, you in trouble? Can I throw you a line or somethin'? <v Mike>No. I still got my horse under me. <v Mike>[music playing] <v Man 2>Well the one that they told way back before my time in there was when they were freezin'

<v Man 2>up old people who ?inaudible? <v Man 2>in the fall. <v Man 2>Old people were underfoot because they couldn't get out and work too much. <v Man 2>So they just simply take 'em and put 'em in a uh ?Roman? <v Man 2>and strip 'em and let 'em freeze up and they take 'em out <v Man 2>and put 'em uh in uh hollow and woods <v Man 2>and cover 'em up with a blanket under 'em and a blanket over them and and spruce <v Man 2>bells on top of 'em so they'd be- remain froze all winter. <v Man 2>And then come spring, when the snow started to go off <v Man 2>and it got to warm up, then they'd uncover 'em and take 'em out and <v Man 2>put 'em in cold water and then tepid water and then wa- and real warm water to get 'em <v Man 2>thawed out. And they were good for all summer to work. <v Man 2>Of course uh, I get called once in a while, and now and then a letter <v Man 2>from somebody to ask me if they still do it. But of course I I have never seen <v Man 2>it, so I don't know. But it could be they do because a lot of time you don't see

<v Man 2>the old folks from spring till fall till spring whether they're froze <v Man 2>up or not, I don't know, but it could be. <v Man 1>Myrt Sage tells the story of human hibernation. <v Man 1>And then at the end of the story, he kind of philosophizes and says, well, <v Man 1>I don't know if they do that or not uh, it's hard to tell what goes on up in those hills <v Man 1>some time. This is typical of the tall tale. <v Man 1>We know from research that the story devel- developed first part of this <v Man 1>century and appeared in a newspaper in Berry and then subsequently was reprinted in other <v Man 1>newspapers and then the late 1930s, a <v Man 1>writer for The Boston Globe got a hold of the story and wrote up a big piece on <v Man 1>it for The Globe, and that was reprinted in papers all over the United States. <v Man 1>The tall tale was an extremely popular form of storytelling in United States in the 19th <v Man 1>century and it survives into the 20th century. <v Man 1>Very popular form of storytelling [inaudible speaking] the tall tale.

<v Man 2>A lot of interesting names like Mount Mansfield is claimed to have <v Man 2>been uh some Duke or something or other from England, <v Man 2>came over riding on a camel, and when the camel stopped <v Man 2>to drink in the ?inaudible? river, he kneeled down with his <v Man 2>front legs. And when he did throwed the Duke over <v Man 2>on his back. <v Man 2>And that became Mount Mansfield and his consort, who was with him, went <v Man 2>over his head. And they call her uh Mount Manseal. <v Man 2>And the next mountain, Madonna Mountain, you see, that's the <v Man 2>next mountain with the ski area. <v Man 2>And the camel remained on the other side and that's Camel's Hump. <v Betty Smith>Sometimes stories about how places got their names are tall tales, <v Betty Smith>but sometimes they're not. <v Woman 3>It was a year 18 [pause] 16 when <v Woman 3>we got snow every month of the year. <v Woman 3>And most of it was not just a little bit of snow.

<v Woman 3>We got quite a lot of snow each month of the year, and it froze every night <v Woman 3>so that all the farmer's corn crops which they had planted for the cattle froze. <v Woman 3>They said over in ?inaudible? <v Woman 3>one or two farmers had planted their corn along together, and it was surrounded <v Woman 3>by stone walls along which grew a lot of bushes. <v Woman 3>So the farmers spent all night cuttin' the bushes <v Woman 3>and buildin' fires around the corn fields. <v Woman 3>And so they were the only ones in the fall who had corn which had not frozen. <v Woman 3>And in the spring, the followin' spring, they gave out <v Woman 3>corn to a different farmer to plant for their crops. <v Woman 3>And so it became known as ?Egypt?. <v Woman 3>The land of Plenty. <v Man 2>It was quite often a fact that they'd name a place after <v Man 2>you after you was gone.

<v Man 2>Not while you're here. You didn't amount to much while you was here, but when you were <v Man 2>gone. Everybody remembered where you lived and your <v Man 2>name would go there and you might stay there for a long time, 20, 30 years, maybe. <v Man 2>And so you have to live here a considerable length of time in order to get the <v Man 2>place called ?to? you your name. <v Man 2>Everybody knows me in the valley and they forgot now that <v Man 2>that's the ol' ?inaudible? place more or less and probably when uh <v Man 2>I pass on which, I'm not planning to do at all, they'll call this the Sage <v Man 2>Place so that uh that's a way that you <v Man 2>get names is is like that. <v Woman 3>There's a place over in Fairfield called <v Woman 3>?Shinang?. And in the years of the famine in Ireland, <v Woman 3>lots and lots of Irish came to Fairfield. <v Woman 3>Fairfield has many, many Irish families- descendents.

<v Woman 3>So the Irish came and they s- <v Woman 3>lots of 'em settled over in what became known as ?Shinang? <v Woman 3>it's down beyond north Fairfield on the road that leads <v Woman 3>down to Fiddlers Elbow. <v Woman 3>And the reason it is called ?Shinang? <v Woman 3>is the Irish that came, of course, were very poor. <v Woman 3>They we- left Ireland because of the potato famine, so they wouldn't starve <v Woman 3>and they had no money. So they had no money for entertainment of any sort. <v Woman 3>So at night they would dance. <v Woman 3>So were there outdoors, and sing their Irish songs and the <v Woman 3>neighbors got to sayin', there. <v Woman 3>The Irish are at their shenanigans again. <v Woman 3>So the place became ?Shinang?. [music playing] <v Betty Smith>One of Vermont's finest storytellers was Sophia Bialy of Barre.

<v Sophia Bialy>They was a man named John and his wife. <v Sophia Bialy>He was a fisherman and she was a housewife. <v Sophia Bialy>They lived in a little tiny cottage on the hillside, but <v Sophia Bialy>they were near the water and that was his job. <v Sophia Bialy>He'd go out fishing and then he'd sell the fish. <v Sophia Bialy>One day he got quite a few fish and <v Sophia Bialy>uh amongst them was a little goldfish. <v Sophia Bialy>And the little goldfish said, oh, John. <v Sophia Bialy>You don't want me. I'm so tiny. <v Sophia Bialy>He says, well why shouldn't I want to? I could sell you, you're pretty. <v Sophia Bialy>Oh, John, don't! Throw me back and you can have all the wishes that <v Sophia Bialy>you want. So John said, all right. <v Sophia Bialy>So he throws it back and he goes home to his wife, Mary. <v Sophia Bialy>Mary, you know what happened today? <v Sophia Bialy>I got a nice little goldfish. <v Sophia Bialy>And you know what he said? I could have any wish I wanted. <v Sophia Bialy>Oh, she said, oh, I'm happy.

<v Sophia Bialy>You go back and tell the little goldfish that I want a great big <v Sophia Bialy>white house. So John happily goes back. <v Sophia Bialy>He ?trudges? back, little goldfish, little goldfish, <v Sophia Bialy>said whattya-. <v Man 1>What's interesting about Sophia, when I first met her, she told me a tale. <v Man 1>Says, I- I think it was my mother told me when I was 8, 9, 10 years old. <v Man 1>She didn't know at the time. <v Man 1>But that story has existed in folk tradition for at least <v Man 1>600 years. She was a bearer of this tradition that had come over from <v Man 1>Italy, from the old world, through her parents to Barre, Vermont. <v Man 1>And here was Sophia now telling these stories. <v Man 1>She gathered children around her, would hold them at the edge of their seats for an hour, <v Man 1>two hours, telling these ageless tales. <v Man 1>She had numerous experience stories growing up in Barre, as an Italian. <v Man 1>Labor history, uh. <v Man 1>She was aware of the uh socialist and the anarchist movements in Barre.

<v Man 1>She had anecdotes about them, time the National Guard came in, <v Man 1>uh what this meant to the workers. <v Man 1>She had so many stories to share of history [Sophia speaking inaudibly] and of <v Man 1>the fairy tale tradition. <v Sophia Bialy>Little goldfish, little goldfish! He said what do you want, John? <v Sophia Bialy>He says my wife wants a great, big house. <v Sophia Bialy>Lot of rooms. Oh, John, you go back and you'll find a big house <v Sophia Bialy>and your wife living in it. So he goes back and then <v Sophia Bialy>his cottage is gone. And there's the big house. <v Sophia Bialy>And there's Mary in it and she said, oh, John! <v Sophia Bialy>I can't take care of this house it's too big! <v Sophia Bialy>I've got to have servants. He says, that's right. <v Sophia Bialy>I'll go back. So he goes back. <v Sophia Bialy>Little goldfish! What do you want, John? <v Sophia Bialy>Oh, my wife can't live in that big house. <v Sophia Bialy>She can't clean it all without the servants. <v Sophia Bialy>Oh, that's right, John. You'll go back and you'll find plenty of servants.

<v Sophia Bialy>So John trudges back home and his wife is there and she said <v Sophia Bialy>oh, I've got all the servants, I want and oh, they're so nice. <v Sophia Bialy>But look at me! <v Sophia Bialy>In this big house I've gotta have better clothes and so have you. <v Sophia Bialy>John scratches his head and says I guess you're right, Mary. <v Sophia Bialy>So he goes back. Little goldfish. <v Sophia Bialy>What is it, John? Do you know that my wife hasn't any clothes <v Sophia Bialy>to live in that big house? And I haven't either! <v Sophia Bialy>He says oh go back John. She'll have all the clothes that she wants <v Sophia Bialy>and to live in the big house. <v Sophia Bialy>And you'll be happy there with all the servants. <v Sophia Bialy>So, John, trudges home. <v Sophia Bialy>He finds the servants. <v Sophia Bialy>He finds the beautiful clothes. <v Sophia Bialy>And he thought his wife would be happy. But she's not happy. <v Sophia Bialy>She said John I want a carriage and horses, in those days they didn't have

<v Sophia Bialy>automobiles. <v Sophia Bialy>Carriage and horses and a groom. I wanna go downtown sometimes. <v Sophia Bialy>Now, that we've got everything. <v Sophia Bialy>Oh, Mary, don't want too much. <v Sophia Bialy>This is enough now. Oh, you go back. Didn't the goldfish say you could have anything you want? <v Sophia Bialy>He says yes, but Mary we've got a lot of things now. <v Sophia Bialy>Well, go back John! So poor John walked slowly back. <v Sophia Bialy>He didn't want to do it. So he says little goldfish. <v Sophia Bialy>Said what do you want John? Oh, my wife isn't contented even now. <v Sophia Bialy>She wants a a nice team of horses and the groom <v Sophia Bialy>to take care of it so that she can go down town when she wants. <v Sophia Bialy>Oh, John. Go back. <v Sophia Bialy>You'll find it. Don't get discouraged. You'll find that the carriage and the groom <v Sophia Bialy>and the nice horses, four lovely white horses. <v Sophia Bialy>So he goes home and there's Mary and the ?team?, and the carriage <v Sophia Bialy>and the groom running the horses and away they go.

<v Sophia Bialy>So John stays home. <v Sophia Bialy>So the next day Mary said, I'm going to- I want <v Sophia Bialy>to go out again today. Oh my goodness it's raining, but I <v Sophia Bialy>want to go now it's raining. <v Sophia Bialy>Well, John says, wait till another time. <v Sophia Bialy>Oh, no. You go back to the little goldfish and tell him that I want to <v Sophia Bialy>govern the weather. Have rain when it's raining have the sun when it's shining <v Sophia Bialy>and have clouds when I want it. Mary, I'm not going back. <v Sophia Bialy>You wanna do too much. <v Sophia Bialy>John. You'll go back. <v Sophia Bialy>So poor John is all discouraged and he's very unhappy. <v Sophia Bialy>Little goldfish, little goldfish. <v Sophia Bialy>What do you want, John? Oh, my wife. <v Sophia Bialy>She wants to be- she wants to govern the weather. <v Sophia Bialy>Make it make it rain or snow or sunshine. <v Sophia Bialy>Do anything that she wants. <v Sophia Bialy>And uh the little goldfish said, John, you're not happy, are you?

<v Sophia Bialy>He said, no, I'm not happy. <v Sophia Bialy>Well, she certainly cannot be God. <v Sophia Bialy>So you go back and you'll find Mary frying fish in the little <v Sophia Bialy>ol' cottage where you were very happy. <v Sophia Bialy>And John says, thank you goldfish. <v Sophia Bialy>I'm very happy now. So John trudges home and he finds Mary <v Sophia Bialy>frying fish. And he goes out and catches ?inaudible?, sells his fish. <v Sophia Bialy>And he they were both very happy. <v Sophia Bialy>So it shows that it's not riches that make people happy. <v Sophia Bialy>It's the little things that count. <v Man 1>Sophia was a performer. <v Man 1>She practiced the art of storytelling. <v Man 1>This is how folk tradition starts up. <v Man 1>You have an outstanding storyteller who's popular, who's accepted in the community, who's <v Man 1>asked to tell tales. Others in the community pick them up. <v Man 1>And generation after generation after generation retells the stories. <v Man 1>And we have a strong folk tradition developed.

<v Man 1>We have children now who have heard her stories and they're repeating. <v Girl 1> This girl, she dreamed that this fairy came by her house <v Girl 1>on a five pointed star. <v Girl 1>And she picked the little girl up and they went on, <v Girl 1>and they got other little girls with a white dress, a green dress a blue dress, a red <v Girl 1>dress, and a yellow dress. <v Girl 1>And they all got on the star <v Girl 1>and then they went and did good deeds. They gave people water that <v Girl 1>couldn't have water. They gave people toys that couldn't have toys. <v Girl 1>They gave people food that didn't have food and they pl- made roads <v Girl 1>and churches and things like that. <v Girl 1>And then she dropped all the little girls off except for <v Girl 1>just one in the white dress that she had gone to pick up first. <v Girl 1>She said you could stay ?inaudible?. <v Girl 1>So off she went and goodnight. <v Girl 1>That was all she heard.

<v Girl 1>The fairy godmother. <v Girl 1>Then she tried to stay on the star. <v Girl 1>She couldn't. She couldn't stay on the star. <v Girl 1>She was falling. And she cried and cried and cried. <v Girl 1>Her mother came in. <v Girl 1>It was just a bad dream. <v Girl 1>She woke up. She had fallen off her bed. <v Girl 1>Mother gave her some warm milk andshe fell back asleep. <v Girl 1>And that's the end of the story. [music plays] <v Betty Smith>The producers of this program would like to thank the following people for their <v Betty Smith>participation, storytellers Ronna Nicolino, Mike Quinn, <v Betty Smith>Myrt Sage, Elbridge Tobie and Ethel ?inaudible?. <v Betty Smith>Thanks to folklorist Dick Sweaterledge of the University of Vermont and to musicians <v Betty Smith>Ron and Ronnie West. <v Betty Smith>And we thank ethnomusicologist Jennifer Quinn of Middlebury College <v Betty Smith>for helping us to select the music from the Flanders Collection.

<v Betty Smith>The Vermont Farmers Song was sung by Amos Eaton and Grandmother's Armchair <v Betty Smith>by Beatrice Le Duke. <v Betty Smith>Thanks also to Pache Nicolino and to Keith Jennison, <v Betty Smith>writer in residence at Castleton State College and to folklorist <v Betty Smith>Morris Beck and director of Public Relations Ron Neith, both of Middlebury <v Betty Smith>College. Special thanks to Vermont state folklorist Jane Beck <v Betty Smith>of the Vermont Council on the Arts. <v Betty Smith>The engineer for this program was Sam Sanders. <v Betty Smith>The program was produced by Ev Grimes and Bonnie Morrissey with funds provided <v Betty Smith>by the National Endowment for the Arts. <v Betty Smith>I'm the executive producer, Betty Smith, and this is a production of Vermont <v Betty Smith>Public Radio. <v Woman 4>He used to for a living go begging around from village to village and everyone was sorry

<v Woman 4>for him. But in those days, of course, they couldn't do much.