How the Animals Lost their Tails

01Today's story is how the animals lost their tails and got them back, traveling from Philadelphia to Medicine Hat.

02It appeared in the book Rutabaga Stories by Carl Sandburg, published in 1922.

03Sandburg was a very famous American poet.

04He wrote Rutabaga Stories for his three daughters, Margaret, Janet, and Helga.

05The stories make liberal use of repetition and nonsense language, a fun form of wordplay.

06Listen closely to the language of this story about talking animals with a big problem.

07Far up in North America, near the Saskatchewan River and Winnipeg Wheat Country, not far from the town of Moose Jaw, where nobody works unless they have to, and they nearly all have to, there is a place known as Medicine Hat.

08There, on top of a high tower, in a high chair, sits the head spotter of the weathermakers.

09When the animals lost their tails, it was because the head spotter got careless.

10You see, the tails of the animals were hard and dry because of a stretch of hot, dusty weather.

11Then, at last, came a rain.

12It poured down on the animals' tails and softened them.

13But then a cold wind came, and froze all the tails solid.

14A big wind followed, and blew and blew and blew, until all the animals' tails flew off their bodies.

15It was easy for the hogs with their short tails, but it was not so easy for the blue fox, who uses his tail to run and to write secret letters in the snow.

16It was easy for the rabbit and her little white tail, but it was hard for the yellow flongboo, who lights up her home in the hollow tree with her bright tail.

17The animals decided to choose a committee of representatives, to represent them in parley-hoo, to see what steps could be taken by talking to do something.

18There were sixty-six representatives on the committee.

19They decided to call it the committee of sixty-six.

20For a chairperson, they picked the top flongboo.

21When there was a fight among the flongboo families, she was the one who would say who was right and who was wrong.

22She was from Chappaquiddick, and lived there in a horse chestnut tree, between South Hadley and Northampton.

23After her nomination and election, she brought the committee of sixty-six to order.

24It is no picnic to lose your tail, and we are here for business, she said, banging the gavel.

25Then a blue fox from Waco, Texas, stood up and said, Madam Chairwoman, do I have the floor?

26That is a way of saying, may I speak?

27I make a motion, said the blue fox.

28I move that this committee get on a train at Philadelphia, and ride on the train until it stops, and then take another train until we get to Medicine Hat, where the head spotter of the weathermakers sits.

29There we will ask if he will bring back our tails.

30The chairwoman said, All in favor of the motion will clean their right ears with their right paws.

31And all the blue foxes and yellow flongboos began cleaning their right ears with their right paws.

32All who oppose the motion will clean their left ears with their left paws, said the chairwoman.

33And all the blue foxes and yellow flongboos began cleaning their left ears with their left paws.

34The motion is carried both ways.

35It's a razzmatazz, said the chairwoman.

36Once again, all in favor of the motion will stand up on their toes.

37And all the blue foxes and all the yellow flongboos stood up.

38And now, said the chairwoman, all who are against the motion will stand on the top of their heads, stick their hind legs up in the air, and make a noise like woof-woof.

39No one opposed the motion.

40The motion is carried, said the chairwoman.

41So the committee went to Philadelphia to get the train to Medicine Hat.

42The chairwoman asked a policeman there, Would you be so kind as to tell us the way to the Union Depot?

43It pays to be polite, said the policeman.

44May I ask you again if you would kindly direct us to the Union Depot where the train is?

45Asked the flongboos again.

46Polite persons and angry persons are different kinds, said the policeman.

47The flongboos' eyes changed their light, and a slow fire burned from where her tail used to be.

48She said, Sir, I must inform you that we are the Committee of 66.

49We are distinguished representatives from places you do not know.

50This committee is going to ride to Medicine Hat with a special message and a secret errand for the head spotter of the weathermakers.

51I am a polite friend of all respectable people, said the policeman, touching the star on his chest.

52This is the first time ever in the history of the United States that a Committee of 66 has ever visited a city in the United States, said the flongboos.

53I beg to be mistaken, finished the policeman.

54The Union Depot is under that clock, and he pointed to a big clock nearby.

55Over to Union Depot train station they went, all sixty-six, half foxes, half flongboos.

56They are speaking in some strange language from where they come from, said one passenger.

57They have secrets to keep among each other and never tell us, said another passenger.

58We will find out all about it in the newspapers tomorrow, said a third passenger.

59Then the foxes and flongboos climbed into a special car.

60The train left the station.

61It came to the horseshoe curve near Altoona, where the tracks bend in a half circle.

62Then it went on toward Ohio.

63Two baby blue foxes, the youngest on the committee, sat at the front of the car.

64Crossing Ohio and Indiana at night, the flongboos took off the top of the car.

65The conductor told them, I must have an explanation.

66It is between us and the stars, they told him.

67The train ran on to Chicago.

68There were pictures in the newspapers that afternoon, showing foxes and flongboos eating pink ice cream with iron axes.

69Each blue fox and yellow flongboo got their own newspaper.

70Crossing to the north, the sky began to fill with the snow ghosts of Minnesota.

71Again, the foxes and flongboos lifted the top off the car so they would not miss the show.

72Some went to sleep, but the two baby blue foxes stayed up, watching the snow ghosts and telling snow ghost stories to each other.

73Early in the night, the first baby blue fox said to the second, Who are the snow ghosts the ghosts of?

74The second baby blue fox answered, Snow men, snow foxes, and snow fishes.

75Everybody has a snow ghost.

76And that was only the beginning of their talk.

77They would talk until morning about where the snow ghosts go on Christmas morning and how the snow ghosts watch the new year.

78somewhere between Winnipeg and Moose Jaw, they stopped the train and all ran out in the snow.

79The white moon was shining down a valley of birch trees.

80At last they came to Medicine Hat, near the Saskatchewan River in Winnipeg, wheat country, not far from the town of Moose Jaw, where nobody works unless they have to, and they nearly all have to.

81There they ran to the place where the head spotter of the weathermakers sits, in a high chair, on a high tower, watching the weather.

82Let loose another big wind to blow back our tails.

83Let loose a big freeze to freeze our tails back on.

84And let us get back our lost tails, they said to the head spotter.

85Which was just what he did, giving them exactly what they wanted.

86So they all went back home satisfied.

87And they all went back home and they all went back home