Reading Notes: March's Ears, Part A

March' Ears
Author: W. Jenkyn Thomas

This story was about a lord named March. He had a secret that nobody knew, except his barber. The secret was that March had horse ears. He was embarrassed and ashamed by them, so he never wanted anyone to see them.

He made his barber take an oath saying that he would never share the information with anyone. Eventually, the barber became ill because he had been keeping this secret for so long. The barber went to see a physician to get help with his illness.

The physician said that the only way he could get better was to share the secret. The barber whispered the secret to the ground, and where he did, the ground began to grow fine crops.

Later that evening, March had a party. This party involved music, drinking, and a lot of people. As a piper was playing, March found out that he knew his secret. March tried to kill him with his sword but could not. March was no longer ashamed of his ears. For they allowed him to hear the music extremely well.

                                                                   Horse Ears

Reading Notes: Beth Gellert, Part B

Celtic Fairy Tales: Beth Gellert
Author: Joseph Jacobs

There once was a prince, named Prince Llewelyn. This prince had a hound named Gellert. Gellert was the best dog that the prince had ever had. He always took Gellert with him when he went hunting.

One afternoon, Prince Llewelyn wanted to go hunting but couldn't find Gellert. He called for him, but no response. So the prince went hunting without Gellert.

Upon his return, Gellert greeted the prince with blood dripping from his mouth. Worried about his toddler, the prince hurried to the nursery. When he got to the nursery, his child was nowhere to be found. He looked everywhere for him.

Assuming that Gellert had killed his child, the prince took his sword and stabbed the hound. When Gellert let out a big yelp, the child awoke and made a noise. Unharmed, the prince found his child under the crib awakening from a nap. Under the crib with the baby was a wolf that had been killed.

Gellert had protected the child from harm. The prince tried to revive the dog, but couldn't.

Beth Gellert

Reading Notes: The Horned Women, Part A

Celtic Fairy Tales: The Horned Women
Author: Joseph Jacobs

There once was a rich woman who was sitting with her servants around her carding and preparing wool.

There was a knock at the door and the woman got up to answer. At the door was a witch with a horn growing from her head. She entered and began carding and preparing wool.

The knocking continued for a total of 12 times. Each with that came had one more horn than the one before.

The woman was under their spell and couldn't move or speak. They eventually proposed that she make them a cake. So she went to gather the necessary ingredients needed to make a cake.

The Spirit of the Well took over and demanded that the witches break the curse and leave town. They were reluctant at first, but left in a hurry, all crying and screaming. The Spirit of the Well had won and helped the rich woman.

The Horned Women

Reading Notes: lagoo, the Story-Teller, EC

American Indian: lagoo, the Story-Teller
Author: W.T. Larned (1921)

This story was about a lagoo that told the best stories. People would come from near and far to hear his stories.

lagoo knew all the secrets of everything. From the forest to the ocean, lagoo knew everything there was to know.

One evening, he placed logs in a circle for everyone to sit. He was going to tell a story, and everyone wanted to hear.

Of all the people that enjoyed hearing the stories, the children enjoyed them the most. As they were sitting around on the logs, the wind came whirling in and scared some of the children.

lagoo assured them that the wind couldn't hurt anyone and would soon be scared away by the fire.

Logs

Reading Notes: Coyote's Eyes, Part B

Coyote's Eyes
Author: Katharine Berry Judson (1912)

Main characters: coyote and a bird

The story started out with a bird taking out and throwing its eyes into the air. When the birds eye returned, they were brighter than before.

The coyote witnessed this and wanted to try. The bird took the coyotes eyes and threw them up into the air. His eyes were much brighter than before. Coyote was so happy with how his eyes turned out that he wanted to try again. The bird refused, but coyote persisted.

The bird took coyotes eyes and threw them up into the air and they never came down. Coyote demanded that they return, but bird never returned them.

Annoyed at his constant complaining, the bird took gum and shaped it into a ball and shoved it into coyotes eye holes. He was never able to see again.

Coyote and Bird

Reading Notes: Coyote, Tortillas, and Mesquite Beans, Part A

Coyote, Tortillas, and Mesquite Beans
Author: Katharine Berry Judson (1912)

This story was mainly about outsmarting and listening to directions.

There was a flood and a woman was walking through the water. She was carrying a basket of tortillas above her head. As she was walking, a coyote that was in a tree was watching her. He asked her to come close and give her the tortillas or he would shoot her with a bow.

Scared that she was going to be shot, she approached the tree. When she was close to the tree she told coyote to come down and get the tortillas. The coyote saw that the woman was only ankle deep in the water, not knowing that she was standing on a tree stump, so he decided to come down from the tree.

The water washed the coyote away. Upon the waters going down, the coyote came across an elder brother that told him not to touch the black bug and not to eat the mesquite beans. Coyote failed to listen and ate both. The bug and beans swelled and killed the coyote.

Coyote In Tree

Week 10 Story: Prom Night

Prom Night

Prom! Prom! Prom! That's all Joelle and Laurel could think about. They have been dreaming of this day since they were little girls. They both wanted prom night to be magical, like a fairytale from a book.

Both girls had already found the perfect dress. Joelle's was baby blue with rhinestone all around, and Laurel's was lavender with a floral pattern covering the top. They were eagerly awaiting the day to come.

There was one problem though. Neither of them had a date. They had talked about this before, and if neither of them had a date then they would just go with a group of friends.

Prom was a few weeks away and the girls decided to give it one last go at finding dates. There was a cute senior boy, named Jackson, that Joelle had her eye on. She had always wanted to go with him to prom but never had the courage to ask him.

Laurel had a secret crush too, but never told anyone. She always admired Jackson, the senior boy at her school. She wanted so badly to go to prom with him, but could never gather the courage to ask him.

Neither of the girls knew about the others secret crush, until one morning on their way to school. Joelle brought up the idea that she had to about wanting to ask Jackson to prom. Shocked, Laurel said she wanted to ask Jackson too. "We can't ask the same boy," said Joelle. "How about we both ask him and whoever he says yes to gets to go with him?" asked Laurel. Hesitant at first, Joelle agreed. "Fine, may the best one win," Laurel said in a firm tone.

Later that afternoon, Joelle was thinking of a way she could ask Jackson to prom. Did she want to text him or ask him in person? Should she make a sign or send him a gift? She didn't know what she was going to do.

Laurel was also thinking of how she was going to ask him. Should she send him a note? Or, should she ask him to hangout and then ask him? She didn't know what she was going to do either.

Later that day, Laurel decided she was going to ask Jackson to go to the movies with her tonight. The new Twilight movie was out and she was so excited to see it.

Coincidentally, Joelle was going to ask Jackson to go eat frozen yogurt with her tonight. There was a new place that she wanted to try.

Usually, the girls would go try the new frozen yogurt place and go watch the new Twilight movie together, but they were too focused on winning Jackson over. There was a weird tension between the girls that neither of them wanted to admit.

After lunch the next day, Joelle stopped Jackson in the hallway and asked if he wanted to go grab frozen yogurt with her later on tonight.  To her surprise, he agreed!

A few hours later, when Jackson was walking to his car, Laurel stopped him. She asked if he wanted to go see the new Twilight movie with her later tonight, and he said he would!

Both girls were thrilled that they had a date tonight with Jackson, they couldn't wait to ask him to prom. The only thing in the way was that neither of them knew that he was going to say yes to both of them...

Later that evening, Joelle and Jackson were enjoying their frozen yogurt when Joelle asked if he would want to go to prom with her. She was so nervous that he was going to say no, but to her surprise he said yes! "Wow, really?" Joelle said. "Sure, I'd love to go together," said Jackson.

Jackson dropped Joelle off at her house and headed toward the move theatre to meet up with Laurel.

Once they both found their seats, Laurel shyly asked him if he wanted to go to prom with her. Looking a bit confused, he said "sure." 

Not fazed one bit by his hesitating, Laurel was so excited that she was going to get to go to prom with Jackson.

Prom day was finally here! The girls hadn't spoken since they decided to compete with each other and try to win the date with Jackson, so they were getting ready on their own. They had always planned on getting their hair and nails done together, but since they were fighting they decided to get ready by theirselves. 

The limo pulled up to Joelle's house and out stepped Jackson with a corsage in hand. He looked so handsome and the all white tuxedo that he was wearing paired perfectly with her baby blue dress. They got in the limo and headed to prom, or so she thought.

She noticed that the limo driver was taking them a different way than she expected, but she didn't care because she was going to show up with her handsome date.

A few minutes later she noticed that they pulled up to Laurel's house. "What are we doing here?" Joelle asked. "We're picking up Laurel." replied Jackson. Joelle couldn't believe this. Did Jackson really plan on going to prom with both of us? 

Jackson stepped out of the limo and out walked Laurel in her floral patterned, lavender dress. We match perfectly, thought Laurel when she saw him in his all white tuxedo.

As she got in the limo she saw Joelle sitting in the seat across. 

"What are you doing here?" asked Laurel.

"I'm going to prom with Jackson, what are you doing here?" replied Joelle.

"Jackson said he would go to prom with me," said Laurel.

"No, I'm going to prom with him," said Joelle.

"Ladies, ladies, ladies, calm down. I'm going to prom with both of you," said Jackson.

Frustrated and confused, the girls realized that neither of them had really won the date with Jackson.

They both learned that compromising their friendship wasn't worth it and they learned a valuable lesson that day. 

Disco Ball

Author's Note: I took the original story "Two Fast Runners," and added my own twist. In the original story, a deer and an antelope were trying to settle an argument. Both of them thought that they were faster than the other, so to settle this argument, they decided that they were going to race to determine who was faster.  The first time they raced, they bet their galls. This race was to take place on the prairie. The antelope beat the deer and took the deer's galls. Unsatisfied, the deer suggested that it wasn't a fair race and that they should race in the timbers. The antelope agreed. This time they bet their dewclaws. The deer won this time and took the antelope's dew claws. In the end, both animals realized that each of them were faster in their own territory. In my story, there was a feud between two friends that wanted to attend prom with the same boy. They both decided to compete with each other to try and win a date with the cute boy at their school. In the end, they realized that fighting with each other and compromising their friendship wasn't worth it. Although they got to go to prom with the boy they wanted, neither of them truly won.

Story Source: Blackfoot: Two Fast Runners

Author: George Bird Grinnell (1915)