Post by Alan on Sept 3, 2009 21:48:04 GMT -5
The Good Pumpkin Loup-Garou
As told by Pepe Boucher
In the past everybody had their own garden. Everyone liked his garden and took good care of it. Mais Jaques Cabaisser, he loved his pumpkins most of all. He fertilized the ground; be poured water. Nobody had pumpkins like Jaques. It paid him back by growing big. Many French had farms on both sides of the Oubache River and went across to work in them. Jaques went more often than the others. Ma foi! One Dark stormy night he started home, mais he never got back. His wife and children looked for him; his friends went over and looked for him. When the river turned to ice, everyone said Jaques was lost, frozen, and he will come no more to Vincennes.
The winter was long and cold. The river was frozen for more than three months. Christmas and New Year's was sad for Madame Cabaisser and her family with no kind father and husband. Many feared he had been bewitched.
That February the sun was so warm that the trees began to get leaves. The ice was all gone from the river when some men saw a big gold cup out in the center of the river. The men thought they saw come up from the cup, well you wouldn't guess it in years. It was Jaques Cabaisser riding on his best horse. Everybody looked and waited for him as he rode from the gold cup up the river bank to the group of people. He and his horse were covered with a net of gold. He laughed and threw a piece of gold in the crowd. Charlie Page caught it, for he was not afraid, and he said, "Jaques, if you aren't allowed to tell, ride on, but if you can tell, stop and entertain us."
Jaques laughed and replied, "Oh, it has only been ninety days and one, so I can talk. It was my good pumpkin loup-garou."
"Bien mon ami," drawled Jaques. "I went down to the farm on the other side of the river. When I tried to come back the ice was on top of the river. I thought I would die. Mais I lived and when the ice was gone--bien, you saw me come on my horse from my great pumpkin. Mais I tell you now it turned to gold on the outside, but inside it was good to eat. All the seeds turned to gold. I have my pockets full of golden seed."
Charlie Page interrupted. "I've got the one you threw when you neared land. We will pull in your good old pumpkin for you. I'll bet it will take many horses to pull."
Everybody was willing to lend a horse for the pull. Someone said they heard the wind say, "Don't pull to land!" (Pepe intoned these words in a shivery, shakey voice resembling the wind, wailing through the branches of a pine tree.) Mais the others laughed at him and pulled the good pumpkin to the land. It took fifty horses. When the first side hit the land it turned to a rotten pumpkin. Mais the horses were far up the bank and the man at the head of them cracked his whip, all the horses jumped and the entire gold pumpkin was pulled up on the bank. Every bit of it was merely pumpkin. Then the people remembered the golden seed, and when Jaques dropped it on the ground, it was still golden.
"When the pumpkin lay there it made a big hill of ripe pumpkin as large as a barn. Pourquoir you laugh?"
"Oh, Pepe, who could believe this story?" his listeners asked. "It is the most incredible of all. A pumpkin big enough to hold a man and his horse? Big enough to furnish them sustenance for three months and then have enough remaining to make a small hill out of its golden walls?"
To which Pepe replied, "Mais you must know it is a good loup-garou that saved the life of the man who took good care of it when it was just a petit pumpkin. You bet it gave good measure in its seeds, and there were more than 901 of them."
To all questions as to how the man and the horse got inside the pumpkin without the water flowing in and how they breathed encased in the golden waterproof shell, Jaques's response was, "You ask many questions like a lawyer. Well, I never ask. It is not the way. Oui I always raise huge pumpkins and all vegetables and I try to be kind and take care of all things that grow and live. And they repay me by growing large and being good to eat. You are Americans, that is the difficulty. I don't believe in all the idle stories, mais I like to make you laugh and ask questions. This is a compliment to my power when I tell unbelievable stories."
As told by Pepe Boucher
In the past everybody had their own garden. Everyone liked his garden and took good care of it. Mais Jaques Cabaisser, he loved his pumpkins most of all. He fertilized the ground; be poured water. Nobody had pumpkins like Jaques. It paid him back by growing big. Many French had farms on both sides of the Oubache River and went across to work in them. Jaques went more often than the others. Ma foi! One Dark stormy night he started home, mais he never got back. His wife and children looked for him; his friends went over and looked for him. When the river turned to ice, everyone said Jaques was lost, frozen, and he will come no more to Vincennes.
The winter was long and cold. The river was frozen for more than three months. Christmas and New Year's was sad for Madame Cabaisser and her family with no kind father and husband. Many feared he had been bewitched.
That February the sun was so warm that the trees began to get leaves. The ice was all gone from the river when some men saw a big gold cup out in the center of the river. The men thought they saw come up from the cup, well you wouldn't guess it in years. It was Jaques Cabaisser riding on his best horse. Everybody looked and waited for him as he rode from the gold cup up the river bank to the group of people. He and his horse were covered with a net of gold. He laughed and threw a piece of gold in the crowd. Charlie Page caught it, for he was not afraid, and he said, "Jaques, if you aren't allowed to tell, ride on, but if you can tell, stop and entertain us."
Jaques laughed and replied, "Oh, it has only been ninety days and one, so I can talk. It was my good pumpkin loup-garou."
"Bien mon ami," drawled Jaques. "I went down to the farm on the other side of the river. When I tried to come back the ice was on top of the river. I thought I would die. Mais I lived and when the ice was gone--bien, you saw me come on my horse from my great pumpkin. Mais I tell you now it turned to gold on the outside, but inside it was good to eat. All the seeds turned to gold. I have my pockets full of golden seed."
Charlie Page interrupted. "I've got the one you threw when you neared land. We will pull in your good old pumpkin for you. I'll bet it will take many horses to pull."
Everybody was willing to lend a horse for the pull. Someone said they heard the wind say, "Don't pull to land!" (Pepe intoned these words in a shivery, shakey voice resembling the wind, wailing through the branches of a pine tree.) Mais the others laughed at him and pulled the good pumpkin to the land. It took fifty horses. When the first side hit the land it turned to a rotten pumpkin. Mais the horses were far up the bank and the man at the head of them cracked his whip, all the horses jumped and the entire gold pumpkin was pulled up on the bank. Every bit of it was merely pumpkin. Then the people remembered the golden seed, and when Jaques dropped it on the ground, it was still golden.
"When the pumpkin lay there it made a big hill of ripe pumpkin as large as a barn. Pourquoir you laugh?"
"Oh, Pepe, who could believe this story?" his listeners asked. "It is the most incredible of all. A pumpkin big enough to hold a man and his horse? Big enough to furnish them sustenance for three months and then have enough remaining to make a small hill out of its golden walls?"
To which Pepe replied, "Mais you must know it is a good loup-garou that saved the life of the man who took good care of it when it was just a petit pumpkin. You bet it gave good measure in its seeds, and there were more than 901 of them."
To all questions as to how the man and the horse got inside the pumpkin without the water flowing in and how they breathed encased in the golden waterproof shell, Jaques's response was, "You ask many questions like a lawyer. Well, I never ask. It is not the way. Oui I always raise huge pumpkins and all vegetables and I try to be kind and take care of all things that grow and live. And they repay me by growing large and being good to eat. You are Americans, that is the difficulty. I don't believe in all the idle stories, mais I like to make you laugh and ask questions. This is a compliment to my power when I tell unbelievable stories."
