The Tales of Tiptoes Lightly (14 page)

It’s time to visit Lucy Goose,” said Tiptoes to Jeremy
Mouse one morning. “Her eggs must be hatched by now.”

They followed Running River down to Soggy Mire.

“I can’t come to the island with you,” said Jeremy
Mouse. “I’d love to see what her half-egg hatched into, but I can’t swim.”

“Let’s ask the Swan King if he’ll carry you over,”
suggested Tiptoes. So they went to the House of Swan.

“Dear Swan King,” said Jeremy in his best voice, “I
really want to go to Lucy Goose Island to see how the half-egg hatched, but I
can’t swim. Will you carry me over?”

“Is the half-egg hatched already?” he asked.

“We think so,” said Tiptoes. “All her eggs should be
hatched by now.”

“Everybody’s talking about the half-egg and I’d like
to see for myself,” said the Swan King. “Climb on my back Jeremy Mouse.”

So he climbed onto his back and over the waters of
Soggy Mire they sailed. Jeremy Mouse nestled in the Swan King’s feathers and
Tiptoes sat beside him for company.

“It’s like sailing with a king,” said Jeremy Mouse in
a hushed voice. “See how majestic he looks.”

“You’re lucky,” said Tiptoes. “I’ve never seen a mouse
riding on a swan’s back.”

As they came close to the island the Swan King honked
three times—honk, honk, honk. That was to let Lucy Goose know who was coming,
and Lucy honked back.

“It’s me too,” called Tiptoes.

“And me,” said Jeremy Mouse. “Are your eggs hatched?”

“They are,” said Lucy Goose proudly. “Come and see.”

Sure enough, she had three beautiful goslings. They
peeped loudly and looked around from under her wings. They were still very
small.

“Oh, they’re so fluffy,” said Tiptoes.

“But what about the half-egg?” asked Jeremy Mouse. He
was so curious he could hardly stand still.

“Yes, he hatched,” said Lucy. “He’s a little odd, and
doesn’t have feathers, but I love him anyway. Perhaps he’ll grow feathers when
he needs to fly.”

“But where is he?” asked the Swan King, who was also
very curious.

“He’s underneath me,” said Lucy Goose.

“Let’s see, let’s see,” said Tiptoes.

Lucy the Goose slowly stood up in her nest. Tiptoes,
Jeremy Mouse and the Swan King strained their necks to see—and there was the
cutest, most adorable baby turtle you have ever seen.

“A TURTLE !” they exclaimed.

A TURTLE!” exclaimed Pine Cone and Pepper Pot. Jeremy
Mouse and Tiptoes had rushed to tell them the news as soon as they got back to
shore.

“Yes! A turtle,” said Tiptoes. “A baby turtle.
Every-body in Soggy Mire is talking about it.”

“And he can swim already,” said Jeremy Mouse. “We saw
him.”

“I never heard of such a thing,” said Pine Cone. “Does
he seem happy?”

“Oh, yes,” said Tiptoes, “he can swim whenever he
wants and has a warm place to sleep at night. He’s very happy. And Mother
Turtle won’t mind where he grows up. She just lays her eggs in the mud, and
when they hatch the turtle babies look after themselves.”

“By my beard,” said Pepper Pot, pulling his beard.
“What’s his name?”

“Feathers,” said Jeremy Mouse. “Lucy Goose called him
‘Feathers’. She thinks he’ll grow feathers when he needs to fly.”

“This will make a good Telling Tale,” said Pine Cone,
rubbing his hands together. “I can hardly wait till winter to tell it round the
fire.”

“Let’s cook pancakes to celebrate,” said Pepper Pot.

So they did, and they were happy to have such a good
Telling Tale for the long nights of winter.

THE END

These tales, for the most part, arose out of my
eurythmy lessons in kindergarten and grade one. The wonderful expressiveness of
eurythmy, an art of movement and gesture using speech and music as its basis,
lends itself to vivid, nature- and spirit-filled stories. In my lessons the
tales were accompanied by live music which wove in and out of the spoken word
and living gesture. Eventually they begged to be put down on paper—which I did.
The first ‘book’, The Bee who lost his Buzz, was followed by six others, and
soon thereafter a class teacher read them throughout the year to her first
grade children with great success. The initial three ‘books’ are found in this
publication; the next two, centered around the autumn and winter festivals, are
published as ‘The Festival of Stones’, and the final two, centered around
spring, are found in ‘Big-Stamp Two-Toes the Barefoot Giant’.

Although Tiptoes was ‘born’ at the Monadnock Waldorf
School in Keene, New Hampshire, the setting is, rather loosely, in California.
This is where, following my stint in the east, I taught for five years at the
Camellia Waldorf School in Sacramento. When I imagine Tiptoes and her friends
they are sitting in the branches of the Great Oak Tree outside my eurythmy
room, rowing down the Sacramento River to the Pacific shores, or sailing up to
the snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains just visible in the distance. The
little children often asked me as I passed by their playground, “Where’s
Tiptoes today?” or informed me, with the utmost seriousness, that they had seen
her sitting in the flower garden, or that Pine Cone and Pepper Pot had
definitely been spotted near the swings. And what wonderful smiles I got when
they discovered that Pins and Needles slept in a pin cushion (how else?), and
that you could so easily pass them by because they looked just like all the
other pins and needles when they were asleep.

These characters took on a life of their own and,
quite literally, populated the school. I have received many, many drawings of
Tiptoes and crew, given to me for my birthday, or Christmas, or just ‘because’.
Which brings me to a delicate point, a secret I have kept quiet about for quite
some time: Tiptoes is real! This is not a confession made lightly, least of all
in print —nevertheless, it’s true. Without her these stories could not have
been written, or even imagined. Hopefully some of her magic has rubbed off on
you and your children, and made the world a better place.

Reg Down

Sacramento, California, 2004.

P.S. Ompliant’s name came from my eldest son when he
was little. He couldn’t say ‘elephant’ properly, so he said Ompliant instead.
It’s pronounced Om-plea-ant. (‘Om’ as in ‘from’.)

Rate it: if you enjoyed this book, please, next time
you’re on Amazon, give it a couple of words plus as many stars as your
enjoyment. The biggest challenge as a self-published author is promotion, and
what people see on Amazon definitely makes a difference ~ thank you.

To view sample stories and a synopsis from all of Reg
Down’s books for children please visit

www.tiptoes-lightly.net
.

The Tales of Tiptoes Lightly

The Festival of Stones

Big-Stamp Two-Toes the Barefoot Giant

The Magic Knot

The Lost Lagoon

The Starry Bird

Eggs for the Hunting

The Bee who Lost his Buzz

The Cricket and the Shepherd Boy

Sir Gillygad and the Gruesome Egg

A Tangle of Tales

Butterbrains
(Kindle edition only)

The Fetching of Spring
(for grown-ups)

Color and Gesture: the inner life of color
(for artists and eurythmists and those interested in
color theory and practice)

Leaving Room for the Angels: eurythmy and the art of
teaching
(available from AWSNA
Publications)

The website also has numerous short stories for
teachers and parents to download – they mostly cover kindergarten through grade
4, but some are for high school and adults.

UPCOMING IN 2013

The Midsummer Mouse
(scheduled for May or June 2013)

and

The Treasure Cave
(scheduled for August or September 2013)

Other
books edited and published by Reg Down and available from Amazon are:

Gilgamesh
by
Bernarda Bryson

The King of Ireland’s Son
by Padraic Colum

The Children of Odin
by Padraic Colum

The Boy who knew what the Birds said
by Padraic Colum

The Boy apprenticed to an Enchanter
by Padraic Colum

The Last little Cat
by Meindert DeJong

Sticks across the Chimney
by Nora Burglon

The Gate swings in
by Nora Burglon

Vendors, please contact me at
[email protected]
for wholesale
terms.