Ozark Fantasy - Twelve Fair Kingdoms Part 23

You could put it in the bottom of a tight and heavy sack long

enough to carry it to some similar peg, should you be required to move.

And you could dust it off, from time to time.

If you tried to do anything else with that dulcimer, such as showing it off to the neighbors, or playing a tune, or even moving it off its peg to peek at it your own self, it came flying out at you like a hunting hawk; and starting in the center of the room it would swoop in bigger and bigger circles, faster and faster... Wheeeyeeew! Let me tell you, all you could do then was throw yourself on the floor, roll under whatever you'd fit under, and pray it would miss you.

And n.o.body could put that thing back on its peg but another Magician trained in Formalisms & Transformations.And that is the tale of the Flying Dulcimer of Castle Purdy, and has something to tell us about being proud of things.

The jump-rope rhyme goes like this:

The Purdys have a dulcimer, it cannot make a sound; and if you take it off its peg, it flies around and round!

It'll hit you in the back of the neck, as it goes flying by!

It'll hit you in the crook of the back, it'll poke you in the eye!

It'll chase you round the bedroom, it'll chase you down the stairs!

And all 'cause of Rozasharn of Purdy as tried to put on airs! ----