The Goolibah Tree
My grandmother had a lot of children's books about peace and cooperation that I read often when I was young, and (since normal is what one grows up with) I did not realize until much later that most of them were books from the 1940s that nobody else had ever heard of. One of them is called The Goolibah Tree, by Joe Gunterman. There is very little information about it to be found on the internet, and some of you have expressed an interest in hearing what it's about, so here's what I remember about the plot.
Mr Spinglespangle went on a walk through the forest, and found a tall goolibah tree with plenty of delicious-looking fruit. He piled up a bunch of empty crates to form a stack he could climb, and sat on a branch picking fruit and eating his fill.
Presently he heard footsteps approaching, and saw two others, Mr Krinkle and Mr Wrinkle, approaching the clearing. He worried that they might climb the tree and eat some of the fruit, and he wanted it all for himself, so he kicked down the pile of boxes and continued eating.
Messrs Krinkle and Wrinkle noticed Mr Spinglespangle in the tree, and asked if they could have some fruit. Mr Spinglespangle apologized and explained that there probably wasn't enough fruit for everyone, and besides, there was no way up the tree. Messrs Krinkle and Wrinkle noticed the boxes, realized what was going on, and started to stack them up again.
However, some of the boxes had broken during the fall, so Mr Krinkle walked off to search for more boxes. While he was gone, Mr Spinglespangle began convincing Mr Wrinkle that Mr Krinkle should not be trusted--don't you see that he's different than you? have you seen how krinkly his hair is? do you imagine that perhaps he wants all the fruit for himself?
By the time Mr Krinkle returned with some boxes, Mr Wrinkle did not want to cooperate with him at all, and told him that maybe they'd better just divide up the boxes and each work separately to build his own pile. Mr Krinkle was confused but agreed, and began building his pile with the new boxes while Mr Wrinkle walked off to find more boxes for himself. In the meanwhile, of course, Mr Spinglespangle ran the same lines past Mr Krinkle to convince him not to trust Mr Wrinkle, with similar effect.
Messrs Krinkle and Wrinkle continued building their separate piles of boxes, each worrying (and rightly so) that he didn't have enough, and then began to argue about which boxes were whose, to the point of fighting. Meanwhile Mr Spinglespangle sat up in the tree, eating more and more fruit and watching with amusement.
At some point a dove landed on the tree and asked "What are you doing?" Messrs Krinkle and Wrinkle explained the situation (while Mr Spinglespangle tried to get the dove to go away), and the dove laughed and said "You're all being silly. Mr Spinglespangle, there's plenty of fruit for everybody; stop being so greedy. Messrs Krinkle and Wrinkle, if you work together you can easily build a pile of boxes high enough; don't let Mr Spinglespangle play you for fools."
Messrs Krinkle and Wrinkle looked at each other with guilty embarrassment, worked together to build the pile of boxes, and there was indeed plenty of fruit for everyone, even Mr Spinglespangle.
I didn't realize until YEARS later that the whole thing is a rather obvious metaphor for the wealthy overlords kicking the ladder out from underneath themselves and pitting the lower classes against each other. I suppose that makes May Day a good time to post this. :-)
Mr Spinglespangle went on a walk through the forest, and found a tall goolibah tree with plenty of delicious-looking fruit. He piled up a bunch of empty crates to form a stack he could climb, and sat on a branch picking fruit and eating his fill.
Presently he heard footsteps approaching, and saw two others, Mr Krinkle and Mr Wrinkle, approaching the clearing. He worried that they might climb the tree and eat some of the fruit, and he wanted it all for himself, so he kicked down the pile of boxes and continued eating.
Messrs Krinkle and Wrinkle noticed Mr Spinglespangle in the tree, and asked if they could have some fruit. Mr Spinglespangle apologized and explained that there probably wasn't enough fruit for everyone, and besides, there was no way up the tree. Messrs Krinkle and Wrinkle noticed the boxes, realized what was going on, and started to stack them up again.
However, some of the boxes had broken during the fall, so Mr Krinkle walked off to search for more boxes. While he was gone, Mr Spinglespangle began convincing Mr Wrinkle that Mr Krinkle should not be trusted--don't you see that he's different than you? have you seen how krinkly his hair is? do you imagine that perhaps he wants all the fruit for himself?
By the time Mr Krinkle returned with some boxes, Mr Wrinkle did not want to cooperate with him at all, and told him that maybe they'd better just divide up the boxes and each work separately to build his own pile. Mr Krinkle was confused but agreed, and began building his pile with the new boxes while Mr Wrinkle walked off to find more boxes for himself. In the meanwhile, of course, Mr Spinglespangle ran the same lines past Mr Krinkle to convince him not to trust Mr Wrinkle, with similar effect.
Messrs Krinkle and Wrinkle continued building their separate piles of boxes, each worrying (and rightly so) that he didn't have enough, and then began to argue about which boxes were whose, to the point of fighting. Meanwhile Mr Spinglespangle sat up in the tree, eating more and more fruit and watching with amusement.
At some point a dove landed on the tree and asked "What are you doing?" Messrs Krinkle and Wrinkle explained the situation (while Mr Spinglespangle tried to get the dove to go away), and the dove laughed and said "You're all being silly. Mr Spinglespangle, there's plenty of fruit for everybody; stop being so greedy. Messrs Krinkle and Wrinkle, if you work together you can easily build a pile of boxes high enough; don't let Mr Spinglespangle play you for fools."
Messrs Krinkle and Wrinkle looked at each other with guilty embarrassment, worked together to build the pile of boxes, and there was indeed plenty of fruit for everyone, even Mr Spinglespangle.
I didn't realize until YEARS later that the whole thing is a rather obvious metaphor for the wealthy overlords kicking the ladder out from underneath themselves and pitting the lower classes against each other. I suppose that makes May Day a good time to post this. :-)