Okay, first off, the story of Little Jack Horner intrigues me.
Is it satirical? Or merely the story of a greedy little boy sitting in
a corner, keeping all the pie to himself.
I think this needs to be explored. Right?
So here we go…
We’ll begin with the actual poem, as I learned it in the great So Long
Ago:
Little Jack Horner
Sat in a corner,
Eating his Christmas pie.
He stuck in his thumb
And pulled out a plum,
And said, “What a good boy am I!”
Right away, this begs the question, Why is Jackie sitting in a corner
all by himself?
With a pie.
Had he been bad and sent to said corner?
I want to mention, here, that when MY parents gave me a time out, pie
wasn’t included.
Had he been sent there to eat by himself because someone forgot to bathe that day? Seriously, it could happen. I
know there have been occasions when I’ve sat beside someone who…never mind.
Suffice it to say odours other than entrees/desserts were distinctly
indicated.
Or did Jackie Boy simply want to sit there quietly by himself? Perhaps
my loquacious Aunt Agnes was in the crowd and talk about yesterday’s sermon and
tomorrow’s choir rehearsal just interfered with some serious ‘pie-eating’
concentration. The old ‘shut up and let me shovel’!
And that brings us to the next talking point. I’m assuming everyone at
the party was gifted with a large pie of their own and that our boy hadn’t
pinched what would amount to the entire company’s dessert. Please tell me it isn’t so, Jackie!
And that his being holed up in that corner had nothing to do with
selfishness.
Or theft.
Oh, dear.
Could it be the corner was shady and hidden and that our boy was there,
not by design, but by necessity? To stay out of sight?
This brings up a whole new discussion.
Is this a story about the nefarious Mr. Jack Horner of the Hole-in-the-Wall
Horners?
The not-so-famous outlaws. (Okay, yes, I made them up…)
Was the Jack in our story just a common thief?
There is also the theory that ‘Jack’ was a well-known public figure,
but one with his own interests at heart. That the ‘pie’ he had purloined was,
in fact, loaded with—not the fruit one would expect—but instead, a deed to a valuable
property.
That the ‘sticking in of the thumb’ included fingers. And the pulling
forth of the juicy (?) bit of parchment entitled the bearer to sole possession of…something
valuable enough it warranted sneakiness and hiding in shadowy corners.
And the not sharing of the something valuable.
Truthfully, I prefer the idea that Little Jack Horner was simply at a
Christmas party. Everyone had been given their own pie. And he chose to eat his
in the corner where grooming was unimportant. Along with acceptable gustatory mannerisms
vis-à-vis pie-eating.
Thus, the thumb being poked into the pie and withdrawn captured by a
plum would simply be that. A small boy, rather greedy and impatient—hence the using
of the fingers— who is proud of his whole ‘poking fingers into pies’ abilities.
We need a re-write…
Young Jack Horner’s manners
In his family of Tanners,
Was not something of which they were proud.
And thus, they would press him,
That, though they would dress him
He shouldn’t be part of the crowd.
So there in the corner,
(cheered by his suborners!)
Not bound by a cord and not strappled…
He stuck in his thumb
And pulled out a plum,
Then shouted out, “I ordered apple!”
Each month Karen, Mimi or I choose a number between 12 and 50 and the others craft a post using that number of words one or multiple times.
This month’s number is: 45
It was chosen by ME!
Now go and see what my friends have created!
