Said Mr. Gourd: "You'll plainly see
We are a busy family;
We give you bottles, cups and things,
And curly vines for playtime rings."
We are a busy family;
We give you bottles, cups and things,
And curly vines for playtime rings."
Assemble a mini doll sized book: Right,
is the gourd's illustration and verse. Visitors can collect all the
vegetable illustrations and verse from "Mother Earth's Children" to
print and construct a small book of verse for their dolls. Simply drag
each png. into a Word Document, print, cut out all of the images the
same size and staple the pages together at the left edge. Squeeze out
some white school glue along the stapled edge of the pages and attach a
cardboard cover.
More About Gourds:
Gourd Men
"The little Wests each fancied a different style of doll. Eugenie like dressed up visiting dolls, Florence played mother to baby dolls in long dresses. The baby always insisted on her children keeping house. Tom's characters' came from the squash patch and gourd vines. He didn't think it necessary to even dress these. All one had to do was to dip a pen in ink and mark out faces on them.
These faces could be made either sunny and cheerful or sour and sad by changing the directions of the lines. Lines turning upward made the happy faces and those turning downward made the troubled ones.
The oval yellow gourds were made into fat men and Humpty Dumpties. These Tom used to make run races with each other by rolling them down hill. Which do you think always beat, the fattest and largest, or the smaller ones?
None of the Gourd men ever had the appearance of being either sensible or well behaved. But one ought not to expect sense and dignity from any of their kind, for, all over the world, those who have neither are said to be as "green as a gourd."
It was only the gourd babies who seemed to know anything at all about behaving properly. Strange as it may seem, the younger members of this awkward family were as sweet and quiet as any babies in the whole vegetable kingdom.
Some of these gourd children were made by using the large part for a head and putting a deep frill about the neck for a gown. This was held in place by a pin run through both gown and baby.
Others were made by using the slender part for a head and putting the same kind of a frill about the neck for a dress. The last kind could sit up as well as any real child.
It was the easiest thing in the world to make rhymes about these dolls - indeed the rhymes seemed to almost make themselves." Margret Walker.
These faces could be made either sunny and cheerful or sour and sad by changing the directions of the lines. Lines turning upward made the happy faces and those turning downward made the troubled ones.
The oval yellow gourds were made into fat men and Humpty Dumpties. These Tom used to make run races with each other by rolling them down hill. Which do you think always beat, the fattest and largest, or the smaller ones?
None of the Gourd men ever had the appearance of being either sensible or well behaved. But one ought not to expect sense and dignity from any of their kind, for, all over the world, those who have neither are said to be as "green as a gourd."
It was only the gourd babies who seemed to know anything at all about behaving properly. Strange as it may seem, the younger members of this awkward family were as sweet and quiet as any babies in the whole vegetable kingdom.
Some of these gourd children were made by using the large part for a head and putting a deep frill about the neck for a gown. This was held in place by a pin run through both gown and baby.
Others were made by using the slender part for a head and putting the same kind of a frill about the neck for a dress. The last kind could sit up as well as any real child.
It was the easiest thing in the world to make rhymes about these dolls - indeed the rhymes seemed to almost make themselves." Margret Walker.
 |
| Tom's gourd dolls. Left, the gourd man with sticks for arms and legs. Only faces on the rest. |
What the Gourd Man Said
I'm as strange a fellow
As ever was seen
With face of yellow
And hair of green.
With seeds in the place
Where my brain ought to be-
You can't expect much
From a fellow like me.
I'm as strange a fellow
As ever was seen
With face of yellow
And hair of green.
With seeds in the place
Where my brain ought to be-
You can't expect much
From a fellow like me.
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