As performed by Faye Massey, Anna Scales, Heather Fugate, and Scott Thrasher
-
I. Two actresses are talking about the upcoming holiday of Thanksgiving. Like how they no longer make their own dressing…they use Stove Top instead.
- One day her mother dies. She left Mutsmeg's two sisters the cabbage patch and left Mutsmeg an old case knife. The sisters soon ate the cabbage and were making journey cakes so they could go out and find their fortune.
- Mutsmeg begged her sisters to take her with them saying that she will be very scared in the woods all by herself. The sisters will only agree if Mutsmeg takes a sieve and goes down to the creek and brings back some water. She proclaims that it is full of holes, but her sister say that is the only way they will allow her to come along. Mutsmeg goes to the creek but can't get water into the sieve. All of a sudden Mutsmeg hears a little bluebird chirping. She looks up and the bird tells her, "Pack it with moss, dab it with clay, then you can carry the water away." Mutsmeg does as the bird suggests and sure enough, she carries water back to her sisters. Regretfully the sisters agree that Mutsmeg can come along.
- Upon their journey, the two sisters spot a laurel bush and tie Mutsmeg to the bush so she will quit following them. Mutsmeg pulls out the old case knife her mother gave her and frees herself quickly and easily. She runs and catches up with her sisters. Amazed at their predicament, the sisters stumble upon a shed. Sunddenly they push Mutsmeg inside and slam the door latching it. Mutsmeg screams for help as the sisters run away laughing. Soon a fox hears Mutsmeg screams and asks her, "What wrong little girl?" Mutsmeg explains that her sisters locked her in here. The fox doesn't seem to care until Mutsmeg tells him that if she helps her escape, she'll tell him where to find a fat turkey dinner. The fox helps her and Mutsmeg tells the fox about the field over yonder with the fat turkey.
- Mutsmeg caught up with her sisters and they are amazed she escaped the shed. But it is getting dark and cold and they need shelter. The girls say Mutsmeg can accompany them only if she walks far behind them and they say she is a serving girl. The sisters come upon a house. They knock on the door and ask for food and shelter, saying they have a serving girl who will work for their housing. The old woman invited them in. The woman feeds them…except for Mutsmeg who has to wash the dishes. The woman tells them that she has a loft they can sleep in. The sisters climb up in the loft and soon fall asleep. Soon she heard heavy footsteps and saw a giant enter. "Where's my dinner, woman?" He asked the old witch woman. She tells him that she has a feast fit for a king in the loft…three delicious young girls. "How can I tell the difference between my dinner and your daughters?" the giant asked. The witch woman told him that HER daughters all had on sleeping caps. Mutsmeg reached over to the other sleeping girls, grabbed their sleeping caps and put them on the heads of her and her sisters. The giant grabbed the wrong girls and threw them into the boiling pot. When the witch woman realized what the giant did, she chased him out with a broom. During the commotion, Mutsmeg tied some sheets together and she and her sisters escaped out a hole in the roof.
- The next day the sisters came upon the king's castle. They told him how they escaped from the giant. The king said to Mutsmeg, "I hate that old witch woman, bring me back her head and I will give you two bushel bags of gold." Mutsmeg answered, "I'll try." Mutsmeg got a big bushel basket of salt and went back to the witch woman's house. Mutsmeg climbed onto the roof and observed the witch woman inside making stew for the giant. Every time the witch woman would turn away, Mutsmeg would pour salt down the chimney into the stew until all the salt was gone. Soon the giant came home and asked, "Where my dinner, woman?" The witch woman answered that she had been preparing this stew all day. The giant tasted it and screamed, "This is too salty!" The witch woman protested saying she only put in a pinch of salt. The giant screamed for water and the witch had to go down to the creek for water. Now witches have what's called a witch light. They throw the light far ahead of them and it lights their way. Mutsmeg however had been hiding down by the creek and as the witch threw out her light, Mutsmeg caught it, threw it in the creek and the witch couldn't see and fell down the side of the mountain. Mutsmeg ran after her and cut off her head and returned it to the king. The king was very happy and rewarded Mutsmeg with the bags of gold. He then said that the giant had stolen his beautiful Ten Mile Stepper, a beautiful white horse. He asked Mutsmeg to get it back for him. She answered, "I'll try."
- Mutsmeg got some oats and returned once again to the giant house. She snuck into the barn and found a beautiful white horse, covered in bells and with the thickest rope you ever saw tied into hundreds of knots. Because of all the bells anytime the horse would move, he would jingle, jingle, jingle so loud the giant could hear it. So Mutsmeg fed the horse some oats and began sawing at the ropes. Pretty soon the horse was done with the oats and raised his head and the bells started jingling. The giant rushed out but Mutsmeg hid behind a door. After the giant left, Mutsmeg fed the horse more oats and continued to saw at the ropes. The horse finished eating, raised his head, the bells would jingle and the giant would come running. Mutsmeg continued this until all the oats were gone. When the giant returned again, Mutsmeg, who was hiding behind the horses swishing tail, was discovered. The giant was furious. Mutsmeg said, "whatever you do don't feed me honey and butter. I hate honey and butter." The giant decided that was exactly what he was going to do because he didn't know Mutsmeg LOVED honey and butter. He got tired of feeding the child after a while. The giant began to think about what other horrible things he could do the Mutsmeg. Just please don't tie me in a sack and beat me until my bones break like fine china, and I screech like a cat and howl like a dog and my blood runs like honey and butter." The giant said, "That exactly what I'll do!" He tied Mutsmeg in a sack and went to find a club. While he was gone, Mutsmeg took her old case knife and cut herself out of the bag. Then she filled it with all of the giant's fine china, his cats and dogs and all the rest of the honey and butter. Then she hid from the giant. When the giant returned, he began beating the sack and heard Mutsmeg bones break like china. He heard her howl like a dog and screech like a cat. He was her blood run like honey and butter. The giant soon got tired of beating the sack, so he opened it up to see what kind of damage he had caused. When he dumped it out, he realized he broke all his china, killed his dog and cat and wasted the rest of his honey and butter.
- Meanwhile, Mutsmeg had rescued the ten-mile stepper and taken it across the creek. When the giant finally found them, he asked, "Hey how did you get over there?" Mutsmeg answered, "I poled a hole in a rock tied a rope around the rock and my neck and just skipped myself across." The giant thought that was a great idea and tried to skip himself across the river. He was much too big though and he drowns.
- Mutsmeg returned the ten-mile stepper to the king and collected two more bushel bags of gold and lived happily ever after.
II. A child enters throwing the biggest fit because she can't understand her math homework. One actress believes that math isn't important and tells the child to just forget about it. The other actress says that everyone uses math in their everyday lives and they anyone can do anything if they put their mind to it. She tells the child that perhaps she should once again hear the story of Mutsmeg.
III. Mutsmeg lived in the mountains with the mother and two sisters.
IV. The actress tells the child that he can do anything if she wants to.
V. The two actresses continue their Thanksgiving conversation…talking about cranberry sauce.