as told by Gurney Norman

n old woman had three girls Poll, Betts, and Mutsmag.

Mutsmag was the youngest, and Poll and Betts treated here awful mean. They made her do the work while they laid around. Fed her the leftovers.

Well, one day that old woman up and died. All she had was a cabbage patch and a Case knife. She left the cabbage patch to Poll and Betts and the Case knife to Mutsmag.

Poll and Betts ate that cabbage up, and didn't give Mutsmag a bite.

Poll and Betts decided they'd go on a great journey and seek their fortune. At first they said Mutsmag couldn't go but Mutsmag begged and begged and finally they said ok, but she'd have to cook up a batch of journey cakes first, and they told her to go to the spring and bring back some water, and they handed here a sieve to carry it in.

Mutsmag took the sieve to the spring and tried to dip water but it all ran out. She dipped and dipped but it all run out.

Finally a little bluebird in a tree nearby started to sing a song to Mutsmag:

Stop it with moss
Stick it with clay
Then you can pack
Your water away.

So Mutsmag smeared that seive with clay and daubed moss over it, until it held water just fine. She took the water home and mixed up the tastiest journey cakes, and then the sisters had to let her go.

Well, they went down the road several miles Poll and Betts made Mutsmag walk behind them. Mutsmag heard them whispering to one another.

Then all at once, Poll and Betts turned around and grabbed Mutsmag and tied her to a laurel bush and snatched the journey cakes from her and off they ran.

Mutsmag pulled at the rope and tried to until it but the knots were too tight. But then she remembered that old Case knife in her pocket. She took it out and sliced through that rope and it wasn't but a few minutes til she caught up with Poll and Betts.

When they looked around and saw her coming Pol said, "Law! That crazy thing has got loose. What'll we do with her this time?"

It so happened there was an old log corn shed nearby, and Betts said, "Let's lock her up in this shed." And soon as Mustmag caught up with them, they grabbed her and shoved her in there and slammed the door and latched the latch on the outside.

Mutsmag tried to reach here hand through a crack and unlatch it but she couldn't.

Finally, she commenced hollerin'. " Somebody let me out."

An old fox passingby heard her. "Who's in there?"

"It's me, Mutsmag."

"What do you want?"

"I want out."

"Unlatch the latch."

"I can't, it's outside. See if you can push it up."

The fox thought for a second, then said, "What's in it for me?"

"I'll give you a big smoked ham," said Mutsmag.

So the fox opened the door and Mutsmag took down this ham in a burlap bag and gave it to him, and before long, she caught up with Poll and Betts again.

"Oh no," said Poll. "That crazy girl's still following us. What'll we do with her this time?"

"Let's make out like she's our servant girl and make her do all the work when we stay for the night somewhere."

Well, just as it was getting dark, they came to a house and hollered and an old woman came out. Poll and Betts asked if they could come in and stay all night, they said "we've got a servant girl here, she'll do all your housework for you."

The old woman told them t come in. Poll and Betts went over and sat down by the fire to rest and the old woman put Mutsmag to scouring pots and pans.

Now this old woman had three girls of her own just about the size of Poll, Betts and Mutsmag.

At bedtime the old woman sent all six girls up in the loft to sleep. They climbed up an laid down in the straw and went right to sleep, all but Mutsmag - - she stayed awake and listened.

After awhile, she heard somebody come in, stomping around in big heavy shoes and fussin' at the old woman about supper not being ready.

Mutsmag looked down through a knothole and saw that it was a great big giant, about 8 feet tall, ugliest old hairy thing she ever saw.

"Hush," the old woman said to him. "You'll wake up them three fine fat pullets I've got for you, up in the loft, these three girls that come here today. Reach up there and pull 'em down and I'll cook 'em up for you."

"How will I know'ens from your girls?" asked the giant.

"My girls have got nightcaps on."

Well, when Mutsmag heard that, what do you think she did?

She reached right quick and jerked the nightcaps off the old woman's girls and put 'em on Poll and Betts and herself, then lay down and pretended to snore.

The old giant reached up into the loft and felt around for the girls that didn't have nightcaps on. He pulled 'em out of the loft and real quick wrung their necks and threw 'em over to the old woman.

"You old goat!" she yelled at the giant. "You've gone and killed my girls!" And she commenced beating on the giant with here ladle, and then the poker and the shovel, and anything she could get her hands on and that giant fought her to keep her from killing from.

And while all that was going on, Mutsmag took out her knife and cut the bedclothes into strips and made a rope and tied it to a rafter and then she kicked some shingles out of the roof and her and Poll, and Betts got out of there and ran away down the road. They traveled all night without stopping
.

Well, the next day they were tired and hungry again and they looked for another house to stay in.

And don't you know, the house they came to was the one that belonged to the king. The king invited the girls in, and soon as they got inside Poll and Betts started bragging about how they had outwitted the gian and that ole witch.

So the king siad to Poll and Betts, "Since you all ar so brave and clever I want to to go back over tonight and get rid of that giant and witch once and for all. They've been bothering people in my kingdom for years and it's time to put an end to them. Can you do that for me?"

Well, Poll and Betts had to say they could. So they set out, just the two of them the next morning, but hey didn't go anywhere near that giant's place. They headed plum in the other direction, and that was the last anybody ever saw or hear tell of Poll and Betts.

Well, Mutsmag stayed on there at the king's. A day or two, and did some work around the place. She fixeda bunch of things that didn't work, and adjusted his vcr. Then, on her own that second night, when it got dark she sneaked out of the king's house and went back over that place where the giant and the witch lived. On the way she came across the king's keg of salt and she picked it up and took it with her.

She climbed up on top of their house and went over to the chimney and when the old witch would raise her pot lid Mutsmag poured salt down into the stew, till finally she emptied the whole keg right into the stew.

When the giant started to eat his stew he roared. "Old woman, this stew's so salty I can't eat it.

"Why I never put in but one pinch."

"It's got a bushel in it!" said the giant. "Quick! Fetch me some water!"

"It's too dark to go to the spring," the witch pleaded. "I can't see a thing."

"Well, throw out ye light ball!" yelled the giant.

So the old woman throwed out her light ball out toward the spring.

But Mutsmag had run out there and was waiting and she caught that light ball on the point of her Case knife.

And when the old woman came with her water bucket, Mutsmag squinched the light ball spring and it was so dark the witch fell over something and broke her neck and Mutsmag cut her head off and took it on back to the king.

The king said, "Mutsmag, you've done me a great service, and I'm going to reward you with this bag of gold. And if you'll do this one other thing for me, I'll give ye another bag of gold.

"That giant stole a fine white horse from me onetime, and I want it back. It's a ten-mile-stepper, the only one like it in the world."

So Mutsmag said she'd try and that night she went back to the giant's house. Before she left she filled her apron pocket with barley.

Over at the giant's place Mutsmag sneaked in the barn where the horse was. It had bells tied on its halter and it was tied with the thickest rope you ever saw it must have had a hundred knots in it. Mutsmag got out her old Case knife and started cutting it, but when the horse threw its head up it made those bells ring, and here come tat old giant a'running.

Mutsmag hid under the travel. The giant looked around, didn't see anybody, and he went on back to bed.

Mutsmag threw some barley in the trough and when the horse ate it the bells didn't dingle so loud, and started trying to cut through those knots.

But pretty soon the horse ate all the barley and when he raised his head the bells dingled and here come that old giant again! Mutsmag hid behind the door this time, and when the giant didn't see anybody he went on back to bed.

Mutsmag threw a double handful of barley in the trough this time and started cutting on them knots again, and the same thing happened.

The horse ate up the barley and raised his head and the bells rang and the giant came back and this time he got there so fast the only place Mutsmag had time to hide was underneath that big white horse.

The giant had a lantern with him this time, he looked under the trough and behind the door, in the corner, up in the rafters. He knew somebody was in there.

Finally he bent over and felt under the horse and he said, "Hold on now my fine white horse! You've got too many legs!"

And just at that time the horse swished his tail, and there was Mutsmag. She bolted for the door but that giant grabbed her arm and said, "Now I got ye!"

What are ye going to do with me?" asked Mutsmag.

"Don't know yet. I ain't made up my mind."

"Well whatever you do, Mr. Giant, please don't feed me on honey and butter, I can' stand the taste of honey and butter."

The giant said, "That's the very thing I'm going to do. Honey and butter you'll git."

So the giant locked Mutsmag up in the chicken house and fed her all the honey and butter she could hold, and she got fat in a hurry. Finally he reached in and grabbed her and carried her over to the main house and said, "Now I'm going to kill you."

"How are going to kill me, Mr. Giant?"

"Don't know. Ain't made my mind up yet."

Mutsmag looked real pitiful and said, "Well whatever you do, Mr. Giant, please don't put me in a sack and beat me to death 'cause I'll howl like a dog and squall like cats and my bones 'ul crack and pop like dishes breaking, and my blood run out like honey."

"That's the very way I'm goin' to kill you."

So the giant got a big sack and tied Mutsmag up in it, and then went out to find a club.

While he was gone Mutsmag cut her way out of that sack with her Case knife, then sewed it back right quick and she put the giants old dog in there and as many cats as she could catch, and all the giant's dishes too. Then she put a big pot of honey in and finished sewing up the sack. Then she went and hid.

Directly the old giant came in with a big club and he drew back and whammed it into that sack good. "Oh I'll make ye howl like a dog and squall like cats," the giant yelled as he swung his club. "And I'll make your bones pop and crack like dishes. And before I'm done I'll make your blood run and drip like honey."

He must have beat on that sack a half hour before he quit. When he finished he untied the sack to dump Mutsmag out, there on the floor was his dog and his cats and ever dish he had, broke to pieces, and honey everywhere. That giant got so mad he like to busted. He threw his club down and ran out of the house and headed toward the barn.

But Mutsmag had already been to the barn while the giant was beating on that sock. She'd cut through that rope with her Case knife and had rode off on that white horse, him covering ten miles every step.

The giant ran down the road after them, till he come to a great wide river. Of course, Mutsmag and the horse had crossed the river long ago and stopped on the side of the river in the bushes and was sitting on a millrock with a rope through the hole and one tied around the neck.

"How'd you get over there?" the giant yelled.

"I picked a hole through a rock and tied it and tied it to my neck and skeeted it across the water." said Mutsmag.

So the giant hunted him up a big flat rock and chopped a hole in it and tied a piece of rope to it and tied the other end around his neck.

Then, he rared back and threw that rock out into the river and sank and pulled him with it, and that was the last anybody ever saw of that giant.

Mutsmag got on the white horse and rode it back to the king's house. He gave her a bag of gold for the horse and another bag for killing that giant. That made three bags of gold Mutsmag had. The last I heard of her, she was getting along very well.

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