I’ve really been feeling nostalgic for Gram what with the recipe site, so I was delighted when my mom found the story of Young Sarah Bing, which Gram had often told to us when we were kids. She also wrote it out a time or two. Once was in a little book of this and that which she put together for Kathy and I to enjoy. It has stories, rhymes, drawings, and other trivia that had been fun for Gram, and so she passed them on to us. Kathy has the book but I’m hoping to borrow it so I can scan a copy for Melody.

Following is a sampling of Gram’s sense of humor. I’ve searched on this story several ways but can’t find it replicated anywhere online, and that’s saying something. Could this truly be a forgotten story, or even one that Gram created? She was known for her memory for trivia, songs, stories, and etc but I don’t know that she was a writer of such. *

 

Young Sarah Bing

Young Peter Gool, a child of nine

Gave little reason to complain.

Though an imaginative youth

He very often told the truth,

And never tried to black the eyes

Of comrades of superior size.

 

But not so, Sarah, not so Sal!

She was a most uncultured gal

Who didn’t give a pinch of snuff

For any literary stuff,

And gave the classics all a miss.

Observe the consequence of this!

 

As she was going home one day,

Across the field and far away,

A gate, securely padlocked stood,

And by its side, a piece of wood

On which was painted, clear and full,

“Beware the very furious bull!”

 

Alas! The young illiterate

went blindly forward toward her fate,

And ignorantly climbed the gate!

 

Now luckily the bull that day

Was rather in the mood for play

Than goring people through and through,

As bulls so very often do.

He tossed her lightly with his horns

Into a hedge of prickly thorns

And stood by, laughing, as she strode

And pushed and scrambled to the road.

 

The lesson, as you well may guess,

Was not lost upon the child,

Who since that day, will go a long way

Around to avoid all signs,

No matter what they say,

And leaves a padlocked gate alone!

And also, she is wisely known,

Confirmed in her afore time guess

That literature breeds distress.

 

* and of course because the word “bing” is in the name, it brings up lots of references to some search engine other than Google, LOL!