You’ve heard the story behind the wooly bear caterpillar? Well, so they say, the smaller the light brown band in the middle, the harsher the winter will be. The larger the light brown band in the middle, the milder the winter will be. Here is today’s wooly bear caterpillar, who fell from a tree in front of me and landed right at my feet as I was walking. It couldn’t get more obvious that I was supposed to take her photo. Her band is about average size, indicating an average winter, although my thick onion skins are telling me differently. And that is the story of the wooly bear caterpillar, or at least, the one with which you’re probably familiar.
There is another story, of course. A long time ago, there was a pixie who made
the finest coats in the land. Everyone came
to her because her work was so famous, and anyone who was lucky enough to have
one of her coats was not only very warm in the winter but also very
fashionable. As often happens, though, fame
and fortune bring arrogance and rudeness along with them. I’m afraid the pixie was not immune to these latter two qualities when she rose to stardom in her craft, which is odd
for pixies, who are usually so very humble.
She began charging more and more money and became a favorite of the Seelie Court, most
uncommon for a tiny pixie. And she
became conceited and rude as well, turning away many of her original customers
who helped to catapult her to fame in the first place. They were simply too common and poor for her.
Now it happened that an old witch
named Tabitha Ursa was one of the pixie’s original customers, and she was in
need of a new coat because winter was fast approaching. She knew by the thickness of her onion skins
that it would be a fierce one, indeed, so she sent a message to the pixie
asking her to come as soon as possible and make a coat for her. When the pixie got the message, she spat on
the ground with indignation. Old Tabitha
was not only unpopular, she was also very poor, and the pixie had no need for
such customers anymore. So she ignored
the witch, who sent two more messages, which were also ignored.
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| The wooly bear caterpillar. |
This didn’t sit right with
Tabitha, so she set off for the Seelie Court herself to give the pixie a piece
of her mind. Upon arriving, she put a
glamour on the guards, who saw her as a beautiful queen and allowed her
entrance at once. She wasted no time and
marched straight for the fashionable tower where the pixie did her work now,
very unlike the little hut in which she used to work.
Tabitha burst in upon the pixie and demanded that she make a coat for
her at once, at the price she had always paid.
But the arrogant pixie, dressed in her fine silks, merely laughed at the
old witch. She pointed out all of her
fine silk threads and yarns and spoke of their beauty and how they were meant
only for fine customers. Then she turned
back to her work and ignored old Tabitha.
And that was not a smart thing to
do. Upon leaving, Tabitha picked up two
pieces of silk yarn, one light brown and the other dark brown. Outside of the pixie’s room, she put a spell
upon the silk yarns, saying, “Round and round and round you wind, bind her
tight, and bring her home.” Then she
left, walking out without even casting a glamour upon her appearance, scaring
just about everyone half to death in the Seelie Court.
The pixie laughed to herself at
the old witch. “Imagine old Tabitha
thinking I would make a coat for her!” she thought to herself. The very idea made her feel ill. She congratulated herself on not needing such
poor customers anymore and decided that she would finish work early today and
go to a party. So she did just that and
came home very late, having drunk more wine than she should have.
While she slept, the two pieces of
enchanted silk yarn crept across the floor and did what old Tabitha had
instructed. They wound themselves around
and around and around the pixie, starting at her feet. First dark brown, then light brown, then dark
brown again until she was completely covered with silk yarn. In the morning when her maid came to bring
her tea, she was horrified by the giant brown worm in the pixie’s bed! She screamed and ran for the guards, who upon
their arrival, were as horrified as the maid.
They quickly dragged the large hairy worm out and tossed it outside the Seelie Court
gates. They couldn’t hear the pixie
yelling to them from inside the silk wrappings.
When the commotion died down, the silk yarns set off with the wrapped-up
pixie and delivered her to old Tabitha’s hut by nightfall.
Tabitha removed the silk wrappings
from the pixie’s face and gave her a piece of her mind. She was so angry! “I was one of your best customers for years!”
she yelled. “I brought you many more
customers, and I always spoke highly of your work! My onion skins are very thick this year,
which means we are going to have a very bad winter. I need a good coat! Now you will make me a coat from these silk
threads that have brought you here, and if you do a good job and apologize, I will
let you return to the Seelie Court.”
But the pixie just spat at her. “I don’t work for free, and I certainly
wouldn’t work for the likes of you ever again.
My place is among royalty at the Seelie Court. I am done with you peasants!”
Now you might have guessed that
was not the best thing the pixie could have said to old Tabitha, who upon
hearing it, saw red.
“Very well, then. I will return you where you belong,” Tabitha
said quietly.
“See to it that you do,” spat the
pixie.
Whereupon Tabitha looked at the
silk threads and said one word: “BIND!”
And so they did. Around and around and around they wove,
binding the pixie completely within, leaving just her eyes, ears, and mouth
free. Then they dragged her outside and
there she stayed, immobile in the woods by Tabitha’s hut. Now she panicked and tried to bargain with
old Tabitha.
“Please! I will make you a coat!” she cried. But Tabitha wouldn’t hear of it.
“There’s no finer coat in the land
than the one you are wearing right now, my dear,” Tabitha said, “And I wouldn’t
dream of taking it from you. Now I
really must go. I’m going to use my
thick onion skins to make myself a nice winter coat.”
And that’s what Tabitha did. It wasn’t as pretty as a silk coat, to be
sure, but it was nice and warm and suited her well. It was also a very strong and long lasting
coat, which she wore for many years to come.
Every year as winter approached,
the pixie would crawl up to old Tabitha’s hut and beg to make her a coat of
fine silks. And every year, old Tabitha
would tell the pixie that her onion skin coat was just as warm and wonderful as
could be. To this day, the pixie still
comes around at wintertime, telling everyone that they should wear nice warm
coats this winter. And everyone does.
