How the Snollygoster Lost His Fangs

Dedication

To my son, Galen, the inspiration behind Galen, the Boy, for never wanting

a bedtime story but who always needs one to wake him up in the morning,

and for pointing out the strange-looking charcoal creature

who sits in the window of the storehouse in the backyard.

Love always,

Mommy

1998 © BJC

How the Snollygoster Lost His Fangs

Galen, the Boy, lived at 944 Hearth Street in a tinning burdoo in what is known as Little Dicks Corner.

Galen was a very nice lad who, when he got up in the morning, would rush to his mother’s room to look at the beautiful creature who sat in the coach house window sunning himself. Galen wished he could play with him.

              

               One morning, at the beginning of the Summer, Galen was in Mother’s room when he saw the Creature again. The Creature was smiling at Galen and actually licking his lips.

“Mommy!”, Galen cried. “He’s smiling with me! May I go outside and play with him?”

Galen’s mommy got up to see what Galen was talking about and, sure enough there was this gorgeous creature, that resembled a cat, smiling and licking it lips as it looked at her baby.

“Galen, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go outside, luv. I don’t like how it’s looking at you!”

“Ohh, mum!” said Galen.

Now, even though Galen’s mother did not say anything to him, she had seen and heard of a creature just like the one in the backyard. And she remembered her own mother warning her about the Creature and what it did to children. She was not going to take any chances.

About a week later, Galen looked outside and there the Creature was again. So, Galen, knowing that his mother was downstairs, opened the bedroom window to get a better view of the Creature.

This was just the opportunity that the Snollygoster was waiting for!

“Galen!” called out the Snollygoster.

“You can talk!” exclaimed Galen.

“Galen, why don’t you come out and play with me?” the Snollygoster asked.

“I can’t!” said Galen. “Mommy told me not go into the yard.”

“Please come and play with me!” pleaded the Snollygoster. “It will be such fun!”

“Well,” said Galen. “Mommy is downstairs and it will be just for a little while. Okay!”

What Galen didn’t know was that the Snollygoster, a fantastic creature of folklore, was known to prey on poultry and children.

Now, the Snollygoster had been in a bad mood all morning and, having had a chance to talk to Galen, he suddenly felt fantastic.

For weeks now, the Snollygoster had been promising himself that when Galen came outside, he was going to gobble him up. He was going to torture him first, and then he was going to have himself a wonderful feast. He was going to pickle his eyes, ears and nose and lips, he was going to have steak and kidney pudding, and he would eat the rest of him, just so.

Life was definitely looking up.

As for Galen, he knew that he was being disobedient, but he really wanted to play with the beautiful creature. So, he tiptoed past his mother’s workroom and opened the backdoor and went into the yard.

The backdoor closed and the Snollygoster uncurled himself from the window ledge and, to Galen’s utter amazement, grew to Galen’s size.

“Oh, my!” exclaimed Galen. “How ever did you do that!”

“Easily!” laughed the Snollygoster. “Come closer and I’ll teach you how to do it! You can become smaller, or bigger, if you wish. But I think you should try smaller first!”

The Snollygoster was a rogue. He was very shrewd, wild, and simply gorgeous to behold, so he knew how to play the game of “let’s catch a mouse.” Unfortunately for Galen, the Snollygoster was playing the part of the cat and well, Galen was the mouse!

The Snollygoster gave Galen a small blue sapphire and told him to imagine himself being big, or small, and it would happen.

Galen was so excited.

The Snollygoster let Galen change himself to a big boy, then a bigger boy, then the biggest boy of all.

“Galen,” said the Snollygoster, in a voice as smooth as silk. “Why don’t you try to make yourself smaller?”

“Okay!” laughed Galen. “I’ll do that! But, getting bigger was really fun!”

Galen started to change his size. He was getting smaller and smaller and, just as he became two sizes smaller than the Snollygoster, the Snollygoster pounced on Galen and sank his fangs into Galen’s leg.

Galen yelled in suprise, but the Snollygoster started to scream in agony.

“AAAARRRGGGGHH!”

“My beautiful teeth! You broke my beautiful teeth!” screamed the Snollygoster as he looked at the shards of his teeth laying on the ground.

“I’m so sorry!”, said Galen. “But you shouldn’t have tried to bite me like that.”

“But you broke my teeth!” wailed the Snollygoster. “And they’ll never grow back!"

“Well, I’m sorry.” said Galen. “But if you had asked, I would have told you that I am not a real boy. You see, I am made out of gold, so you can’t bite me. And, just for that, I don’t want to play with you anymore. You are a very bad creature.”

So saying, Galen went back into to the house, leaving the Snollygoster in the yard lamenting the loss of his beautiful teeth.

Galen knew he was fortunate. If he didn’t have a gold skeleton, that bad Snollygoster would have torn him limb from limb, and that would have made his mommy very sad.

Galen never told him mommy what the Snollygoster tried to do to him because that would mean he would have to explain about his skeleton. So he kept his secret.

As for the Snollygoster, well, his teeth never grew back into fangs and, what was left of them, well, he had to file them down into tiny teeth.

So, for this transgression of the Dress Code of the High Snollygoster Tribunal, he was stripped of all of his powers, and was turned into a plain household cat.

And that’s why all household cats love to sit on window ledges in the sun, and biting themselves, or looking through windows and licking their lips, and mourning the loss of their privilege to gobble up chickens, and children.

The End