deForest Bearse reads, "Mrs. Rumphious."

Speakers are labeled SPEAKER_N. This transcript is machine-generated.

Recording

yeah hello everyone my name is DeForest
I work for the city of Clermont in the
planning and development department the
story at chosen is called mr. obvious
the looping lady lives in a small house
overlooking the sea in between the rocks
around her house grow blue and purple
and rose-colored flowers the Lupin lady
is little and old but she has not always
been that way I know she's migrated odd
and she told me so once upon a time she
was a little girl named Alice who lived
in a city by the sea from the front
stoop she could see the wharves and the
bristling masks of tall ships many years
ago her grandfather had come to America
on a large sailing ship now he worked in
the shop at the bottom of the house
making figureheads for the prowess of
ships and carving Indians out of wood to
put in front of stupid cigar stores for
Alice's grandfather was an artist he
painted pictures to of sailing ships and
places across the sea when he was very
busy
Alice helped him put in the skies in the
evening Alice sat on her grandfather's
knee and listened to his stories of
faraway places when he had finished
Alice would say when I am grown up I too
will go to faraway places when I grow
old I too will live beside the sea
that's all very well little Alice and
her grandfather but there is a third
thing that you must do what is that
asked
you must do something to make the world
more beautiful sinner grandfather
alright said Alice but she did not know
what that could be
in the meantime Alice got up and washed
her face and ate part of her breakfast
she went to school and came home and did
her homework pretty soon she was grown
up then my Great Aunt Alice set out to
do the three things she had told her
grandfather she was going to do she left
home and went to live in another city
far from the sea and the song there she
worked in a library
dusting books and keeping them from
getting mixed up and helping people find
the ones they wanted some of the books
told her about faraway places people
called her Miss rosiest now sometimes
she went to the conservatory in the
middle of the park when she stepped
inside on a wintry day the warm moist
air wrapped itself around her and the
sweet smell of jasmine filled her nose
this is almost like a tropical isle said
Miss Wren feeis but not quite so mr.
Orpheus went to a real tropical island
where people kept cockatoos and monkeys
as pets she walked on long beaches
picking up beautiful shells one day she
met the Babu Raja king of a fishing
village you must be tired he said come
into my house and rest so Miss Rama
theose went in and met the Baba Rajas
wife the Babu Raja himself fetched a
green coconut and cut a Sly Fox slice
off the top so that miss rum feeis could
drink the coconut water inside before
she left the Babu Raja gave her a
beautiful mother-of-pearl shell on which
he had painted a bird of paradise and
the words you will always remain in my
heart you will always remain in mind -
said Miss Rossi's my Great Aunt Alice
rum fee has climbed tall mountains where
the snow never melted she went through
the jungles and across
deserts she saw Lions playing and
kangaroos jumping and everywhere she
made friends she would never forget
finally she came to the land of the
Lotus Eaters and they're getting off a
camel she hurt her back what a foolish
thing to do said mr. Arceus well I have
certainly seen faraway places maybe it
is time to find my place by the sea and
it was and she did from the porch of her
new house missruckus watched the Sun
come up she watched it cross the heavens
and sparkle on the water and she saw it
set in glory in the evening she started
a little garden among the rocks that
surrounded her house and she planted a
few flower seeds in the stony ground
miss rum feeis was almost perfectly
happy but there is still one more thing
I have to do she said I have to do
something to make the world more
beautiful but what the world is already
pretty nice she's are looking out over
the ocean the next spring miss rum feeis
was not very well her back was bothering
her again and she had to stay in bed
most of the time the flowers she had
planted the summer before had come up
and bloomed in spite of the stony ground
she could see them from her bedroom
window blue and purple and rose-colored
blue pendant said Miss run feeis with
satisfaction they've always loved lupins
the best I wish I could plant more seeds
this summer
so that I could have still more flowers
next year but she was not able to after
a hard winter spring came
miss rugby's was feeling much better now
she could take walks again one afternoon
she started to go up and over the hill
where she had not been in a long time
I don't believe my eyes she cried when
she got to the top for there on the
other side of the hill was a large patch
of blue and purple and rose-colored
lupins it was the wind she said as she
knelt and delayed it was the wind
to see to public garden here and the
birds must have helped then miss mumfie
has had a wonderful life
she hurried home and got out her seed
catalogs
she sent off to the very best seed house
for five bushels of lupin seed all that
summer miss run fee is her pockets full
of seeds wandered over fields and
headlands sowing movements she scattered
seeds among the highways and down the
country lanes
she flung handfuls of them around the
schoolhouse and back of the church she
tossed them into hollows and a long
stone walls her back didn't hurt her any
more at all
now some people called her that crazy
old lady the next spring there were
lupins everywhere fields and hillsides
were covered with blue and purple and
rose-colored flowers they bloomed along
the highways and down the lanes bright
patches lay around the schoolhouse and
back of the church down in the hollows
along the stone walls grew the beautiful
flowers mr. obvious had done the third
most difficult thing of all migrate on
Alice miss grumpiest is very old now her
hair is very white every year there are
more and more lupins now they call her
the Lupin lady sometimes my friends
stand with me outside her gate curious
to see the old old lady who planted the
fields blueprints when she invites us in
they come slowly they think she is the
oldest woman in the world often she
tells us stories of faraway places when
I grow up by tell her I too will go to
faraway places and come home to live by
the sea that is all very well a little
Alice says my arm
but there is a third thing you must do
what is that I ask you must do something
to make the world more beautiful all
right I see but I do not know yet what
that can be these
thank you and I hope maybe you get some
loopin seeds that we can all throw
around Claremont and make it a better
place