Gerald Rose XVII

'Palkin' from 'The Giant who drank from his Shoe and other stories', (selected from Le Marchand de nuages) Translated by John Buchanan Brown and illustrated by Gerald Rose, published in 1965. This is a comical story of a boy left to tend cattle who becomes skilled in carving and carves two sticks in the likeness of a man and woman who run off. The boy on finding the handsome couple splits them up and disfigures the male sticks face, this stick seeks revenge through doing bad deeds and striking people. Eventually a school master uses it to strike the boy and so he manages to get the stick back and return it to the lovely lady stick.