Children’s story: A mother asks her little boy (as I remember the story took place in Africa) to bring home a calf she bought from a neighbor. He hangs the calf around his neck and both boy and calf are unhappy about that arrangement. Mother says, “No, no, you should have led the calf on a rope. ” Then she asks him to fetch a loaf of bread from the baker. He drags it home on a rope. She says, “No, no, you should have put the bread under your hat!” Next she asks him to buy some butter from a neighbor. The boy puts the butter under his hat, but it’s a hot day and he comes home dripping with butter running down from the top of his head. I don’t remember how it ends. I would have been reading it about 55 years ago; don’t know publication date. Thank you so much.
ON HIATUS – Stump the Bookseller
We are unfortunately ON HIATUS through the end of 2026. Thanks for your patience; we'll be back ASAP.
Strulwepeter?
Sorry, should be Struwelpeter
Found it! https://www.bing.com/search?q=epaminondas+and+his+auntie&FORM=QSRE1
For a southern American version of this story, check out the truly hilarious Epossumondas by Coleen Salley and Janet Stevens.
Also, the British version of this is Lazy Jack, which has a distinctly different ending, even though Jack is clearly just as dimwitted. Here’s Joseph Jacobs’ version: http://www.authorama.com/english-fairy-tales-30.html
You can see the links for his other re-tellings of English Fairy Tales at the bottom.
This is based on the old folk tale called ‘Lazy Jack’. There are a number of variations and adaptations of it, one of which is Sara Cone Bryant’s ‘Epaminondas’.
Epaminondas.