Play With Me

While we were unpacking boxes I rediscovered another favorite children's book. I got the book from my Aunt Vera. She gave me a bunch of books that had made their way through her children and grandchildren. This one belonged to her grandson, Jeff Kildow. My children and grandchildren have enjoyed it. It's missing half of the back cover. But I think I liked it the best.

Play With Me was written and illustrated by Marie Hall Ets. Marie (1893-1984) was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After one year of college, she moved to New York to study art, where she earned a certificate of interior design. She worked for a while in San Francisco, where she married her husband, Milton Rodig, in November 1917. He enlisted in the army the next year, 1918, but died of pneumonia in Arkansas.  I wonder if it was actually the Spanish influenza that was rampant at that time. After his death she moved to Chicago where she was a social worker, living in a settlement house and serving immigrants as they adjusted to the city. In 1930 she married Dr. Donald Ets and returned to her art, publishing twenty-two books and winning several awards.

The book follows the day of a little girl wandering through the fields and woods near her house, trying to get the animals she meets to play with her, but she only manages to scare them all away. Finally a bit dejected she sits on a rock by the pond watching a bug make trails on the water. One by one the animals come and join her in her stillness and silence. Having been joined by a grasshopper, a frog, a turtle, a chipmunk, a blue jay, a rabbit, and a snake, she recounts—

And as I still sat there without making a sound (So they wouldn't get scared and run away), out from the bushes where he had been hiding came a baby fawn, and looked at me. I held my breath and he came nearer. He came so near I could have touched him. But I didn't move and I didn't speak. And Fawn came up and licked my cheek. Oh, now I was happy — as happy could be! For all of them— ALL OF THEM — were playing with me.

I have often fantasized about having such an encounter with the animals at the farm. When I was a little girl I had a pet squirrel, whom I named Perry, who would eat pecans out of my hand. I have gotten pretty close to a few birds, and butterflies have landed on me. Once I had to rescue a baby bunny from the dog's mouth. But this morning I had a pretty cool encounter. I came out this morning and sat on the porch swing to watch the sun come up. I had been sitting there for a while, swinging, when I looked over and saw that I was sharing the swing with a small gray tree frog. 

We continued to enjoy each other's company for a while when I noticed we were not alone. Another small gray tree frog was wedged a little further up between the slats of the swing, almost invisible in his camouflage. 

I felt like the little girl in Play With Me — all of them —ALL OF THEM — were playing with me.

Stillness and silence are good things.

You can listen to the book here.