“Rainbow Boy” Is 100 Years Old

Artwork courtesy C. B. Falls

It was February 1987 when a four-woman collective hunkered down in the living room of one of its members, desperately grasping at words and names and phrases to christen our new holistic publication in the making. We had been spinning our wheels for months, since no outreach could begin without a name. Transformational Times of Central Massachusetts. New Age of Healing Ideas. Holistic Medicine Quarterly. New Ideas. We uneasily settled on the innocuous New Ideas for lack of a better idea, until Sarah, the oldest and wisest among us, quietly piped up with “Spirit of Change. What about Spirit of Change?” It was a character’s name she remembered from an old children’s book called Rainbow Boy.

The rest is history. (Would New Ideas have ever flourished?!) Originally published in 1926 (Albert Whitman & Company, Chicago), Rainbow Boy, written by Hewes Lancaster and illustrated by Harold Abbott Mason and Haidee Zack Walsh, is still considered a classic in children’s literature. Brimming with pen and ink, two-color, captioned illustrations that bring to life characters such as Hurrying Wind, Chunk of Charcoal, Soft Answer and many more, the book harks back to a time when both children and adults more easily perceived the spirit of connection in all of life around us — a time we perhaps long for now, steeped in our increasingly virtual reality.

Though long out of print and now a work in the public domain, the wisdom in the stories from Rainbow Boy are as timeless and essential as the spirit of change itself. With profound gratitude to the namesake of Spirit of Change Magazine, please enjoy these short selections from Rainbow Boy.

Introduction

Rainbow Boy was a lonesome little boy. He had no sister or brother in his house — nobody with whom he could play. The only time he ever felt real happy was when his mother told him stories at bedtime. He used to say to himself:

Spirit of Change called Earth, Air and Water to come quickly.

“I wish Mother was not so busy all day. If she could tell me plenty of stories I wouldn’t mind having nobody to play with.”

But one day while he was saying that, a happy thought came to him. He jumped up and exclaimed:

“I know what I can do. I can go for a walk each day, and I can ask everything I meet to tell me its story. I’ll ask the sticks and the stones and the trees. Yes, I’ll ask everything I meet to tell me a story about itself — how it happened to be like it is. Oh, I think this is going to be great fun. I’ll start right away.”

Just as he was hurrying out the gate Rainbow Boy ran into two happy looking lads who were laughing and talking together:

“Hello,” said the tall one. “Where are you going in such a hurry?”

“I am going for a walk,” said Rainbow Boy. “I want to ask all the things I meet to tell me a story. Do you think they will do it?”

“Oh, yes indeed. They will be glad to do it,” said the short one. “All things like to tell stories; you have only to look and listen.

“My friend and I would like to tell you our stories but we haven’t any of our own. We enter into everybody else’s story though. You are going to hear a great deal about us, so I may as well tell you who we are. My comrade is Spirit of Change. When anything wants to be better than it is — it asks him to come and help it change.”

“I am glad to meet Spirit of Change,” Rainbow Boy said. “And who are you?”

“I am Light.” Light laughed merrily. It was a such a happy little laugh that Rainbow laughed too. Then Spirit of Change said, “We must be on our way. We have many things to do this day. Goodbye Rainbow Boy. We’re glad we met you.”

“Goodbye,” said Rainbow Boy. “I hope we’ll meet again some day.”

Pine Knot

One night as he sat before fire, Rainbow Boy picked up Pine Knot  and weighed him in his hand.

“You are very heavy,” he said.

“You would be heavy, too,” Pine Knot answered, “if you had a heart like lead in your breast.”

“Is your heart as heavy as lead?”

“Indeed, it is, and heavier. Do you know what is going to be done with me?”

“What?” asked Rainbow Boy.

“I am going to be burnt up.”

“Burnt up! Why?”

“Why?” exclaimed Pine Knot. “You ask me why? You, who are going all over the world asking everything you meet to tell you its story? Why is the kind, gentle horse driven every day while the vicious beast runs at large in the pasture? Why is the good natured cow kept up and milked while the cross one is left to roam at will? Why are polite people always being asked to do favors while rude people go their way untroubled by anything? Why and why? I am going to be burnt up because I am rich and fat and will make a good fire.

“Those worthless chips that haven’t enough pitch in them to make even a little blaze will be left unharmed in the woodbox until winter is gone. But I? I shall burn because I am good material. It is the way of the world. You yourself know how it is. It is a bitter way.”

Rainbow Boy sat gazing at Pine Knot in delight.

“No, no,” Rainbow Boy said. “It cannot be a bitter way. All is right with the world if we could only understand.”

“Ha,” said Pine Knot, “let me tell you right now, I don’t like to be burnt up.”

“Have you ever been burnt up?” asked Rainbow Boy.

“No, of course not. I wouldn’t be here if I had ever been burnt.”

“Then how do you know whether you would like it  or not, if you have never tried it?”

“I’ve seen others burn.”

“Yes, but you can’t tell much about things by looking on. You must do and feel them before you can know. I had a friend once, a boy, who said he didn’t like to swim, and he would never go into the water until one day he fell in. Then he found it was so fine we could hardly get him to come out.”

“Water and fire aren’t the same thing,” said Pine Knot. “I wouldn’t so much mind going into the water. I could just sink down to the bottom and stay there as comfortably as I am staying here. But to burn. That’s terrible!”

“Perhaps it isn’t. I should think you would feel proud to think that there was matter enough in you to make a good fire, just as the gentle horse feels proud to think that men are not afraid to trust him; and as the good friend feels happy to think that people are not afraid to ask favors of him.

“It is true, Pine Knot. Work may seem horribly hard sometimes, but the only way for you to be happy is to do the work you were born to do.”

“Even if it means being burnt up?”

“Yes,” said Rainbow Boy, “even…” But just then a pair of iron tongs clamped down on Pine Knot, lifted him and laid him on the bed of coals.

“Now!” said a voice from somewhere. “Now we shall have a fine fire, for that pine knot knows how to burn.”

Rainbow Boy made no answer to the voice, but sat watching Pine Knot as it lay upon the bed of coals. He saw that the sad fellow had begun to sweat, and he wondered if he were very much afraid to burn. Then he saw a puff of white smoke, soft as a smile, burst over Pine Knot’s face, and he knew that the brave fellow had made up his mind to do the work he was brought into the world to do.

“Ah,” Rainbow Boy said to himself, “after he once starts to work, he will find out how deep and sweet it is. I know how it is with me about doing my studies. I am always afraid at first but after I start to work — ah, how fine it is. See there.”

And Rainbow Boy sat gazing in delight, for Pine Knot had stopped sweating, and had flung off all fear and burst beautifully into a blaze. His light danced joyously over the room, making everything in it look bright and happy; his warmth glowed until everybody in the room stretched in his chair and said:

“What a comfort a good pine knot is!”

Old Stick

Rainbow Boy was going through a swampy place one day when he came upon Old Stick. Its bark was falling off, the mold had gathered, and it looked all dead and done with.

“Not so dead as you seem to think.”

“Poor Old Stick,” Rainbow Boy said softly, “how dead you are!”

“Not so dead as you seems to think,” Old Stick said cheerfully. “If you sit down here and watch a while, you will see that I am very much alive. Spirit of Change has slipped in under my bark and is urging Earth, Air, and Water to go away with him. Such a talk and plan, it is enough to make my moss turn green again.”

“Earth, Air, and Water!” said Rainbow Boy. “Are they all living with you?”

Old Stick lit up his lichens with a smile: “They are all with me,” he said. “Earth, Air and Water are myself.”

“Earth, Air, and Water are you? I wish you could tell me how that is?”

“Oh, it is easy enough to tell,” Old Stick replied, “but it is a long story.”

“I like long stories,” cried Rainbow Boy.

“Well, once upon a time my heart was a hard little seed. It cared for nothing and so, of course, nothing cared for it. It just kept on lying there in the bed of dry dust where the wind had dropped it, hard almost as a pebble, without thought or feeling, until one day Spirit of Change happened to pass that way.

“As soon as he saw my heart, nothing would do but he must get inside of it. And as soon as he got there he set up a shout, calling Earth, Air, and Water to come quickly; he had found a fine place for them to form a home. They came, crowding in a hurry, but my heart was a hard little place and didn’t take people in easily.

“They went to work, though, to get in. First Water began and poured drops down on me until I was wet through and had to swell. That cracked my shell just the least little bit, but in a minute, Air had slipped through the crack and was saying to Spirit of Change: ‘Here, help me make this hole bigger so his roots can get out. Earth wants them.’

“They pushed and pried until between them they split my heart wide open. Oh, it grew vexed enough at being treated that way. It didn’t want to get soft and tender and open so wide that it could take in everybody.

“It wanted to stay hard as a pebble and care for nothing. But there is no use in getting vexed with Spirit of Change. When he comes, he is going to have things his own way.

“So, I began to grow. Oh, Rainbow Boy, did you ever begin to grow? Do you know how it feels?”

“It hurts, of course; you have to let go of so many narrow notions, and you have to stretch and strain to get hold of the fine, big notions, and yet it is so nice! You reach out to the rain and the sun, and you open your heart to Earth and Air and Water. You keep getting bigger and braver. You laugh and wave your branches, and you call out to all things that want shade or shelter: ‘Come on! Come on! I am strong enough for us both!’

“Oh, it is nice to grow, even if you do have to struggle with the storm and stand bare-headed beneath the lightning. It is better to grow than to stay snug and safe in a hard little seed.”

“Yes,” said Rainbow Boy, “it is nice to grow. But now, Old Stick, you are dead. You can’t grow anymore.”

“Dead?” Old Stick’s smile gleamed again upon his lichens. “Oh, little Friend, don’t you know that when you have opened heart wide to Earth, Air, and Water you cannot die? Spirit of Change may come to you and make a great bustle inside your bark, but you will not die. A bit of you will fly away with Air; some of you will flow away with Water; more of you will mellow away with Earth.

But pretty soon you will hear Spirit of Change calling you to form another home. Then all the parts of you will be gathered together again with life pulsing freshly in your heart.

Carol Bedrosian is the publisher of Spirit of Change Magazine, founded in 1987. Email carol@spiritofchange.org.

Find holistic Writing Resources in the Spirit of Change online Alternative Health Directory.

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