Goose girl

I hit up a little antique store yesterday and found a collection of paper goods.  I love paper second only to shiny, sparkly things.  I can’t resist.

This particular vendor had a number of postcards, promotional pictures/advertisements, prints taken out of old books, etc.  There were a number that caught my eye and except for one all were just a little, well, weird.

Take the picture above – I’ve cropped it but it had a number on the bottom, 70, so I assume it is an illustration from a children’s book.  Page 70 to be exact.  Only what kind of children’s story has a small child dancing around wearing the pelt of a skinned rabbit while surrounded by other rabbits?  Are they enthralled?  Planning to overpower the dancing rabbit impostor?  And what happened to the kid’s shoe?

This next scrap was originally included with a loaf of bread.  I gather from the back of the picture that one could collect the series and even send away for a scrap book to store them in.  I’m hoping that this wasn’t intended for children because if I saw this when I was little I think I would be terrified.

Actually it reminds me of a story – when I was about nine years old my family was traveling through Europe.  I forget where we were but we were staying at an inn that had a little working farm.  There was a young girl about my younger sister Trish and my age.  While she was showing us around her grandmother sent her on an errand.  She looked at us and said "Whatever you do – do NOT go into the goose pen.  They will get out."  So of course we went into the goose pen and the geese all escaped.  Trish and I ran all over the place, fruitlessly trying to round them up.  The girl was very cross with us when she got back and the next day I woke up with my eyes swollen shut because unbeknownst to me I was chasing them through a nettle patch. 

So I can actually kind of identify with the little girl in the picture.

I’m not sure where this next picture came from.  There is something vaguely sinister about the whole scene.  A cat playing the harp for giant rats?  And are the rats dancing or just steadying each other?  And what is with the little cranky cat sitting on top of the harp? 

I thought at first it was a prayer card because of the back:

But then I thought maybe these are testimonials from people that were cured of their ailments by some product rather than prayer.   What exactly is dyspepsia anyway?

Here’s the not weird one:

It’s smaller than shown here.  I bought a Mod Podge product that you brush onto prints that gives them a brush stroke appearance.  I think I’ll find a little frame for it and it will look like a teeny oil painting.