Chatter and Chitter

She called out to them, “Fee, fum, foe, fie. All’s not ready holler I.”

“Not I! Not I!” they screamed back happily, returning her gaiety with interest.

“Fee, Fie, foe, fum. All’s not ready now can’t come!” she answered, and closed the door behind her. The clock was striking seven. “We’re getting a soon start,” Mark said.

Excerpt from “The Tall Woman” by Wilma Dykeman

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I’ve never heard the little saying shared in Dykeman’s book. I did a few google searches but the only thing they turned up was the more common fee fie foe fum saying in one of the Jack and the Bean Stalk tales.

Since I’ve had to wait on the girls on pretty much every trip we’ve ever taken, I believe I’ll start using it myself. I especially like the line “All’s not ready now can’t come!”

Tipper

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13 Comments

  1. The Tall Woman was one of my favorites as a young lady. I also LOVED rhymes when I was very young & knew them al by heart. They were taught to me by my grandma, Mother & Dad. 🙂

  2. I gave myself time to think about that one. Nope, not in the memory bank.
    Did Chitter and Chatter lose opposite front teeth at same time?

  3. I think you’re right, Gayle. I recall the giant who lived above the bean stalk chanted it as Jack hid from him after climbing up. The book Mom read the story from had an illustration of a giant stomping along and a small Jack hiding behind a tree.

    Jack slid down the bean stalk and managed to chop it off at the ground so that the slower moving giant fell with the vine and was killed. Oh, happy day, eh? Lots of violence in those old tales delighting us at bed time.

    1. Someone’s in the kitchen with Dinah!

      One of the earlier songs I remember learning, taught to me by an older neighbor gentleman and his wife in the early 60s, just after our family had moved to Florida for my health. Just a dim memory of their kitchen and him teaching me the song … I doubt I was quite 3.

  4. It has been reported that Henry David Thoreau said, “He who travels alone can go now, he who travels with another must wait til the other is ready”. This was in response to a reporter’s question as to why he never married.

  5. Boy, you are really pushing the old memory this morning. All I remember about this was hearing it come from a pirate. I think it went fee fie foe fum I smell the blood of an Englishman. That’s all I recall.

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