I didn’t dare raise my hand. Imogene wou...

I didn’t dare raise my hand. Imogene would have killed me! She said, “I’m going to be Mary in this play, and if you open your mouth or raise your hand you’ll wish you didn’t.” And I said, “I’m always Mary in the Christmas pageant.” And she said, “Go ahead then, and next spring when the pussywillows come out I’ll stick a pussywillow so far down your ear that nobody can reach it… and it’ll sprout there and grow and grow, and you’ll spend the rest of your life with a pussywillow bush growing out of your ear!”

Harris, Aurand and Jennings, Coleman A., eds. Plays Children Love, Volume II. St. Martin’s Press, New York, NY. 1988. pp. 81-82.