Daniel O'Rourke's Trip to the Moon (Campfire Story)

If you ever go to the town of Bantry, in the south of Ireland, ask anybody for DANIEL O'Rourke. He'll tell you the story himself, and he'll swear on his grandmother's teapot that every word of it is true.

It started on a summer night, at a wedding party up at the big house. There was fiddling and dancing and more cake than a man could eat, and DANIEL O'Rourke stayed till the very last song. By the time he started home, the moon was up, round and bright as a new silver plate.

Now, the way home crossed a stream, and the stream had stepping stones. Dan hopped onto the first stone, and the second, and on the third he slipped, and splash! Down he went. When he climbed out, he was on a little island in the middle of a bog, with mud to his knees and not a soul to help him.

'Well,' said Dan, 'this is a fine fix for a respectable man.' And just then, down out of the sky swooped a great big EAGLE.

'Daniel O'Rourke,' said the EAGLE, 'what are you doing out here in the bog?'

'Sure and I'd like to know that myself,' said Dan. 'Could you help a poor fellow home?'

'Climb on my back,' said the EAGLE, 'and hold tight.' So DANIEL O'Rourke climbed on, and up they went. But the EAGLE didn't fly toward Dan's house. He flew up, and up, and up, past the treetops, past the clouds, all the way to the moon.

'Here's where you get off,' said the EAGLE. Sticking out of the side of the moon was a reaping hook, the curved blade farmers use to cut wheat, and the bird set Dan right down on the handle of it.

'You can't leave me here!' cried Dan.

'Last year you robbed my nest,' said the EAGLE. 'Now we're even.' And off he flew, laughing a big eagle laugh.

So there sat DANIEL O'Rourke, hanging off the side of the moon, swinging his feet over nothing at all. And then a little door in the moon creaked open, and out popped the MAN IN THE MOON, in his nightshirt and slippers, with a candle in his hand.

'You're sitting on my reaping hook,' said the MAN IN THE MOON.

'Begging your pardon, sir,' said Dan, 'but I've nowhere else to sit.'

'That's not my problem,' said the MAN IN THE MOON. And he went back inside, came out with a hatchet, and whack, whack, chopped the handle clean off the hook.

Down fell DANIEL O'Rourke, still holding the handle, tumbling head over heels through the stars. He fell and he fell, until a flock of wild geese flew by. 'Daniel O'Rourke!' honked the old gander. 'What are you doing up here? Grab my leg and I'll carry you down.'

Dan grabbed on, and the geese flew on, and on, and right out over the ocean. 'Where's the land?' cried Dan. 'We're going to Arabia,' honked the gander. 'It's a long way. Do you want to let go?' And before Dan could answer, the gander shook his leg, and splash! Dan landed in the sea.

Up came a whale, as big as a church. The whale blew a great spout of water, right in Dan's face. And another one. And another one. Splash! Splash!

And then Dan heard a voice that wasn't a whale's at all. 'Get up, you lazy lump!' He opened his eyes. He was lying in the grass beside the stepping stones, and there stood his wife, Judy, with an empty bucket, about to throw another one.

'Judy!' said Dan. 'You'll never believe where I've been.'

'Asleep in a ditch,' said Judy, 'with your mouth open, snoring at the moon.'

And to this day, DANIEL O'Rourke won't sleep anywhere he can see the moon. He says the MAN IN THE MOON still owes him a reaping hook.

Storyteller tips: this one is all in the telling. Play Dan as cheerful and a little bit too sure of himself, and pause before "Get up, you lazy lump!" so the twist lands. Let Judy's last line come out flat and dry.

Based on the Bantry folktale collected by Thomas Crofton Croker in Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland (1825).