If you’d like to hear a tale,
Come ’round and have a seat.
I’ll sing the song of Dancing Dale,
It’s really quite a treat.
Young Dale was quite the handsome lad,
And always quick of wit,
His feet were fleet, his hands were glad,
His pipe was always lit.
But then one day he found a sack,
Stitched with a mage’s name.
(The mage’s name was Hand-some Jack,
And luggage was his game.)
The sack was quite the wondrous thing,
And stylish as a lynx,
For while our Dale would dance and sing,
The sack would serve him drinks.
And anytime throughout his day,
Dale had a single need,
The sack would serve it on a tray,
With most impressive speed.
But magic always has a catch,
And the sack’s was pretty bad,
It dropped Dale’s barding down the hatch,
And left him hopping mad.
One day the sack brought out a gift,
He said he didn’t want.
The ask was just a thought adrift,
A fancy on a jaunt.
But when he waved the gift away,
The waving hand went too,
Into the sack to join the fray,
It bid fair Dale adieu.
And in its place the satchel put
The gift he didn’t need,
Upon a hairy ogre’s foot,
His elbow now a knee.
Dale figured out how he’d transgressed,
He saw what ruled the sack:
When it provides what you request,
Don’t ever give it back.
But our fair Dale, though quick of wit,
Was rather slow to learn.
He never knew just when to quit,
And his arm would ne’er return.
Twice more did Dale rebuff the sack,
While hunting for his arm,
And luggage magic often packs
Less good than it does harm.
But one thing’s true of Dancing Dale,
He always stays upbeat,
And in a dance he’s unassailed,
Now that he has four feet!
Originally shared by Jamie Frost
The Hand-y Haversack: This simple sling pack is much bigger on the inside, allowing its holder to store a seemingly endless number of items within. Moreover, the Haversack can read its holder’s thoughts; any time the holder thinks of an item that it holds, deliberately or otherwise, an arm or other limb emerges from the pouch to hand the item to its holder. The limbs that emerge are different every time.
The Haversack is a temperamental and easily offended item. If the holder refuses to take and immediately use an item that the Haversack has offered them, one of their limbs immediately detaches itself and clambers into the bag to join the the crowd, and the limb that offered the item climbs out and takes its place.