by Phoebe Cary
This poem narrates the legend of an old lady who angered Saint Peter because of her greed. The story is set in the Northland area where the lady lives. Once, Saint Peter was walking around the world and delivering religious speeches to people. One day, the saint reached a woman’s home. She was baking cakes. The saint was very hungry as he had fasted the whole day. He was also feeling weak. He asked the woman to give him a single piece of cake. The woman felt that the cakes she had baked were big ones. Since she did not want to give any of those, she baked a new cake. But then, she realised that this one was also bigger. So, she took a lesser portion of the dough and rolled it flat. She made it as thin as a wafer. No matter how much she tried, she could not give that one also to the saint. Seeing this behaviour, the Saint got angry. He said that she was not fit to live a human life and cursed her to become a bird. Following the curse, the woman transformed into a woodpecker bird. Now, she was digging dry wood to get shelter and working hard searching for some food to eat, as all birds do.