The German poet, Goethe, was a friend of puppets from his childhood. When he was about the age of seven, a friend of his good mother made some puppets and sent them to him and his sister for a Christmas present. The mother had a happy thought. She made a little stage and set it in the doorway of a room, just off the living room. On Christmas morning, after the children had seen their presents, she had the family sit down before the closed door. When she opened it, there was a kind of porch concealed with a mysterious curtain. The children were curious and eager to know what was behind that half-transparent veil. The mother, however, bade each sit down upon his stool. At length, Goethe says, “All were silent, a whistle gave the signal, the curtain rolled aloft and showed us the interior of a temple painted in deep red colors. The high priest, Samuel, appeared with Jonathan, and their strange alternating voices seemed to me the most striking thing on earth. Shortly after entered Saul, overwhelmed with confusion at the impatience of that heavy-limbed warrior who had defied him and all his people. But how glad was I when the dapper son of Jesse, with his crook and shepherd’s pouch and sling, came hopping forth and said, ‘Dread king and sovereign lord, let no one’s heart sink down because of this. If your majesty will grant me leave, I will go out to battle with this blustering giant!’ “Here ended the first act, leaving the spectators more curious than ever to see what further would happen—each praying that the music might soon be done. At last the curtain rose again. David devoted the flesh of the monsters to the fowls of the air and the beasts of the field; the Philistine scorned and bullied him, stamped mightily with both his feet, and at length fell like a mass of clay, affording a splendid termination to the piece, and then the virgins sang a song: ‘Saul hath slain his thousands, but David his ten thousands.’ The giant’s head was borne before his little victor, who received the king’s beautiful daughter to wife.” This is part of the description that Goethe wrote when he grew up and became a famous man.