{"collection":"folklore-oral-tradition","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_27085/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_27085","id":"gutenberg_27085","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27085","summary":null,"tags":["Category: American Literature","Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy","Category: Short Stories","Children's stories, American","Fairy tales -- United States","Fantasy literature","Short stories"],"text":"Produced by Betsie Bush, ronnie sahlberg and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This\nfile was made using scans of public domain material from\nthe Children's Books Online - Rosetta Project)\n\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: The balloons floated and filled the sky]\n\n ROOTABAGA\n STORIES\n\n BY\n CARL SANDBURG\n\n\n Author of \"Slabs of the Sunburnt West,\" \"Smoke\n and Steel,\" \"Chicago Poems,\" \"Cornhuskers\"\n\n\n ILLUSTRATIONS AND DECORATIONS\n BY\n MAUD AND MISKA PETERSHAM\n\n\n [Illustration]\n\n NEW YORK\n HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY\n\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY\n HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY, INC.\n\n\n PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY\n THE QUINN & BODEN COMPANY\n RAHWAY, N J\n\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n TO\n SPINK AND SKABOOTCH\n\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n CONTENTS\n\n 1.\n\n Three Stories About the Finding of the Zigzag Railroad,\n the Pigs with Bibs On, the Circus Clown Ovens,\n the Village of Liver-and-Onions, the\n Village of Cream Puffs.\n\n How They Broke Away to Go to the Rootabaga Country 3\n\n How They Bring Back the Village of Cream Puffs When the\n Wind Blows It Away 19\n\n How the Five Rusty Rats Helped Find a New Village 29\n\n\n 2.\n\n Five Stories About the Potato Face Blind Man\n\n The Potato Face Blind Man Who Lost the Diamond Rabbit on\n His Gold Accordion 41\n\n How the Potato Face Blind Man Enjoyed Himself on a Fine\n Spring Morning 45\n\n Poker Face the Baboon and Hot Dog the Tiger 53\n\n The Toboggan-to-the-Moon Dream of the Potato Face Blind\n Man 59\n\n How Gimme the Ax Found Out About\n the Zigzag Railroad and\n Who Made It Zigzag 65\n\n\n 3.\n\n Three Stories About the Gold Buckskin Whincher\n\n The Story of Blixie Bimber and the Power\n of the Gold\n Buckskin Whincher 73\n\n The Story of Jason Squiff and Why He Had a Popcorn Hat,\n Popcorn Mittens and Popcorn Shoes 79\n\n The Story of Rags Habakuk, the Two Blue Rats, and the Circus\n Man Who Came with Spot Cash Money 89\n\n\n 4.\n\n Four Stories About the Deep Doom of Dark Doorways\n\n The Wedding Procession of the Rag Doll and the Broom Handle\n and Who Was in It 99\n\n How the Hat Ashes Shovel Helped Snoo Foo 105\n\n Three Boys With Jugs of Molasses and Secret Ambitions 109\n\n How Bimbo the Snip's Thumb Stuck to His Nose When the\n Wind Changed 123\n\n\n 5.\n\n Three Stories About Three Ways the Wind Went Winding\n\n The Two Skyscrapers Who Decided to Have a Child 133\n\n The Dollar Watch and the Five Jack Rabbits 141\n\n The Wooden Indian and the Shaghorn Buffalo 151\n\n\n 6.\n\n Four Stories About Dear, Dear Eyes\n\n The White Horse Girl and the Blue Wind Boy 159\n\n What Six Girls with Balloons Told the Gray Man on\n Horseback 167\n\n How Henry Hagglyhoagly Played the Guitar with His Mittens\n On 175\n\n\n 7.\n\n One Story--\"Only the Fire-Born Understand Blue\"\n\n Never Kick a Slipper at the Moon 185\n\n Sand Flat Shadows 191\n\n\n 8.\n\n Two Stories About Corn Fairies, Blue Foxes, Flongboos\n and Happenings That Happened in the United States\n and Canada\n\n How to Tell Corn Fairies If You See 'Em 205\n\n How the Animals Lost Their Tails and Got Them Back\n Traveling From Philadelphia to Medicine Hat 213\n\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS\n\n PAGE\n\nThe balloons floated and filled the sky Frontispiece\n\nHe opened the ragbag and took out all the spot cash money 7\n\nThen the uncles asked her the first question first 21\n\nThey held on to the long curved tails of the rusty rats 33\n\n\"I am sure many people will stop and remember the\nPotato Face Blind Man\" 47\n\nHis hat was popcorn, his mittens popcorn and his\nshoes popcorn 83\n\nThey stepped into the molasses with their bare feet 113\n\nThe monkey took the place of the traffic policeman 129\n\nSo they stood looking 153\n\nIt seemed to him as though the sky came down close\nto his nose 177\n\nAway off where the sun was coming up, there were\npeople and animals 195\n\nThere on a high stool in a high tower, on a high hill\nsits the Head Spotter of the Weather Makers 215\n\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n1. Three Stories About the Finding\n of the Zigzag Railroad, the Pigs\n with Bibs On, the Circus Clown\n Ovens, the Village of Liver-and-Onions,\n the Village of Cream\n Puffs.\n\n _People_: Gimme the Ax\n Please Gimme\n Ax Me No Questions\n The Ticket Agent\n Wing Tip the Spick\n The Four Uncles\n The Rat in a Blizzard\n The Five Rusty Rats\n\n _More People_:\n Balloon Pickers\n Baked Clowns\n Polka Dot Pigs\n\n\n [Illustration]\n\n How They Broke Away to Go to the\n Rootabaga Country\n\n\nGimme the Ax lived in a house where everything is the same as it\nalways was.\n\n\"The chimney sits on top of the house and lets the smoke out,\" said\nGimme the Ax. \"The doorknobs open the doors. The windows are always\neither open or shut. We are always either upstairs or downstairs in\nthis house. Everything is the same as it always was.\"\n\nSo he decided to let his children name themselves.\n\n\"The first words they speak as soon as they learn to make words shall\nbe their names,\" he said. \"They shall name themselves.\"\n\nWhen the first boy came to the house of Gimme the Ax, he was named\nPlease Gimme. When the first girl came she was named Ax Me No\nQuestions.\n\nAnd both of the children had the shadows of valleys by night in their\neyes and the lights of early morning, when the sun is coming up, on\ntheir foreheads.\n\nAnd the hair on top of their heads was a dark wild grass. And they\nloved to turn the doorknobs, open the doors, and run out to have the\nwind comb their hair and touch their eyes and put its six soft fingers\non their foreheads.\n\nAnd then because no more boys came and no more girls came, Gimme the\nAx said to himself, \"My first boy is my last and my last girl is my\nfirst and they picked their names themselves.\"\n\nPlease Gimme grew up and his ears got longer. Ax Me No Questions grew\nup and her ears got longer. And they kept on living in the house where\neverything is the same as it always was. They learned to say just as\ntheir father said, \"The chimney sits on top of the house and lets the\nsmoke out, the doorknobs open the doors, the windows are always either\nopen or shut, we are always either upstairs or downstairs--everything\nis the same as it always was.\"\n\nAfter a while they began asking each other in the cool of the evening\nafter they had eggs for breakfast in the morning, \"Who's who? How\nmuch? And what's the answer?\"\n\n\"It is too much to be too long anywhere,\" said the tough old man,\nGimme the Ax.\n\nAnd Please Gimme and Ax Me No Questions, the tough son and the tough\ndaughter of Gimme the Ax, answered their father, \"It _is_ too much to\nbe too long anywhere.\"\n\nSo they sold everything they had, pigs, pastures, pepper pickers,\npitchforks, everything except their ragbags and a few extras.\n\nWhen their neighbors saw them selling everything they had, the\ndifferent neighbors said, \"They are going to Kansas, to Kokomo, to\nCanada, to Kankakee, to Kalamazoo, to Kamchatka, to the Chattahoochee.\"\n\nOne little sniffer with his eyes half shut and a mitten on his nose,\nlaughed in his hat five ways and said, \"They are going to the moon and\nwhen they get there they will find everything is the same as it always\nwas.\"\n\nAll the spot cash money he got for selling everything, pigs, pastures,\npepper pickers, pitchforks, Gimme the Ax put in a ragbag and slung on\nhis back like a rag picker going home.\n\nThen he took Please Gimme, his oldest and youngest and only son, and\nAx Me No Questions, his oldest and youngest and only daughter, and\nwent to the railroad station.\n\nThe ticket agent was sitting at the window selling railroad tickets\nthe same as always.\n\n[Illustration: He opened the ragbag and took out all the spot cash money]\n\n\"Do you wish a ticket to go away and come back or do you wish a ticket\nto go away and _never_ come back?\" the ticket agent asked wiping sleep\nout of his eyes.\n\n\"We wish a ticket to ride where the railroad tracks run off into the\nsky and never come back--send us far as the railroad rails go and then\nforty ways farther yet,\" was the reply of Gimme the Ax.\n\n\"So far? So early? So soon?\" asked the ticket agent wiping more sleep\nout his eyes. \"Then I will give you a new ticket. It blew in. It is a\nlong slick yellow leather slab ticket with a blue spanch across it.\"\n\nGimme the Ax thanked the ticket agent once, thanked the ticket agent\ntwice, and then instead of thanking the ticket agent three times he\nopened the ragbag and took out all the spot cash money he got for\nselling everything, pigs, pastures, pepper pickers, pitchforks, and\npaid the spot cash money to the ticket agent.\n\nBefore he put it in his pocket he looked once, twice, three times at\nthe long yellow leather slab ticket with a blue spanch across it.\n\nThen with Please Gimme and Ax Me No Questions he got on the railroad\ntrain, showed the conductor his ticket and they started to ride to\nwhere the railroad tracks run off into the blue sky and then forty\nways farther yet.\n\nThe train ran on and on. It came to the place where the railroad\ntracks run off into the blue sky. And it ran on and on chick\nchick-a-chick chick-a-chick chick-a-chick.\n\nSometimes the engineer hooted and tooted the whistle. Sometimes the\nfireman rang the bell. Sometimes the open-and-shut of the steam hog's\nnose choked and spit pfisty-pfoost, pfisty-pfoost, pfisty-pfoost. But\nno matter what happened to the whistle and the bell and the steam hog,\nthe train ran on and on to where the railroad tracks run off into the\nblue sky. And then it ran on and on more and more.\n\nSometimes Gimme the Ax looked in his pocket, put his fingers in and\ntook out the long slick yellow leather slab ticket with a blue spanch\nacross it.\n\n\"Not even the Kings of Egypt with all their climbing camels, and all\ntheir speedy, spotted, lucky lizards, ever had a ride like this,\" he\nsaid to his children.\n\nThen something happened. They met another train running on the same\ntrack. One train was going one way. The other was going the other way.\nThey met. They passed each other.\n\n\"What was it--what happened?\" the children asked their father.\n\n\"One train went over, the other train went under,\" he answered. \"This\nis the Over and Under country. Nobody gets out of the way of anybody\nelse. They either go over or under.\"\n\nNext they came to the country of the balloon pickers. Hanging down\nfrom the sky strung on strings so fine the eye could not see them at\nfirst, was the balloon crop of that summer. The sky was thick with\nballoons. Red, blue, yellow balloons, white, purple and orange\nballoons--peach, watermelon and potato balloons--rye loaf and wheat\nloaf balloons--link sausage and pork chop balloons--they floated and\nfilled the sky.\n\nThe balloon pickers were walking on high stilts picking balloons. Each\npicker had his own stilts, long or short. For picking balloons near\nthe ground he had short stilts. If he wanted to pick far and high he\nwalked on a far and high pair of stilts.\n\nBaby pickers on baby stilts were picking baby balloons. When they fell\noff the stilts the handful of balloons they were holding kept them in\nthe air till they got their feet into the stilts again.\n\n\"Who is that away up there in the sky climbing like a bird in the\nmorning?\" Ax Me No Questions asked her father.\n\n\"He was singing too happy,\" replied the father. \"The songs came out of\nhis neck and made him so light the balloons pulled him off his\nstilts.\"\n\n\"Will he ever come down again back to his own people?\"\n\n\"Yes, his heart will get heavy when his songs are all gone. Then he\nwill drop down to his stilts again.\"\n\nThe train was running on and on. The engineer hooted and tooted the\nwhistle when he felt like it. The fireman rang the bell when he felt\nthat way. And sometimes the open-and-shut of the steam hog had to go\npfisty-pfoost, pfisty-pfoost.\n\n\"Next is the country where the circus clowns come from,\" said Gimme\nthe Ax to his son and daughter. \"Keep your eyes open.\"\n\nThey did keep their eyes open. They saw cities with ovens, long and\nshort ovens, fat stubby ovens, lean lank ovens, all for baking either\nlong or short clowns, or fat and stubby or lean and lank clowns.\n\nAfter each clown was baked in the oven it was taken out into the\nsunshine and put up to stand like a big white doll with a red mouth\nleaning against the fence.\n\nTwo men came along to each baked clown standing still like a doll. One\nman threw a bucket of white fire over it. The second man pumped a wind\npump with a living red wind through the red mouth.\n\nThe clown rubbed his eyes, opened his mouth, twisted his neck, wiggled\nhis ears, wriggled his toes, jumped away from the fence and began\nturning handsprings, cartwheels, somersaults and flipflops in the\nsawdust ring near the fence.\n\n\"The next we come to is the Rootabaga Country where the big city is\nthe Village of Liver-and-Onions,\" said Gimme the Ax, looking again in\nhis pocket to be sure he had the long slick yellow leather slab ticket\nwith a blue spanch across it.\n\nThe train ran on and on till it stopped running straight and began\nrunning in zigzags like one letter Z put next to another Z and the\nnext and the next.\n\nThe tracks and the rails and the ties and the spikes under the train\nall stopped being straight and changed to zigzags like one letter Z\nand another letter Z put next after the other.\n\n\"It seems like we go half way and then back up,\" said Ax Me No\nQuestions.\n\n\"Look out of the window and see if the pigs have bibs on,\" said Gimme\nthe Ax. \"If the pigs are wearing bibs then this is the Rootabaga\ncountry.\"\n\nAnd they looked out of the zigzagging windows of the zigzagging cars\nand the first pigs they saw had bibs on. And the next pigs and the\nnext pigs they saw all had bibs on.\n\nThe checker pigs had checker bibs on, the striped pigs had striped\nbibs on. And the polka dot pigs had polka dot bibs on.\n\n\"Who fixes it for the pigs to have bibs on?\" Please Gimme asked his\nfather.\n\n\"The fathers and mothers fix it,\" answered Gimme the Ax. \"The checker\npigs have checker fathers and mothers. The striped pigs have striped\nfathers and mothers. And the polka dot pigs have polka dot fathers and\nmothers.\"\n\nAnd the train went zigzagging on and on running on the tracks and the\nrails and the spikes and the ties which were all zigzag like the\nletter Z and the letter Z.\n\nAnd after a while the train zigzagged on into the Village of\nLiver-and-Onions, known as the biggest city in the big, big Rootabaga\ncountry.\n\nAnd so if you are going to the Rootabaga country you will know when\nyou get there because the railroad tracks change from straight to\nzigzag, the pigs have bibs on and it is the fathers and mothers who\nfix it.\n\nAnd if you start to go to that country remember first you must sell\neverything you have, pigs, pastures, pepper pickers, pitchforks, put\nthe spot cash money in a ragbag and go to the railroad station and ask\nthe ticket agent for a long slick yellow leather slab ticket with a\nblue spanch across it.\n\nAnd you mustn't be surprised if the ticket agent wipes sleep from his\neyes and asks, \"So far? So early? So soon?\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n [Illustration]\n\n How They Bring Back the Village of\n Cream Puffs When the Wind Blows\n It Away\n\n\nA girl named Wing Tip the Spick came to the Village of Liver-and-Onions\nto visit her uncle and her uncle's uncle on her mother's side and her\nuncle and her uncle's uncle on her father's side.\n\nIt was the first time the four uncles had a chance to see their little\nrelation, their niece. Each one of the four uncles was proud of the\nblue eyes of Wing Tip the Spick.\n\nThe two uncles on her mother's side took a long deep look into her\nblue eyes and said, \"Her eyes are so blue, such a clear light blue,\nthey are the same as cornflowers with blue raindrops shining and\ndancing on silver leaves after a sun shower in any of the summer\nmonths.\"\n\nAnd the two uncles on her father's side, after taking a long deep look\ninto the eyes of Wing Tip the Spick, said, \"Her eyes are so blue, such\na clear light shining blue, they are the same as cornflowers with blue\nraindrops shining and dancing on the silver leaves after a sun shower\nin any of the summer months.\"\n\nAnd though Wing Tip the Spick didn't listen and didn't hear what the\nuncles said about her blue eyes, she did say to herself when they were\nnot listening, \"I know these are sweet uncles and I am going to have a\nsweet time visiting my relations.\"\n\nThe four uncles said to her, \"Will you let us ask you two questions,\nfirst the first question and second the second question?\"\n\n[Illustration: Then the uncles asked her the first question first]\n\n\"I will let you ask me fifty questions this morning, fifty questions\nto-morrow morning, and fifty questions any morning. I like to listen\nto questions. They slip in one ear and slip out of the other.\"\n\nThen the uncles asked her the first question first, \"Where do you come\nfrom?\" and the second question second, \"Why do you have two freckles\non your chin?\"\n\n\"Answering your first question first,\" said Wing Tip the Spick, \"I\ncome from the Village of Cream Puffs, a little light village on the\nupland corn prairie. From a long ways off it looks like a little hat\nyou could wear on the end of your thumb to keep the rain off your\nthumb.\"\n\n\"Tell us more,\" said one uncle. \"Tell us much,\" said another uncle.\n\"Tell it without stopping,\" added another uncle. \"Interruptions nix\nnix,\" murmured the last of the uncles.\n\n\"It is a light little village on the upland corn prairie many miles\npast the sunset in the west,\" went on Wing Tip the Spick. \"It is light\nthe same as a cream puff is light. It sits all by itself on the big\nlong prairie where the prairie goes up in a slope. There on the slope\nthe winds play around the village. They sing it wind songs, summer\nwind songs in summer, winter wind songs in winter.\"\n\n\"And sometimes like an accident, the wind gets rough. And when the\nwind gets rough it picks up the little Village of Cream Puffs and\nblows it away off in the sky--all by itself.\"\n\n\"O-o-h-h,\" said one uncle. \"Um-m-m-m,\" said the other three uncles.\n\n\"Now the people in the village all understand the winds with their\nwind songs in summer and winter. And they understand the rough wind\nwho comes sometimes and picks up the village and blows it away off\nhigh in the sky all by itself.\n\n\"If you go to the public square in the middle of the village you will\nsee a big roundhouse. If you take the top off the roundhouse you will\nsee a big spool with a long string winding up around the spool.\n\n\"Now whenever the rough wind comes and picks up the village and blows\nit away off high in the sky all by itself then the string winds loose\nof the spool, because the village is fastened to the string. So the\nrough wind blows and blows and the string on the spool winds looser\nand looser the farther the village goes blowing away off into the sky\nall by itself.\n\n\"Then at last when the rough wind, so forgetful, so careless, has had\nall the fun it wants, then the people of the village all come together\nand begin to wind up the spool and bring back the village where it was\nbefore.\"\n\n\"O-o-h-h,\" said one uncle. \"Um-m-m-m,\" said the other three uncles.\n\n\"And sometimes when you come to the village to see your little\nrelation, your niece who has four such sweet uncles, maybe she will\nlead you through the middle of the city to the public square and show\nyou the roundhouse. They call it the Roundhouse of the Big Spool. And\nthey are proud because it was thought up and is there to show when\nvisitors come.\"\n\n\"And now will you answer the second question second--why do you have\ntwo freckles on your chin?\" interrupted the uncle who had said before,\n\"Interruptions nix nix.\"\n\n\"The freckles are put on,\" answered Wing Tip the Spick. \"When a girl\ngoes away from the Village of Cream Puffs her mother puts on two\nfreckles, on the chin. Each freckle must be the same as a little burnt\ncream puff kept in the oven too long. After the two freckles looking\nlike two little burnt cream puffs are put on her chin, they remind the\ngirl every morning when she combs her hair and looks in the looking\nglass. They remind her where she came from and she mustn't stay away\ntoo long.\"\n\n\"O-h-h-h,\" said one uncle. \"Um-m-m-m,\" said the other three uncles.\nAnd they talked among each other afterward, the four uncles by\nthemselves, saying:\n\n\"She has a gift. It is her eyes. They are so blue, such a clear light\nblue, the same as cornflowers with blue raindrops shining and dancing\non silver leaves after a sun shower in any of the summer months.\"\n\nAt the same time Wing Tip the Spick was saying to herself, \"I know for\nsure now these are sweet uncles and I am going to have a sweet time\nvisiting my relations.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n [Illustration]\n\n How the Five Rusty Rats Helped Find a\n New Village\n\n\nOne day while Wing Tip the Spick was visiting her four uncles in the\nVillage of Liver-and-Onions, a blizzard came up. Snow filled the sky\nand the wind blew and made a noise like heavy wagon axles grinding and\ncrying.\n\nAnd on this day a gray rat came to the house of the four uncles, a rat\nwith gray skin and gray hair, gray as the gray gravy on a beefsteak.\nThe rat had a basket. In the basket was a catfish. And the rat said,\n\"Please let me have a little fire and a little salt as I wish to make\na little bowl of hot catfish soup to keep me warm through the\nblizzard.\"\n\nAnd the four uncles all said together, \"This is no time for rats to be\naround--and we would like to ask you where you got the catfish in the\nbasket.\"\n\n\"Oh, oh, oh, please--in the name of the five rusty rats, the five\nlucky rats of the Village of Cream Puffs, please don't,\" was the\nexclamation of Wing Tip the Spick.\n\nThe uncles stopped. They looked long and deep into the eyes of Wing\nTip the Spick and thought, as they had thought before, how her eyes\nwere clear light blue the same as cornflowers with blue raindrops\nshining on the silver leaves in a summer sun shower.\n\nAnd the four uncles opened the door and let the gray rat come in with\nthe basket and the catfish. They showed the gray rat the way to the\nkitchen and the fire and the salt. And they watched the rat and kept\nhim company while he fixed himself a catfish soup to keep him warm\ntraveling through the blizzard with the sky full of snow.\n\nAfter they opened the front door and let the rat out and said good-by,\nthey turned to Wing Tip the Spick and asked her to tell them about the\nfive rusty lucky rats of the Village of Cream Puffs where she lived\nwith her father and her mother and her folks.\n\n\"When I was a little girl growing up, before I learned all I learned\nsince I got older, my grandfather gave me a birthday present because I\nwas nine years old. I remember how he said to me, 'You will never be\nnine years old again after this birthday, so I give you this box for a\nbirthday present.'\n\n\"In the box was a pair of red slippers with a gold clock on each\nslipper. One of the clocks ran fast. The other clock ran slow. And he\ntold me if I wished to be early anywhere I should go by the clock that\nran fast. And if I wished to be late anywhere I should go by the clock\nthat ran slow.\n\n\"And that same birthday he took me down through the middle of the\nVillage of Cream Puffs to the public square near the Roundhouse of the\nBig Spool. There he pointed his finger at the statue of the five rusty\nrats, the five lucky rats. And as near as I can remember his words, he\nsaid:\n\n\"'Many years ago, long before the snow birds began to wear funny\nlittle slip-on hats and funny little slip-on shoes, and away back long\nbefore the snow birds learned how to slip off their slip-on hats and\nhow to slip off their slip-on shoes, long ago in the faraway Village\nof Liver-and-Onions, the people who ate cream puffs came together and\nmet in the streets and picked up their baggage and put their\nbelongings on their shoulders and marched out of the Village of\nLiver-and-Onions saying, \"We shall find a new place for a village and\nthe name of it shall be the Village of Cream Puffs.\n\n[Illustration: They held on to the long curved tails of the rusty rats]\n\n\"'They marched out on the prairie with their baggage and belongings in\nsacks on their shoulders. And a blizzard came up. Snow filled the sky.\nThe wind blew and blew and made a noise like heavy wagon axles\ngrinding and crying.\n\n\"'The snow came on. The wind twisted all day and all night and all the\nnext day. The wind changed black and twisted and spit icicles in their\nfaces. They got lost in the blizzard. They expected to die and be\nburied in the snow for the wolves to come and eat them.\n\n\"'Then the five lucky rats came, the five rusty rats, rust on their\nskin and hair, rust on their feet and noses, rust all over, and\nespecially, most especially of all, rust on their long curved tails.\nThey dug their noses down into the snow and their long curved tails\nstuck up far above the snow where the people who were lost in the\nblizzard could take hold of the tails like handles.\n\n\"'And so, while the wind and the snow blew and the blizzard beat its\nicicles in their faces, they held on to the long curved tails of the\nrusty rats till they came to the place where the Village of Cream\nPuffs now stands. It was the rusty rats who saved their lives and\nshowed them where to put their new village. That is why this statue\nnow stands in the public square, this statue of the shapes of the five\nrusty rats, the five lucky rats with their noses down in the snow and\ntheir long curved tails lifted high out of the snow.'\n\n\"That is the story as my grandfather told it to me. And he said it\nhappened long ago, long before the snow birds began to wear slip-on\nhats and slip-on shoes, long before they learned how to slip off the\nslip-on hats and to slip off the slip-on shoes.\"\n\n\"O-h-h-h,\" said one of the uncles. \"Um-m-m-m,\" said the other three\nuncles.\n\n\"And sometime,\" added Wing Tip the Spick, \"when you go away from the\nVillage of Liver-and-Onions and cross the Shampoo River and ride many\nmiles across the upland prairie till you come to the Village of Cream\nPuffs, you will find a girl there who loves four uncles very much.\n\n\"And if you ask her politely, she will show you the red slippers with\ngold clocks on them, one clock to be early by, the other to be late\nby. And if you are still more polite she will take you through the\nmiddle of the town to the public square and show you the statue of the\nfive rusty lucky rats with their long curved tails sticking up in the\nair like handles. And the tails are curved so long and so nice you\nwill feel like going up and taking hold of them to see what will\nhappen to you.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n2. Five Stories About the\n Potato Face Blind Man\n\n _People_: The Potato Face Blind Man\n Any Ice Today\n Pick Ups\n Lizzie Lazarus\n Poker Face the Baboon\n Hot Dog the Tiger\n Whitson Whimble\n A Man Shoveling Money\n A Watermelon Moon\n White Gold Boys\n Blue Silver Girls\n Big White Moon Spiders\n Zizzies\n Gimme the Ax Again\n\n\n [Illustration]\n\n The Potato Face Blind Man Who Lost\n the Diamond Rabbit on His Gold\n Accordion\n\n\nThere was a Potato Face Blind Man used to play an accordion on the Main\nStreet corner nearest the postoffice in the Village of Liver-and-Onions.\n\nAny Ice Today came along and said, \"It looks like it used to be an 18\ncarat gold accordion with rich pawnshop diamonds in it; it looks like\nit used to be a grand accordion once and not so grand now.\"\n\n\"Oh, yes, oh, yes, it was gold all over on the outside,\" said the\nPotato Face Blind Man, \"and there was a diamond rabbit next to the\nhandles on each side, two diamond rabbits.\"\n\n\"How do you mean diamond rabbits?\" Any Ice Today asked.\n\n\"Ears, legs, head, feet, ribs, tail, all fixed out in diamonds to make\na nice rabbit with his diamond chin on his diamond toenails. When I\nplay good pieces so people cry hearing my accordion music, then I put\nmy fingers over and feel of the rabbit's diamond chin on his diamond\ntoenails, 'Attaboy, li'l bunny, attaboy, li'l bunny.'\"\n\n\"Yes I hear you talking but it is like dream talking. I wonder why\nyour accordion looks like somebody stole it and took it to a pawnshop\nand took it out and somebody stole it again and took it to a pawnshop\nand took it out and somebody stole it again. And they kept on stealing\nit and taking it out of the pawnshop and stealing it again till the\ngold wore off so it looks like a used-to-be-yesterday.\"\n\n\"Oh, yes, o-h, y-e-s, you are right. It is not like the accordion it\nused to be. It knows more knowledge than it used to know just the same\nas this Potato Face Blind Man knows more knowledge than he used to\nknow.\"\n\n\"Tell me about it,\" said Any Ice Today.\n\n\"It is simple. If a blind man plays an accordion on the street to make\npeople cry it makes them sad and when they are sad the gold goes away\noff the accordion. And if a blind man goes to sleep because his music\nis full of sleepy songs like the long wind in a sleepy valley, then\nwhile the blind man is sleeping the diamonds in the diamond rabbit all\ngo away. I play a sleepy song and go to sleep and I wake up and the\ndiamond ear of the diamond rabbit is gone. I play another sleepy song\nand go to sleep and wake up and the diamond tail of the diamond rabbit\nis gone. After a while all the diamond rabbits are gone, even the\ndiamond chin sitting on the diamond toenails of the rabbits next to\nthe handles of the accordion, even those are gone.\"\n\n\"Is there anything I can do?\" asked Any Ice Today.\n\n\"I do it myself,\" said the Potato Face Blind Man. \"If I am too sorry I\njust play the sleepy song of the long wind going up the sleepy\nvalleys. And that carries me away where I have time and money to dream\nabout the new wonderful accordions and postoffices where everybody\nthat gets a letter and everybody that don't get a letter stops and\nremembers the Potato Face Blind Man.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n [Illustration]\n\n How the Potato Face Blind Man Enjoyed\n Himself on a Fine Spring Morning\n\n\nOn a Friday morning when the flummywisters were yodeling yisters high\nin the elm trees, the Potato Face Blind Man came down to his work\nsitting at the corner nearest the postoffice in the Village of\nLiver-and-Onions and playing his gold-that-used-to-be accordion for\nthe pleasure of the ears of the people going into the postoffice to\nsee if they got any letters for themselves or their families.\n\n\"It is a good day, a lucky day,\" said the Potato Face Blind Man,\n\"because for a beginning I have heard high in the elm trees the\nflummywisters yodeling their yisters in the long branches of the\nlingering leaves. So--so--I am going to listen to myself playing on my\naccordion the same yisters, the same yodels, drawing them like long\nglad breathings out of my glad accordion, long breathings of the\nbranches of the lingering leaves.\"\n\nAnd he sat down in his chair. On the sleeve of his coat he tied a\nsign, \"I Am Blind _Too_.\" On the top button of his coat he hung a\nlittle thimble. On the bottom button of his coat he hung a tin copper\ncup. On the middle button he hung a wooden mug. By the side of him on\nthe left side on the sidewalk he put a galvanized iron washtub, and on\nthe right side an aluminum dishpan.\n\n\"It is a good day, a lucky day, and I am sure many people will stop\nand remember the Potato Face Blind Man,\" he sang to himself like a\nlittle song as he began running his fingers up and down the keys of\nthe accordion like the yisters of the lingering leaves in the elm\ntrees.\n\n[Illustration: \"I am sure many people will stop and remember the\nPotato Face Blind Man\"]\n\nThen came Pick Ups. Always it happened Pick Ups asked questions and\nwished to know. And so this is how the questions and answers ran when\nthe Potato Face filled the ears of Pick Ups with explanations.\n\n\"What is the piece you are playing on the keys of your accordion so\nfast sometimes, so slow sometimes, so sad some of the moments, so glad\nsome of the moments?\"\n\n\"It is the song the mama flummywisters sing when they button loose the\nwinter underwear of the baby flummywisters and sing:\n\n \"Fly, you little flummies,\n Sing, you little wisters.\"\n\n\"And why do you have a little thimble on the top button of your coat?\"\n\n\"That is for the dimes to be put in. Some people see it and say, 'Oh,\nI must put in a whole thimbleful of dimes.'\"\n\n\"And the tin copper cup?\"\n\n\"That is for the base ball players to stand off ten feet and throw in\nnickels and pennies. The one who throws the most into the cup will be\nthe most lucky.\"\n\n\"And the wooden mug?\"\n\n\"There is a hole in the bottom of it. The hole is as big as the\nbottom. The nickel goes in and comes out again. It is for the very\npoor people who wish to give me a nickel and yet get the nickel back.\"\n\n\"The aluminum dishpan and the galvanized iron washtub--what are they\ndoing by the side of you on both sides on the sidewalk?\"\n\n\"Sometime maybe it will happen everybody who goes into the postoffice\nand comes out will stop and pour out all their money, because they\nmight get afraid their money is no good any more. If such a happening\never happens then it will be nice for the people to have some place to\npour their money. Such is the explanation why you see the aluminum\ndishpan and galvanized iron tub.\"\n\n\"Explain your sign--why is it, 'I Am Blind _Too_.'\"\n\n\"Oh, I am sorry to explain to you, Pick Ups, why this is so which.\nSome of the people who pass by here going into the postoffice and\ncoming out, they have eyes--but they see nothing with their eyes. They\nlook where they are going and they get where they wish to get, but\nthey forget why they came and they do not know how to come away. They\nare my blind brothers. It is for them I have the sign that reads, 'I\nAm Blind _Too_.'\"\n\n\"I have my ears full of explanations and I thank you,\" said Pick Ups.\n\n\"Good-by,\" said the Potato Face Blind Man as he began drawing long\nbreathings like lingering leaves out of the accordion--along with the\nsong the mama flummywisters sing when they button loose the winter\nunderwear of the baby flummywisters.\n\n\n [Illustration]\n\n Poker Face the Baboon and Hot Dog\n the Tiger\n\n\nWhen the moon has a green rim with red meat inside and black seeds on\nthe red meat, then in the Rootabaga Country they call it a Watermelon\nMoon and look for anything to happen.\n\nIt was a night when a Watermelon Moon was shining. Lizzie Lazarus came\nto the upstairs room of the Potato Face Blind Man. Poker Face the\nBaboon and Hot Dog the Tiger were with her. She was leading them with\na pink string.\n\n\"You see they are wearing pajamas,\" she said. \"They sleep with you\nto-night and to-morrow they go to work with you like mascots.\"\n\n\"How like mascots?\" asked the Potato Face Blind Man.\n\n\"They are luck bringers. They keep your good luck if it is good. They\nchange your bad luck if it is bad.\"\n\n\"I hear you and my ears get your explanations.\"\n\nSo the next morning when the Potato Face Blind Man sat down to play\nhis accordion on the corner nearest the postoffice in the Village of\nLiver-and-Onions, next to him on the right hand side sitting on the\nsidewalk was Poker Face the Baboon and on the left hand side sitting\nnext to him was Hot Dog the Tiger.\n\nThey looked like dummies--they were so quiet. They looked as if they\nwere made of wood and paper and then painted. In the eyes of Poker\nFace was something faraway. In the eyes of Hot Dog was something\nhungry. Whitson Whimble, the patent clothes wringer manufacturer, came\nby in his big limousine automobile car without horses to pull it. He\nwas sitting back on the leather upholstered seat cushions.\n\n\"Stop here,\" he commanded the chauffeur driving the car.\n\nThen Whitson Whimble sat looking. First he looked into the eyes of\nPoker Face the Baboon and saw something faraway. Then he looked into\nthe eyes of Hot Dog the Tiger and saw something hungry. Then he read\nthe sign painted by the Potato Face Blind Man saying, \"You look at 'em\nand see 'em; I look at 'em and I don't. You watch what their eyes say;\nI can only feel their hair.\" Then Whitson Whimble commanded the\nchauffeur driving the car, \"Go on.\"\n\nFifteen minutes later a man in overalls came down Main Street with a\nwheelbarrow. He stopped in front of the Potato Face Blind Man, Poker\nFace the Baboon, and Hot Dog the Tiger.\n\n\"Where is the aluminum dishpan?\" he asked.\n\n\"On my left side on the sidewalk,\" answered the Potato Face Blind Man.\n\n\"Where is the galvanized iron washtub?\"\n\n\"On my right side on the sidewalk.\"\n\nThen the man in overalls took a shovel and began shoveling silver\ndollars out of the wheelbarrow into the aluminum dishpan and the\ngalvanized iron washtub. He shoveled out of the wheelbarrow till the\ndishpan was full, till the washtub was full. Then he put the shovel\ninto the wheelbarrow and went up Main Street.\n\nSix o'clock that night Pick Ups came along. The Potato Face Blind Man\nsaid to him, \"I have to carry home a heavy load of money to-night, an\naluminum dishpan full of silver dollars and a galvanized iron washtub\nfull of silver dollars. So I ask you, will you take care of Poker Face\nthe Baboon and Hot Dog the Tiger?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" said Pick Ups, \"I will.\" And he did. He tied a pink string to\ntheir legs and took them home and put them in the woodshed.\n\nPoker Face the Baboon went to sleep on the soft coal at the north end\nof the woodshed and when he was asleep his face had something faraway\nin it and he was so quiet he looked like a dummy with brown hair of\nthe jungle painted on his black skin and a black nose painted on his\nbrown face. Hot Dog the Tiger went to sleep on the hard coal at the\nsouth end of the woodshed and when he was asleep his eyelashes had\nsomething hungry in them and he looked like a painted dummy with black\nstripes painted over his yellow belly and a black spot painted away at\nthe end of his long yellow tail.\n\nIn the morning the woodshed was empty. Pick Ups told the Potato Face\nBlind Man, \"They left a note in their own handwriting on perfumed pink\npaper. It said, '_Mascots never stay long_.'\"\n\nAnd that is why for many years the Potato Face Blind Man had silver\ndollars to spend--and that is why many people in the Rootabaga Country\nkeep their eyes open for a Watermelon Moon in the sky with a green rim\nand red meat inside and black seeds making spots on the red meat.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n [Illustration]\n\n The Toboggan-to-the-Moon Dream of the\n Potato Face Blind Man\n\n\nOne morning in October the Potato Face Blind Man sat on the corner\nnearest the postoffice.\n\nAny Ice Today came along and said, \"This is the sad time of the year.\"\n\n\"Sad?\" asked the Potato Face Blind Man, changing his accordion from\nhis right knee to his left knee, and singing softly to the tune he was\nfumbling on the accordion keys, \"Be Happy in the Morning When the\nBirds Bring the Beans.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" said Any Ice Today, \"is it not sad every year when the leaves\nchange from green to yellow, when the leaves dry on the branches and\nfall into the air, and the wind blows them and they make a song\nsaying, 'Hush baby, hush baby,' and the wind fills the sky with them\nand they are like a sky full of birds who forget they know any songs.\"\n\n\"It is sad and not sad,\" was the blind man's word.\n\n\"Listen,\" said the Potato Face. \"For me this is the time of the year\nwhen the dream of the white moon toboggan comes back. Five weeks\nbefore the first snow flurry this dream always comes back to me. It\nsays, 'The black leaves are falling now and they fill the sky but five\nweeks go by and then for every black leaf there will be a thousand\nsnow crystals shining white.'\"\n\n\"What was your dream of the white moon toboggan?\" asked Any Ice Today.\n\n\"It came to me first when I was a boy, when I had my eyes, before my\nluck changed. I saw the big white spiders of the moon working, rushing\naround climbing up, climbing down, snizzling and sniffering. I looked\na long while before I saw what the big white spiders on the moon were\ndoing. I saw after a while they were weaving a long toboggan, a white\ntoboggan, white and soft as snow. And after a long while of snizzling\nand sniffering, climbing up and climbing down, at last the toboggan\nwas done, a snow white toboggan running from the moon down to the\nRootabaga Country.\n\n\"And sliding, sliding down from the moon on this toboggan were the\nWhite Gold Boys and the Blue Silver Girls. They tumbled down at my\nfeet because, you see, the toboggan ended right at my feet. I could\nlean over and pick up the White Gold Boys and the Blue Silver Girls as\nthey slid out of the toboggan at my feet. I could pick up a whole\nhandful of them and hold them in my hand and talk with them. Yet, you\nunderstand, whenever I tried to shut my hand and keep any of them they\nwould snizzle and sniffer and jump out of the cracks between my\nfingers. Once there was a little gold and silver dust on my left hand\nthumb, dust they snizzled out while slipping away from me.\n\n\"Once I heard a White Gold Boy and a Blue Silver Girl whispering. They\nwere standing on the tip of my right hand little finger, whispering.\nOne said, 'I got pumpkins--what did you get?' The other said, 'I got\nhazel nuts.' I listened more and I found out there are millions of\npumpkins and millions of hazel nuts so small you and I can not see\nthem. These children from the moon, however, they can see them and\nwhenever they slide down on the moon toboggan they take back their\npockets full of things so little we have never seen them.\"\n\n\"They are wonderful children,\" said Any Ice Today. \"And will you tell\nme how they get back to the moon after they slide down the toboggan?\"\n\n\"Oh, that is easy,\" said Potato Face. \"It is just as easy for them to\nslide _up_ to the moon as to slide down. Sliding up and sliding down\nis the same for them. The big white spiders fixed it that way when\nthey snizzled and sniffered and made the toboggan.\"\n\n\n [Illustration]\n\n How Gimme the Ax Found Out About\n the Zigzag Railroad and Who Made\n It Zigzag\n\n\nOne day Gimme the Ax said to himself, \"Today I go to the postoffice\nand around, looking around. Maybe I will hear about something\nhappening last night when I was sleeping. Maybe a policeman began\nlaughing and fell in a cistern and came out with a wheelbarrow full of\ngoldfish wearing new jewelry. How do I know? Maybe the man in the moon\ngoing down a cellar stairs to get a pitcher of butter-milk for the\nwoman in the moon to drink and stop crying, maybe he fell down the\nstairs and broke the pitcher and laughed and picked up the broken\npieces and said to himself, 'One, two, three, four, accidents happen\nin the best regulated families.' How do I know?\"\n\nSo with his mind full of simple and refreshing thoughts, Gimme the Ax\nwent out into the backyard garden and looked at the different necktie\npoppies growing early in the summer. Then he picked one of the necktie\npoppies to wear for a necktie scarf going downtown to the postoffice\nand around looking around.\n\n\"It is a good speculation to look nice around looking around in a\nnecktie scarf,\" said Gimme the Ax. \"It is a necktie with a picture\nlike whiteface pony spots on a green frog swimming in the moonshine.\"\n\nSo he went downtown. For the first time he saw the Potato Face Blind\nMan playing an accordion on the corner next nearest the postoffice. He\nasked the Potato Face to tell him why the railroad tracks run zigzag\nin the Rootabaga Country.\n\n\"Long ago,\" said the Potato Face Blind Man, \"long before the necktie\npoppies began growing in the backyard, long before there was a necktie\nscarf like yours with whiteface pony spots on a green frog swimming in\nthe moonshine, back in the old days when they laid the rails for the\nrailroad they laid the rails straight.\"\n\n\"Then the zizzies came. The zizzy is a bug. He runs zigzag on zigzag\nlegs, eats zigzag with zigzag teeth, and spits zigzag with a zigzag\ntongue.\n\n\"Millions of zizzies came hizzing with little hizzers on their heads\nand under their legs. They jumped on the rails with their zigzag legs,\nand spit and twisted with their zigzag teeth and tongues till they\ntwisted the whole railroad and all the rails and tracks into a zigzag\nrailroad with zigzag rails for the trains, the passenger trains and\nthe freight trains, all to run zigzag on.\n\n\"Then the zizzies crept away into the fields where they sleep and\ncover themselves with zigzag blankets on special zigzag beds.\n\n\"Next day came shovelmen with their shovels, smooth engineers with\nsmooth blue prints, and water boys with water pails and water dippers\nfor the shovelmen to drink after shoveling the railroad straight. And\nI nearly forgot to say the steam and hoist operating engineers came\nand began their steam hoist and operating to make the railroad\nstraight.\n\n\"They worked hard. They made the railroad straight again. They looked\nat the job and said to themselves and to each other, 'This is it--we\ndone it.'\n\n\"Next morning the zizzies opened their zigzag eyes and looked over to\nthe railroad and the rails. When they saw the railroad all straight\nagain, and the rails and the ties and the spikes all straight again,\nthe zizzies didn't even eat breakfast that morning.\n\n\"They jumped out of their zigzag beds, jumped onto the rails with\ntheir zigzag legs and spit and twisted till they spit and twisted all\nthe rails and the ties and the spikes back into a zigzag like the\nletter Z and the letter Z at the end of the alphabet.\n\n\"After that the zizzies went to breakfast. And they said to themselves\nand to each other, the same as the shovelmen, the smooth engineers and\nthe steam hoist and operating engineers, 'This is it--we done it.'\"\n\n\"So that is the how of the which--it was the zizzies,\" said Gimme the\nAx.\n\n\"Yes, it was the zizzies,\" said the Potato Face Blind Man. \"That is\nthe story told to me.\"\n\n\"Who told it to you?\"\n\n\"_Two little zizzies._ They came to me one cold winter night and slept\nin my accordion where the music keeps it warm in winter. In the\nmorning I said, 'Good morning, zizzies, did you have a good sleep last\nnight and pleasant dreams?' And after they had breakfast they told me\nthe story. Both told it zigzag but it was the same kind of zigzag each\nhad together.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n3. Three Stories About the\n Gold Buckskin Whincher\n\n _People_: Blixie Bimber\n Peter Potato Blossom Wishes\n Jimmie the Flea\n Silas Baxby\n Fritz Axenbax\n James Sixbixdix\n Jason Squiff, the Cistern Cleaner\n Rags Habakuk, the Rag Man\n Two Daughters of the Rag Man\n Two Blue Rats\n A Circus Man With Spot Cash\n A Moving Picture Actor\n A Taxicab Driver\n\n\n [Illustration]\n\n The Story of Blixie Bimber and the Power\n of the Gold Buckskin Whincher\n\n\nBlixie Bimber grew up looking for luck. If she found a horseshoe she\ntook it home and put it on the wall of her room with a ribbon tied to\nit. She would look at the moon through her fingers, under her arms,\nover her right shoulder but never--never over her _left_ shoulder. She\nlistened and picked up everything anybody said about the ground hog\nand whether the ground hog saw his shadow when he came out the second\nof February.\n\nIf she dreamed of onions she knew the next day she would find a silver\nspoon. If she dreamed of fishes she knew the next day she would meet a\nstrange man who would call her by her first name. She grew up looking\nfor luck.\n\nShe was sixteen years old and quite a girl, with her skirts down to\nher shoe tops, when something happened. She was going to the\npostoffice to see if there was a letter for her from Peter Potato\nBlossom Wishes, her best chum, or a letter from Jimmy the Flea, her\nbest friend she kept steady company with.\n\nJimmy the Flea was a climber. He climbed skyscrapers and flagpoles and\nsmokestacks and was a famous steeplejack. Blixie Bimber liked him\nbecause he was a steeplejack, a little, but more because he was a\nwhistler.\n\nEvery time Blixie said to Jimmy, \"I got the blues--whistle the blues\nout of me,\" Jimmy would just naturally whistle till the blues just\nnaturally went away from Blixie.\n\nOn the way to the postoffice, Blixie found a gold buckskin _whincher_.\nThere it lay in the middle of the sidewalk. How and why it came to be\nthere she never knew and nobody ever told her. \"It's luck,\" she said\nto herself as she picked it up quick.\n\nAnd so--she took it home and fixed it on a little chain and wore it\naround her neck.\n\nShe did not know and nobody ever told her a gold buckskin whincher is\ndifferent from just a plain common whincher. It has a _power_. And if\na thing has a power over you then you just naturally can't help\nyourself.\n\nSo--around her neck fixed on a little chain Blixie Bimber wore the\ngold buckskin whincher and never knew it had a power and all the time\nthe power was working.\n\n\"The first man you meet with an X in his name you must fall head over\nheels in love with him,\" said the silent power in the gold buckskin\nwhincher.\n\nAnd that was why Blixie Bimber stopped at the postoffice and went back\nagain asking the clerk at the postoffice window if he was sure there\nwasn't a letter for her. The name of the clerk was Silas Baxby. For\nsix weeks he kept steady company with Blixie Bimber. They went to\ndances, hayrack rides, picnics and high jinks together.\n\nAll the time the power in the gold buckskin whincher was working. It\nwas hanging by a little chain around her neck and always working. It\nwas saying, \"The next man you meet with two X's in his name you must\nleave all and fall head over heels in love with him.\"\n\nShe met the high school principal. His name was Fritz Axenbax. Blixie\ndropped her eyes before him and threw smiles at him. And for six weeks\nhe kept steady company with Blixie Bimber. They went to dances,\nhayrack rides, picnics and high jinks together.\n\n\"Why do you go with him for steady company?\" her relatives asked.\n\n\"It's a power he's got,\" Blixie answered, \"I just can't help it--it's\na power.\"\n\n\"One of his feet is bigger than the other--how can you keep steady\ncompany with him?\" they asked again.\n\nAll she would answer was, \"It's a power.\"\n\nAll the time, of course, the gold buckskin whincher on the little\nchain around her neck was working. It was saying, \"If she meets a man\nwith three X's in his name she must fall head over heels in love with\nhim.\"\n\nAt a band concert in the public square one night she met James\nSixbixdix. There was no helping it. She dropped her eyes and threw her\nsmiles at him. And for six weeks they kept steady company going to\nband concerts, dances, hayrack rides, picnics and high jinks together.\n\n\"Why do you keep steady company with him? He's a musical soup eater,\"\nher relatives said to her. And she answered, \"It's a power--I can't\nhelp myself.\"\n\nLeaning down with her head in a rain water cistern one day, listening\nto the echoes against the strange wooden walls of the cistern, the\ngold buckskin whincher on the little chain around her neck slipped off\nand fell down into the rain water.\n\n\"My luck is gone,\" said Blixie. Then she went into the house and made\ntwo telephone calls. One was to James Sixbixdix telling him she\ncouldn't keep the date with him that night. The other was to Jimmy the\nFlea, the climber, the steeplejack.\n\n\"Come on over--I got the blues and I want you to whistle 'em away,\"\nwas what she telephoned Jimmy the Flea.\n\nAnd so--if you ever come across a gold buckskin whincher, be careful.\nIt's got a power. It'll make you fall head over heels in love with the\nnext man you meet with an X in his name. Or it will do other strange\nthings because different whinchers have different powers.\n\n\n [Illustration]\n\n The Story of Jason Squiff and Why He\n Had a Popcorn Hat, Popcorn Mittens\n and Popcorn Shoes\n\n\nJason Squiff was a cistern cleaner. He had greenish yellowish hair. If\nyou looked down into a cistern when he was lifting buckets of slush\nand mud you could tell where he was, you could pick him out down in\nthe dark cistern, by the lights of his greenish yellowish hair.\n\nSometimes the buckets of slush and mud tipped over and ran down on the\ntop of his head. This covered his greenish yellowish hair. And then it\nwas hard to tell where he was and it was not easy to pick him out down\nin the dark where he was cleaning the cistern.\n\nOne day Jason Squiff came to the Bimber house and knocked on the door.\n\n\"Did I understand,\" he said, speaking to Mrs. Bimber, Blixie Bimber's\nmother, \"do I understand you sent for me to clean the cistern in your\nback yard?\"\n\n\"You understand exactly such,\" said Mrs. Bimber, \"and you are welcome\nas the flowers that bloom in the spring, tra-la-la.\"\n\n\"Then I will go to work and clean the cistern, tra-la-la,\" he\nanswered, speaking to Mrs. Bimber. \"I'm the guy, tra-la-la,\" he said\nfurther, running his excellent fingers through his greenish yellowish\nhair which was shining brightly.\n\nHe began cleaning the cistern. Blixie Bimber came out in the back\nyard. She looked down in the cistern. It was all dark. It looked like\nnothing but all dark down there. By and by she saw something greenish\nyellowish. She watched it. Soon she saw it was Jason Squiff's head and\nhair. And then she knew the cistern was being cleaned and Jason Squiff\nwas on the job. So she sang tra-la-la and went back into the house and\ntold her mother Jason Squiff was on the job.\n\nThe last bucketful of slush and mud came at last for Jason Squiff. He\nsquinted at the bottom. Something was shining. He reached his fingers\ndown through the slush and mud and took out what was shining.\n\nIt was the gold buckskin whincher Blixie Bimber lost from the gold\nchain around her neck the week before when she was looking down into\nthe cistern to see what she could see. It was exactly the same gold\nbuckskin whincher shining and glittering like a sign of happiness.\n\n\"It's luck,\" said Jason Squiff, wiping his fingers on his greenish\nyellowish hair. Then he put the gold buckskin whincher in his vest\npocket and spoke to himself again, \"It's luck.\"\n\nA little after six o'clock that night Jason Squiff stepped into his\nhouse and home and said hello to his wife and daughters. They all\nbegan to laugh. Their laughter was a ticklish laughter.\n\n\"Something funny is happening,\" he said.\n\n\"And you are it,\" they all laughed at him again with ticklish\nlaughter.\n\nThen they showed him. His hat was popcorn, his mittens popcorn and his\nshoes popcorn. He didn't know the gold buckskin whincher had a power\nand was working all the time. He didn't know the whincher in his vest\npocket was saying, \"You have a letter Q in your name and because you\nhave the pleasure and happiness of having a Q in your name you must\nhave a popcorn hat, popcorn mittens and popcorn shoes.\"\n\nThe next morning he put on another hat, another pair of mittens and\nanother pair of shoes. And the minute he put them on they changed to\npopcorn.\n\nSo he tried on all his hats, mittens and shoes. Always they changed to\npopcorn the minute he had them on.\n\n[Illustration: His hat was popcorn, his mittens popcorn and his\nshoes popcorn]\n\nHe went downtown to the stores. He bought a new hat, mittens and\nshoes. And the minute he had them on they changed to popcorn.\n\nSo he decided he would go to work and clean cisterns with his popcorn\nhat, popcorn mittens and popcorn shoes on.\n\nThe people of the Village of Cream Puffs enjoyed watching him walk up\nthe street, going to clean cisterns. People five and six blocks away\ncould see him coming and going with his popcorn hat, popcorn mittens\nand popcorn shoes.\n\nWhen he was down in a cistern the children enjoyed looking down into\nthe cistern to see him work. When none of the slush and mud fell on\nhis hat and mittens he was easy to find. The light of the shining\npopcorn lit up the whole inside of the cistern.\n\nSometimes, of course, the white popcorn got full of black slush and\nblack mud. And then when Jason Squiff came up and walked home he was\nnot quite so dazzling to look at.\n\nIt was a funny winter for Jason Squiff.\n\n\"It's a crime, a dirty crime,\" he said to himself. \"Now I can never be\nalone with my thoughts. Everybody looks at me when I go up the\nstreet.\"\n\n\"If I meet a funeral even the pall bearers begin to laugh at my\npopcorn hat. If I meet people going to a wedding they throw all the\nrice at me as if I am a bride and a groom all together.\n\n\"The horses try to eat my hat wherever I go. Three hats I have fed to\nhorses this winter.\n\n\"And if I accidentally drop one of my mittens the chickens eat it.\"\n\nThen Jason Squiff began to change. He became proud.\n\n\"I always wanted a white beautiful hat like this white popcorn hat,\"\nhe said to himself. \"And I always wanted white beautiful mittens and\nwhite beautiful shoes like these white popcorn mittens and shoes.\"\n\nWhen the boys yelled, \"Snow man! yah-de-dah-de-dah, Snow man!\" he just\nwaved his hand to them with an upward gesture of his arm to show he\nwas proud of how he looked.\n\n\"They all watch for me,\" he said to himself, \"I am distinquished--am I\nnot?\" he asked himself.\n\nAnd he put his right hand into his left hand and shook hands with\nhimself and said, \"You certainly look fixed up.\"\n\nOne day he decided to throw away his vest. In the vest pocket was the\ngold buckskin whincher, with the power working, the power saying, \"You\nhave a letter Q in your name and because you have the pleasure and\nhappiness of having a Q in your name you must have a popcorn hat,\npopcorn mittens and popcorn shoes.\"\n\nYes, he threw away the vest. He forgot all about the gold buckskin\nwhincher being in the vest.\n\nHe just handed the vest to a rag man. And the rag man put the vest\nwith the gold buckskin whincher in a bag on his back and walked away.\n\nAfter that Jason Squiff was like other people. His hats would never\nchange to popcorn nor his mittens to popcorn nor his shoes to popcorn.\n\nAnd when anybody looked at him down in a cistern cleaning the cistern\nor when anybody saw him walking along the street they knew him by his\ngreenish yellowish hair which was always full of bright lights.\n\nAnd so--if you have a Q in your name, be careful if you ever come\nacross a gold buckskin whincher. Remember different whinchers have\ndifferent powers.\n\n\n [Illustration]\n\n The Story of Rags Habakuk, the Two\n Blue Rats, and the Circus Man Who\n Came with Spot Cash Money\n\n\nRags Habakuk was going home. His day's work was done. The sun was\ndown. Street lamps began shining. Burglars were starting on their\nnight's work. It was no time for an honest ragman to be knocking on\npeople's back doors, saying, \"Any rags?\" or else saying, \"Any rags?\nany bottles? any bones?\" or else saying \"Any rags? any bottles? any\nbones? any old iron? any copper, brass, old shoes all run down and no\ngood to anybody to-day? any old clothes, old coats, pants, vests? I\ntake any old clothes you got.\"\n\nYes, Rags Habakuk was going home. In the gunnysack bag on his back,\nhumped up on top of the rag humps in the bag, was an old vest. It was\nthe same old vest Jason Squiff threw out of a door at Rags Habakuk. In\nthe pocket of the vest was the gold buckskin whincher with a power in\nit.\n\nWell, Rags Habakuk got home just like always, sat down to supper and\nsmacked his mouth and had a big supper of fish, just like always. Then\nhe went out to a shanty in the back yard and opened up the gunnysack\nrag bag and fixed things out classified just like every day when he\ncame home he opened the gunnysack bag and fixed things out classified.\n\nThe last thing of all he fixed out classified was the vest with the\ngold buckskin whincher in the pocket. \"Put it on--it's a glad rag,\" he\nsaid, looking at the vest. \"It's a lucky vest.\" So he put his right\narm in the right armhole and his left arm in the left armhole. And\nthere he was with his arms in the armholes of the old vest all fixed\nout classified new.\n\nNext morning Rags Habakuk kissed his wife g'by and his eighteen year\nold girl g'by and his nineteen year old girl g'by. He kissed them just\nlike he always kissed them--in a hurry--and as he kissed each one he\nsaid, \"I will be back soon if not sooner and when I come back I will\nreturn.\"\n\nYes, up the street went Rags Habakuk. And soon as he left home\nsomething happened. Standing on his right shoulder was a blue rat and\nstanding on his left shoulder was a blue rat. The only way he knew\nthey were there was by looking at them.\n\nThere they were, close to his ears. He could feel the far edge of\ntheir whiskers against his ears.\n\n\"This never happened to me before all the time I been picking rags,\"\nhe said. \"Two blue rats stand by my ears and never say anything even\nif they know I am listening to anything they tell me.\"\n\nSo Rags Habakuk walked on two blocks, three blocks, four blocks,\nsquinting with his right eye slanting at the blue rat on his right\nshoulder and squinting with his left eye slanting at the blue rat on\nhis left shoulder.\n\n\"If I stood on somebody's shoulder with my whiskers right up in\nsomebody's ear I would say something for somebody to listen to,\" he\nmuttered.\n\nOf course, he did not understand it was the gold buckskin whincher and\nthe power working. Down in the pocket of the vest he had on, the gold\nbuckskin whincher power was saying, \"Because you have two K's in your\nname you must have two blue rats on your shoulders, one blue rat for\nyour right ear, one blue rat for your left ear.\"\n\nIt was good business. Never before did Rags Habakuk get so much old\nrags.\n\n\"Come again--you and your lucky blue rats,\" people said to him. They\ndug into their cellars and garrets and brought him bottles and bones\nand copper and brass and old shoes and old clothes, coats, pants,\nvests.\n\nEvery morning when he went up the street with the two blue rats on his\nshoulders, blinking their eyes straight ahead and chewing their\nwhiskers so they sometimes tickled the ears of old Rags Habakuk,\nsometimes women came running out on the front porch to look at him and\nsay, \"Well, if he isn't a queer old mysterious ragman and if those\nain't queer old mysterious blue rats!\"\n\nAll the time the gold buckskin whincher and the power was working. It\nwas saying, \"So long as old Rags Habakuk keeps the two blue rats he\nshall have good luck--but if he ever sells one of the blue rats then\none of his daughters shall marry a taxicab driver--and if he ever\nsells the other blue rat then his other daughter shall marry a\nmoving-picture hero actor.\"\n\nThen terrible things happened. A circus man came. \"I give you one\nthousand dollars spot cash money for one of the blue rats,\" he\nexpostulated with his mouth. \"And I give you two thousand dollars spot\ncash money for the two of the blue rats both of them together.\"\n\n\"Show me how much spot cash money two thousand dollars is all counted\nout in one pile for one man to carry away home in his gunnysack rag\nbag,\" was the answer of Rags Habakuk.\n\nThe circus man went to the bank and came back with spot cash\ngreenbacks money.\n\n\"This spot cash greenbacks money is made from the finest silk rags\nprinted by the national government for the national republic to make\nbusiness rich and prosperous,\" said the circus man, expostulating with\nhis mouth.\n\n\"T-h-e f-i-n-e-s-t s-i-l-k r-a-g-s,\" he expostulated again holding two\nfingers under the nose of Rags Habakuk.\n\n\"I take it,\" said Rags Habakuk, \"I take it. It is a whole gunnysack\nbag full of spot cash greenbacks money. I tell my wife it is printed\nby the national government for the national republic to make business\nrich and prosperous.\"\n\nThen he kissed the blue rats, one on the right ear, the other on the\nleft ear, and handed them over to the circus man.\n\nAnd that was why the next month his eighteen year old daughter married\na taxicab driver who was so polite all the time to his customers that\nhe never had time to be polite to his wife.\n\nAnd that was why his nineteen year old daughter married a moving-picture\nhero actor who worked so hard being nice and kind in the moving pictures\nthat he never had enough left over for his wife when he got home after\nthe day's work.\n\nAnd the lucky vest with the gold buckskin whincher was stolen from\nRags Habakuk by the taxicab driver.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n4. Four Stories About the Deep\n Doom of Dark Doorways\n\n _People_: The Rag Doll\n The Broom Handle\n Spoon Lickers\n Chocolate Chins\n Dirty Bibs\n Tin Pan Bangers\n Clean Ears\n Easy Ticklers\n Musical Soup Eaters\n Chubby Chubs\n Sleepy Heads\n\n Snoo Foo\n Blink, Swink and Jink\n Blunk, Swunk and Junk\n Missus Sniggers\n\n Eeta Peeca Pie\n Meeny Miney\n Miney Mo\n A Potato Bug Millionaire\n\n Bimbo the Snip\n Bevo the Hike\n A Ward Alderman\n A Barn Boss\n A Weather Man\n A Traffic Policeman\n A Monkey\n A Widow Woman\n An Umbrella Handle Maker\n\n\n [Illustration]\n\n The Wedding Procession of the Rag Doll\n and the Broom Handle and Who Was in It\n\n\nThe Rag Doll had many friends. The Whisk Broom, the Furnace Shovel,\nthe Coffee Pot, they all liked the Rag Doll very much.\n\nBut when the Rag Doll married, it was the Broom Handle she picked\nbecause the Broom Handle fixed her eyes.\n\nA proud child, proud but careless, banged the head of the Rag Doll\nagainst a door one day and knocked off both the glass eyes sewed on\nlong ago. It was then the Broom Handle found two black California\nprunes, and fastened the two California prunes just where the eyes\nbelonged. So then the Rag Doll had two fine black eyes brand new. She\nwas even nicknamed Black Eyes by some people.\n\nThere was a wedding when the Rag Doll married the Broom Handle. It was\na grand wedding with one of the grandest processions ever seen at a\nrag doll wedding. And we are sure no broom handle ever had a grander\nwedding procession when he got married.\n\nWho marched in the procession? Well, first came the Spoon Lickers.\nEvery one of them had a tea spoon, or a soup spoon, though most of\nthem had a big table spoon. On the spoons, what did they have? Oh,\nsome had butter scotch, some had gravy, some had marshmallow fudge.\nEvery one had something slickery sweet or fat to eat on the spoon. And\nas they marched in the wedding procession of the Rag Doll and the\nBroom Handle, they licked their spoons and looked around and licked\ntheir spoons again.\n\nNext came the Tin Pan Bangers. Some had dishpans, some had frying\npans, some had potato peeling pans. All the pans were tin with tight\ntin bottoms. And the Tin Pan Bangers banged with knives and forks and\niron and wooden bangers on the bottoms of the tin pans. And as they\nmarched in the wedding procession of the Rag Doll and the Broom Handle\nthey banged their pans and looked around and banged again.\n\nThen came the Chocolate Chins. They were all eating chocolates. And\nthe chocolate was slippery and slickered all over their chins. Some of\nthem spattered the ends of their noses with black chocolate. Some of\nthem spread the brown chocolate nearly up to their ears. And then as\nthey marched in the wedding procession of the Rag Doll and the Broom\nHandle they stuck their chins in the air and looked around and stuck\ntheir chins in the air again.\n\nThen came the Dirty Bibs. They wore plain white bibs, checker bibs,\nstripe bibs, blue bibs and bibs with butterflies. But all the bibs\nwere dirty. The plain white bibs were dirty, the checker bibs were\ndirty, the stripe bibs, the blue bibs and the bibs with butterflies on\nthem, they were all dirty. And so in the wedding procession of the Rag\nDoll and the Broom Handle, the Dirty Bibs marched with their dirty\nfingers on the bibs and they looked around and laughed and looked\naround and laughed again.\n\nNext came the Clean Ears. They were proud. How they got into the\nprocession nobody knows. Their ears were all clean. They were clean\nnot only on the outside but they were clean on the inside. There was\nnot a speck of dirt or dust or muss or mess on the inside nor the\noutside of their ears. And so in the wedding procession of the Rag\nDoll and the Broom Handle, they wiggled their ears and looked around\nand wiggled their ears again.\n\nThe Easy Ticklers were next in the procession. Their faces were\nshining. Their cheeks were like bars of new soap. Their ribs were\nstrong and the meat and the fat was thick on their ribs. It was plain\nto see they were saying, \"Don't tickle me because I tickle so easy.\"\nAnd as they marched in the wedding procession of the Rag Doll and the\nBroom Handle, they tickled themselves and laughed and looked around\nand tickled themselves again.\n\nThe music was furnished mostly by the Musical Soup Eaters. They\nmarched with big bowls of soup in front of them and big spoons for\neating the soup. They whistled and chuzzled and snozzled the soup and\nthe noise they made could be heard far up at the head of the\nprocession where the Spoon Lickers were marching. So they dipped their\nsoup and looked around and dipped their soup again.\n\nThe Chubby Chubs were next. They were roly poly, round faced smackers\nand snoozers. They were not fat babies--oh no, oh no--not fat but just\nchubby and easy to squeeze. They marched on their chubby legs and\nchubby feet and chubbed their chubbs and looked around and chubbed\ntheir chubbs again.\n\nThe last of all in the wedding procession of the Rag Doll and the\nBroom Handle were the Sleepyheads. They were smiling and glad to be\nmarching but their heads were slimpsing down and their smiles were\nhalf fading away and their eyes were half shut or a little more than\nhalf shut. They staggered just a little as though their feet were not\nsure where they were going. They were the Sleepyheads, the last of\nall, in the wedding procession of the Rag Doll and the Broom Handle\nand the Sleepyheads they never looked around at all.\n\nIt _was_ a grand procession, don't you think so?\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n [Illustration]\n\n How the Hat Ashes Shovel Helped Snoo\n Foo\n\n\nIf you want to remember the names of all six of the Sniggers children,\nremember that the three biggest were named Blink, Swink and Jink but\nthe three littlest ones were named Blunk, Swunk and Junk. One day last\nJanuary the three biggest had a fuss with the three littlest. The fuss\nwas about a new hat for Snoo Foo, the snow man, about what kind of a\nhat he should wear and how he should wear it. Blink, Swink and Jink\nsaid, \"He wants a crooked hat put on straight.\" Blunk, Swunk and Junk\nsaid, \"He wants a straight hat put on crooked.\" They fussed and\nfussed. Blink fussed with Blunk, Swink fussed with Swunk, and Jink\nfussed with Junk. The first ones to make up after the fuss were Jink\nand Junk. They decided the best way to settle the fuss. \"Let's put a\ncrooked hat on crooked,\" said Jink. \"No, let's put a straight hat on\nstraight,\" said Junk. Then they stood looking and looking into each\nother's shiny laughing eyes and then both of them exploded to each\nother at the same time, \"Let's put on two hats, a crooked hat crooked\nand a straight hat straight.\"\n\nWell, they looked around for hats. But there were not any hats\nanywhere, that is, no hats big enough for a snow man with a big head\nlike Snoo Foo. So they went in the house and asked their mother for\n_the hat ashes shovel_. Of course, in most any other house, the mother\nwould be all worried if six children came tramping and clomping in,\nbanging the door and all six ejaculating to their mother at once,\n\"Where is the hat ashes shovel?\" But Missus Sniggers wasn't worried at\nall. She rubbed her chin with her finger and said softly, \"Oh lah de\ndah, oh lah de dah, where is that hat ashes shovel, last week I had it\nwhen I was making a hat for Mister Sniggers; I remember I had that hat\nashes shovel right up here over the clock, oh lah de dah, oh lah de\ndah. Go out and ring the front door bell,\" she said to Jink Sniggers.\nJink ran away to the front door. And Missus Sniggers and the five\nchildren waited. Bling-bling the bell began ringing and--listen--the\ndoor of the clock opened and the hat ashes shovel fell out. \"Oh lah de\ndah, get out of here in a hurry,\" said Missus Sniggers.\n\nWell, the children ran out and dug a big pail of hat ashes with the\nhat ashes shovel. And they made two hats for Snoo Foo. One was a\ncrooked hat. The other was a straight hat. And they put the crooked\nhat on crooked and the straight hat on straight. And there stood Snoo\nFoo in the front yard and everybody who came by on the street, he\nwould take off his hat to them, the crooked hat with his arm crooked\nand the straight hat with his arm straight. That was the end of the\nfuss between the Sniggers children and it was Jink, the littlest one\nof the biggest, and Junk, the littlest one of the littlest, who\nsettled the fuss by looking clean into each other's eyes and laughing.\nIf you ever get into a fuss try this way of settling it.\n\n\n [Illustration]\n\n Three Boys With Jugs of Molasses and\n Secret Ambitions\n\n\nIn the Village of Liver-and-Onions, if _one_ boy goes to the grocery\nfor a jug of molasses it is just like always. And if _two_ boys go to\nthe grocery for a jug of molasses together it is just like always. But\nif _three_ boys go to the grocery for a jug of molasses each and all\ntogether then it is not like always at all, at all.\n\nEeta Peeca Pie grew up with wishes and wishes working inside him. And\nfor every wish inside him he had a freckle outside on his face.\nWhenever he smiled the smile ran way back into the far side of his\nface and got lost in the wishing freckles.\n\nMeeny Miney grew up with suspicions and suspicions working inside him.\nAnd after a while some of the suspicions got fastened on his eyes and\nsome of the suspicions got fastened on his mouth. So when he looked at\nother people straight in the face they used to say, \"Meeny Miney looks\nso sad-like I wonder if he'll get by.\"\n\nMiney Mo was different. He wasn't sad-like and suspicious like Meeny\nMiney. Nor was he full of wishes inside and freckles outside like Eeta\nPeeca Pie. He was all mixed up inside with wishes and suspicions. So\nhe had a few freckles and a few suspicions on his face. When he looked\nother people straight in the face they used to say, \"I don't know\nwhether to laugh or cry.\"\n\nSo here we have 'em, three boys growing up with wishes, suspicions and\nmixed-up wishes and suspicions. They all looked different from each\nother. Each one, however, had a secret ambition. And all three had the\nsame secret ambition.\n\nAn ambition is a little creeper that creeps and creeps in your heart\nnight and day, singing a little song, \"Come and find me, come and find\nme.\"\n\nThe secret ambition in the heart of Eeta Peeca Pie, Meeney Miney, and\nMiney Mo was an ambition to go railroading, to ride on railroad cars\nnight and day, year after year. The whistles and the wheels of\nrailroad trains were music to them.\n\nWhenever the secret ambition crept in their hearts and made them too\nsad, so sad it was hard to live and stand for it, they would all three\nput their hands on each other's shoulder and sing the song of Joe. The\nchorus was like this:\n\n Joe, Joe, broke his toe,\n On the way to Mexico.\n Came back, broke his back,\n Sliding on the railroad track.\n\nOne fine summer morning all three mothers of all three boys gave each\none a jug and said, \"Go to the grocery and get a jug of molasses.\" All\nthree got to the grocery at the same time. And all three went out of\nthe door of the grocery together, each with a jug of molasses together\nand each with his secret ambition creeping around in his heart, all\nthree together.\n\nTwo blocks from the grocery they stopped under a slippery elm tree.\nEeta Peeca Pie was stretching his neck looking straight up into the\nslippery elm tree. He said it was always good for his freckles and it\nhelped his wishes to stand under a slippery elm and look up.\n\nWhile he was looking up his left hand let go the jug handle of the jug\nof molasses. And the jug went ka-flump, ka-flumpety-flump down on the\nstone sidewalk, cracked to pieces and let the molasses go running out\nover the sidewalk.\n\nIf you have never seen it, let me tell you molasses running out of a\nbroken jug, over a stone sidewalk under a slippery elm tree, looks\npeculiar and mysterious.\n\n[Illustration: They stepped into the molasses with their bare feet]\n\nEeta Peeca Pie stepped into the molasses with his bare feet. \"It's a\nlotta fun,\" he said. \"It tickles all over.\" So Meeney Miney and Miney\nMo both stepped into the molasses with their bare feet.\n\nThen what happened just happened. One got littler. Another got\nlittler. All three got littler.\n\n\"You look to me only big as a potato bug,\" said Eeta Peeca Pie to\nMeeney Miney and Miney Mo. \"It's the same like you look to us,\" said\nMeeney Miney and Miney Mo to Eeta Peeca Pie. And then because their\nsecret ambition began to hurt them they all stood with hands on each\nother's shoulders and sang the Mexico Joe song.\n\nOff the sidewalk they strolled, across a field of grass. They passed\nmany houses of spiders and ants. In front of one house they saw Mrs.\nSpider over a tub washing clothes for Mr. Spider.\n\n\"Why do you wear that frying pan on your head?\" they asked her.\n\n\"In this country all ladies wear the frying pan on their head when\nthey want a hat.\"\n\n\"But what if you want a hat when you are frying with the frying pan?\"\nasked Eeta Peeca Pie.\n\n\"That never happens to any respectable lady in this country.\"\n\n\"Don't you never have no new style hats?\" asked Meeney Miney.\n\n\"No, but we always have new style frying pans every spring and fall.\"\n\nHidden in the roots of a pink grass clump, they came to a city of\ntwisted-nose spiders. On the main street was a store with a show\nwindow full of pink parasols. They walked in and said to the clerk,\n\"We want to buy parasols.\"\n\n\"We don't sell parasols here,\" said the spider clerk.\n\n\"Well, lend us a parasol apiece,\" said all three.\n\n\"Gladly, most gladly,\" said the clerk.\n\n\"How do you do it?\" asked Eeta.\n\n\"I don't have to,\" answered the spider clerk.\n\n\"How did it begin?\"\n\n\"It never was otherwise.\"\n\n\"Don't you never get tired?\"\n\n\"Every parasol is a joy.\"\n\n\"What do you do when the parasols are gone?\"\n\n\"They always come back. These are the famous twisted-nose parasols made\nfrom the famous pink grass. You will lose them all, all three. Then\nthey will all walk back to me here in this store on main street. I can\nnot sell you something I know you will surely lose. Neither can I ask\nyou to pay, for something you will forget, somewhere sometime, and when\nyou forget it, it will walk back here to me again. Look--look!\"\n\nAs he said \"Look,\" the door opened and five pink parasols came\nwaltzing in and waltzed up into the show window.\n\n\"They always come back. Everybody forgets. Take your parasols and go.\nYou will forget them and they will come back to me.\"\n\n\"He looks like he had wishes inside him,\" said Eeta Peeca Pie.\n\n\"He looks like he had suspicions,\" said Meeney Miney.\n\n\"He looks like he was all mixed up wishes and suspicions,\" said Miney\nMo.\n\nAnd once more because they all felt lonesome and their secret\nambitions were creeping and eating, they put their hands on their\nshoulders and sang the Mexico Joe song.\n\nThen came happiness. They entered the Potato Bug Country. And they had\nluck first of all the first hour they were in the Potato Bug Country.\nThey met a Potato Bug millionaire.\n\n\"How are you a millionaire?\" they asked him.\n\n\"Because I got a million,\" he answered.\n\n\"A million what?\"\n\n\"A million _fleems_.\"\n\n\"Who wants fleems?\"\n\n\"You want fleems if you're going to live here.\"\n\n\"Why so?\"\n\n\"Because fleems is our money. In the Potato Bug Country, if you got no\nfleems you can't buy nothing nor anything. But if you got a million\nfleems you're a Potato Bug millionaire.\"\n\nThen he surprised them.\n\n\"I like you because you got wishes and freckles,\" he said to Eeta\nPeeca Pie, filling the pockets of Eeta with fleems.\n\n\"And I like you because you got suspicions and you're sad-like,\" he\nsaid to Meeney Miney filling Meeney Miney's pockets full of fleems.\n\n\"And I like you because you got some wishes and some suspicions and\nyou look mixed up,\" he said to Miney Mo, sticking handfuls and\nhandfuls of fleems into the pockets of Miney Mo.\n\nWishes do come true. And suspicions do come true. Here they had been\nwishing all their lives, and had suspicions of what was going to\nhappen, and now it all came true.\n\nWith their pockets filled with fleems they rode on all the railroad\ntrains of the Potato Bug Country. They went to the railroad stations\nand bought tickets for the fast trains and the slow trains and even\nthe trains that back up and run backward instead of where they start\nto go.\n\nOn the dining cars of the railroads of the Potato Bug Country they ate\nwonder ham from the famous Potato Bug Pigs, eggs from the Potato Bug\nHens, et cetera.\n\nIt seemed to them they stayed a long while in the Potato Bug Country,\nyears and years. Yes, the time came when all their fleems were gone.\nThen whenever they wanted a railroad ride or something to eat or a\nplace to sleep, they put their hands on each other's shoulders and\nsang the Mexico Joe song. In the Potato Bug Country they all said the\nMexico Joe song was wonderful.\n\nOne morning while they were waiting to take an express train on the\nEarly Ohio & Southwestern they sat near the roots of a big potato\nplant under the big green leaves. And far above them they saw a dim\nblack cloud and they heard a shaking and a rustling and a spattering.\nThey did not know it was a man of the Village of Liver-and-Onions.\nThey did not know it was Mr. Sniggers putting paris green on the\npotato plants.\n\nA big drop of paris green spattered down and fell onto the heads and\nshoulders of all three, Eeta Peeca Pie, Meeny Miney and Miney Mo.\n\nThen what happened just happened. They got bigger and bigger--one,\ntwo, three. And when they jumped up and ran out of the potato rows,\nMr. Sniggers thought they were boys playing tricks.\n\nWhen they got home to their mothers and told all about the jug of\nmolasses breaking on the stone sidewalk under the slippery elm tree,\ntheir mothers said it was careless. The boys said it was lucky because\nit helped them get their secret ambitions.\n\nAnd a secret ambition is a little creeper that creeps and creeps in\nyour heart night and day, singing a little song, \"Come and find me,\ncome and find me.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n [Illustration]\n\n How Bimbo the Snip's Thumb Stuck to\n His Nose When the Wind Changed\n\n\nOnce there was a boy in the Village of Liver-and-Onions whose name was\nBimbo the Snip. He forgot nearly everything his father and mother told\nhim to do and told him not to do.\n\nOne day his father, Bevo the Hike, came home and found Bimbo the Snip\nsitting on the front steps with his thumb fastened to his nose and the\nfingers wiggling.\n\n\"I can't take my thumb away,\" said Bimbo the Snip, \"because when I put\nmy thumb to my nose and wiggled my fingers at the iceman the wind\nchanged. And just like mother always said, if the wind changed the\nthumb would stay fastened to my nose and not come off.\"\n\nBevo the Hike took hold of the thumb and pulled. He tied a clothes\nline rope around it and pulled. He pushed with his foot and heel\nagainst it. And all the time the thumb stuck fast and the fingers\nwiggled from the end of the nose of Bimbo the Snip.\n\nBevo the Hike sent for the ward alderman. The ward alderman sent for\nthe barn boss of the street cleaning department. The barn boss of the\nstreet cleaning department sent for the head vaccinator of the\nvaccination bureau of the health department. The head vaccinator of\nthe vaccination bureau of the health department sent for the big main\nfixer of the weather bureau where they understand the tricks of the\nwind and the wind changing.\n\nAnd the big main fixer of the weather bureau said, \"If you hit the\nthumb six times with the end of a traffic policeman's club, the thumb\nwill come loose.\"\n\nSo Bevo the Hike went to a traffic policeman standing on a street\ncorner with a whistle telling the wagons and cars which way to go.\n\nHe told the traffic policeman, \"The wind changed and Bimbo the Snip's\nthumb is fastened to his nose and will not come loose till it is hit\nsix times with the end of a traffic policeman's club.\"\n\n\"I can't help you unless you find a monkey to take my place standing\non the corner telling the wagons and cars which way to go,\" answered\nthe traffic policeman.\n\nSo Bevo the Hike went to the zoo and said to a monkey, \"The wind\nchanged and Bimbo the Snip's thumb is fastened to his nose and will\nnot come loose till it is hit with the end of a traffic policeman's\nclub six times and the traffic policeman cannot leave his place on the\nstreet corner telling the traffic which way to go unless a monkey\ncomes and takes his place.\"\n\nThe monkey answered, \"Get me a ladder with a whistle so I can climb up\nand whistle and tell the traffic which way to go.\"\n\nSo Bevo the Hike hunted and hunted over the city and looked and looked\nand asked and asked till his feet and his eyes and his head and his\nheart were tired from top to bottom.\n\nThen he met an old widow woman whose husband had been killed in a\nsewer explosion when he was digging sewer ditches. And the old woman\nwas carrying a bundle of picked-up kindling wood in a bag on her back\nbecause she did not have money enough to buy coal.\n\nBevo the Hike told her, \"You have troubles. So have I. You are\ncarrying a load on your back people can see. I am carrying a load and\nnobody sees it.\"\n\n\"Tell me your troubles,\" said the old widow woman. He told her. And\nshe said, \"In the next block is an old umbrella handle maker. He has a\nladder with a whistle. He climbs on the ladder when he makes long long\numbrella handles. And he has the whistle on the ladder to be\nwhistling.\"\n\nBevo the Hike went to the next block, found the house of the umbrella\nhandle maker and said to him, \"The wind changed and Bimbo the Snip's\nthumb is fastened to his nose and will not come loose till it is hit\nwith the end of a traffic policeman's club six times and the traffic\npoliceman cannot leave the corner where he is telling the traffic\nwhich way to go unless a monkey takes his place and the monkey cannot\ntake his place unless he has a ladder with a whistle to stand on and\nwhistle the wagons and cars which way to go.\"\n\nThen the umbrella handle maker said, \"To-night I have a special job\nbecause I must work on a long, long umbrella handle and I will need\nthe ladder to climb up and the whistle to be whistling. But if you\npromise to have the ladder back by to-night you can take it.\"\n\nBevo the Hike promised. Then he took the ladder with a whistle to the\nmonkey, the monkey took the place of the traffic policeman while the\ntraffic policeman went to the home of Bevo the Hike where Bimbo the\nSnip was sitting on the front steps with his thumb fastened to his\nnose wiggling his fingers at everybody passing by on the street.\n\nThe traffic policeman hit Bimbo the Snip's thumb five times with the\nclub. And the thumb stuck fast. But the sixth time it was hit with the\nend of the traffic policeman's thumb club, it came loose.\n\nThen Bevo thanked the policeman, thanked the monkey, and took the\nladder with the whistle back to the umbrella handle maker's house and\nthanked him.\n\nWhen Bevo the Hike got home that night Bimbo the Snip was in bed and\nall tickled. He said to his father, \"I will be careful how I stick my\nthumb to my nose and wiggle my fingers the next time the wind\nchanges.\"\n\n[Illustration: The monkey took the place of the traffic policeman]\n\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n5. Three Stories About Three\n Ways the Wind Went Winding\n\n _People_: Two Skyscrapers\n The Northwest Wind\n The Golden Spike Limited Train\n A Tin Brass Goat\n A Tin Brass Goose\n Newsies\n\n Young Leather\n Red Slippers\n A Man to be Hanged\n Five Jackrabbits\n\n The Wooden Indian\n The Shaghorn Buffalo\n The Night Policeman\n\n\n [Illustration]\n\n The Two Skyscrapers Who Decided to\n Have a Child\n\n\nTwo skyscrapers stood across the street from each other in the Village\nof Liver-and-Onions. In the daylight when the streets poured full of\npeople buying and selling, these two skyscrapers talked with each\nother the same as mountains talk.\n\nIn the night time when all the people buying and selling were gone\nhome and there were only policemen and taxicab drivers on the streets,\nin the night when a mist crept up the streets and threw a purple and\ngray wrapper over everything, in the night when the stars and the sky\nshook out sheets of purple and gray mist down over the town, then the\ntwo skyscrapers leaned toward each other and whispered.\n\nWhether they whispered secrets to each other or whether they whispered\nsimple things that you and I know and everybody knows, that is their\nsecret. One thing is sure: they often were seen leaning toward each\nother and whispering in the night the same as mountains lean and\nwhisper in the night.\n\nHigh on the roof of one of the skyscrapers was a tin brass goat\nlooking out across prairies, and silver blue lakes shining like blue\nporcelain breakfast plates, and out across silver snakes of winding\nrivers in the morning sun. And high on the roof of the other\nskyscraper was a tin brass goose looking out across prairies, and\nsilver blue lakes shining like blue porcelain breakfast plates, and\nout across silver snakes of winding rivers in the morning sun.\n\nNow the Northwest Wind was a friend of the two skyscrapers. Coming so\nfar, coming five hundred miles in a few hours, coming so fast always\nwhile the skyscrapers were standing still, standing always on the same\nold street corners always, the Northwest Wind was a bringer of news.\n\n\"Well, I see the city is here yet,\" the Northwest Wind would whistle\nto the skyscrapers.\n\nAnd they would answer, \"Yes, and are the mountains standing yet way\nout yonder where you come from, Wind?\"\n\n\"Yes, the mountains are there yonder, and farther yonder is the sea,\nand the railroads are still going, still running across the prairie to\nthe mountains, to the sea,\" the Northwest Wind would answer.\n\nAnd now there was a pledge made by the Northwest Wind to the two\nskyscrapers. Often the Northwest Wind shook the tin brass goat and\nshook the tin brass goose on top of the skyscrapers.\n\n\"Are you going to blow loose the tin brass goat on my roof?\" one\nasked.\n\n\"Are you going to blow loose the tin brass goose on my roof?\" the\nother asked.\n\n\"Oh, no,\" the Northwest Wind laughed, first to one and then to the\nother, \"if I ever blow loose your tin brass goat and if I ever blow\nloose your tin brass goose, it will be when I am sorry for you because\nyou are up against hard luck and there is somebody's funeral.\"\n\nSo time passed on and the two skyscrapers stood with their feet among\nthe policemen and the taxicabs, the people buying and selling,--the\ncustomers with parcels, packages and bundles--while away high on their\nroofs stood the goat and the goose looking out on silver blue lakes\nlike blue porcelain breakfast plates and silver snakes of rivers\nwinding in the morning sun.\n\nSo time passed on and the Northwest Wind kept coming, telling the news\nand making promises.\n\nSo time passed on. And the two skyscrapers decided to have a child.\n\nAnd they decided when their child came it should be a _free_ child.\n\n\"It must be a free child,\" they said to each other. \"It must not be a\nchild standing still all its life on a street corner. Yes, if we have\na child she must be free to run across the prairie, to the mountains,\nto the sea. Yes, it must be a free child.\"\n\nSo time passed on. Their child came. It was a railroad train, the\nGolden Spike Limited, the fastest long distance train in the Rootabaga\nCountry. It ran across the prairie, to the mountains, to the sea.\n\nThey were glad, the two skyscrapers were, glad to have a free child\nrunning away from the big city, far away to the mountains, far away to\nthe sea, running as far as the farthest mountains and sea coasts\ntouched by the Northwest Wind.\n\nThey were glad their child was useful, the two skyscrapers were, glad\ntheir child was carrying a thousand people a thousand miles a day, so\nwhen people spoke of the Golden Spike Limited, they spoke of it as a\nstrong, lovely child.\n\nThen time passed on. There came a day when the newsies yelled as\nthough they were crazy. \"Yah yah, blah blah, yoh yoh,\" was what it\nsounded like to the two skyscrapers who never bothered much about what\nthe newsies were yelling.\n\n\"Yah yah, blah blah, yoh yoh,\" was the cry of the newsies that came up\nagain to the tops of the skyscrapers.\n\nAt last the yelling of the newsies came so strong the skyscrapers\nlistened and heard the newsies yammering, \"All about the great train\nwreck! All about the Golden Spike disaster! Many lives lost! Many\nlives lost!\"\n\nAnd the Northwest Wind came howling a slow sad song. And late that\nafternoon a crowd of policemen, taxicab drivers, newsies and customers\nwith bundles, all stood around talking and wondering about two things\nnext to each other on the street car track in the middle of the\nstreet. One was a tin brass goat. The other was a tin brass goose. And\nthey lay next to each other.\n\n\n [Illustration]\n\n The Dollar Watch and the Five Jack\n Rabbits\n\n\nLong ago, long before the waylacks lost the wonderful stripes of oat\nstraw gold and the spots of timothy hay green in their marvelous\ncurving tail feathers, long before the doo-doo-jangers whistled among\nthe honeysuckle blossoms and the bitter-basters cried their last and\ndying wrangling cries, long before the sad happenings that came later,\nit was then, some years earlier than the year Fifty Fifty, that Young\nLeather and Red Slippers crossed the Rootabaga Country.\n\nTo begin with, they were walking across the Rootabaga Country. And\nthey were walking because it made their feet glad to feel the dirt of\nthe earth under their shoes and they were close to the smells of the\nearth. They learned the ways of birds and bugs, why birds have wings,\nwhy bugs have legs, why the gladdywhingers have spotted eggs in a\nbasket nest in a booblow tree, and why the chizzywhizzies scrape off\nlittle fiddle songs all summer long while the summer nights last.\n\nEarly one morning they were walking across the corn belt of the\nRootabaga Country singing, \"Deep Down Among the Dagger Dancers.\" They\nhad just had a breakfast of coffee and hot hankypank cakes covered\nwith cow's butter. Young Leather said to Red Slippers, \"What is the\nbest secret we have come across this summer?\"\n\n\"That is easy to answer,\" Red Slippers said with a long flish of her\nlong black eyelashes. \"The best secret we have come across is a rope\nof gold hanging from every star in the sky and when we want to go up\nwe go up.\"\n\nWalking on they came to a town where they met a man with a sorry face.\n\"Why?\" they asked him. And he answered, \"My brother is in jail.\"\n\n\"What for?\" they asked him again. And he answered again, \"My brother\nput on a straw hat in the middle of the winter and went out on the\nstreets laughing; my brother had his hair cut pompompadour and went\nout on the streets bareheaded in the summertime laughing; and these\nthings were against the law. Worst of all he sneezed at the wrong time\nand he sneezed before the wrong persons; he sneezed when it was not\nwise to sneeze. So he will be hanged to-morrow morning. The gallows\nmade of lumber and the rope made of hemp--they are waiting for him\nto-morrow morning. They will tie around his neck the hangman's necktie\nand hoist him high.\"\n\nThe man with a sorry face looked more sorry than ever. It made Young\nLeather feel reckless and it made Red Slippers feel reckless. They\nwhispered to each other. Then Young Leather said, \"Take this dollar\nwatch. Give it to your brother. Tell him when they are leading him to\nthe gallows he must take this dollar watch in his hand, wind it up and\npush on the stem winder. The rest will be easy.\"\n\nSo the next morning when they were leading the man to be hanged to the\ngallows made of lumber and the rope made of hemp, where they were\ngoing to hoist him high because he sneezed in the wrong place before\nthe wrong people, he used his fingers winding up the watch and pushing\non the stem winder. There was a snapping and a slatching like a gas\nengine slipping into a big pair of dragon fly wings. The dollar watch\nchanged into a dragon fly ship. The man who was going to be hanged\njumped into the dragon fly ship and flew whonging away before anybody\ncould stop him.\n\nYoung Leather and Red Slippers were walking out of the town laughing\nand singing again, \"Deep Down Among the Dagger Dancers.\" The man with\na sorry face, not so sorry now any more, came running after them.\nBehind the man and running after him were five long-legged spider\njack-rabbits.\n\n\"These are for you,\" was his exclamation. And they all sat down on the\nstump of a booblow tree. He opened his sorry face and told the secrets\nof the five long-legged spider jack-rabbits to Young Leather and Red\nSlippers. They waved good-by and went on up the road leading the five\nnew jack-rabbits.\n\nIn the next town they came to was a skyscraper higher than all the\nother skyscrapers. A rich man dying wanted to be remembered and left\nin his last will and testament a command they should build a building\nso high it would scrape the thunder clouds and stand higher than all\nother skyscrapers with his name carved in stone letters on the top of\nit, and an electric sign at night with his name on it, and a clock on\nthe tower with his name on it.\n\n\"I am hungry to be remembered and have my name spoken by many people\nafter I am dead,\" the rich man told his friends. \"I command you,\ntherefore, to throw the building high in the air because the higher it\ngoes the longer I will be remembered and the longer the years men will\nmention my name after I am dead.\"\n\nSo there it was. Young Leather and Red Slippers laughed when they\nfirst saw the skyscraper, when they were far off along a country road\nsinging their old song, \"Deep Down Among the Dagger Dancers.\"\n\n\"We got a show and we give a performance and we want the whole town to\nsee it,\" was what Young Leather and Red Slippers said to the mayor of\nthe town when they called on him at the city hall. \"We want a license\nand a permit to give this free show in the public square.\"\n\n\"What do you do?\" asked the mayor.\n\n\"We jump five jack-rabbits, five long-legged spider jack-rabbits over\nthe highest skyscraper you got in your city,\" they answered him.\n\n\"If it's free and you don't sell anything nor take any money away from\nus while it is daylight and you are giving your performance, then here\nis your license permit,\" said the mayor speaking in the manner of a\npolitician who has studied politics.\n\nThousands of people came to see the show on the public square. They\nwished to know how it would look to see five long-legged, spider\njack-rabbits jump over the highest skyscraper in the city.\n\nFour of the jack-rabbits had stripes. The fifth had stripes--and\nspots. Before they started the show Young Leather and Red Slippers\nheld the jack-rabbits one by one in their arms and petted them, rubbed\nthe feet and rubbed the long ears and ran their fingers along the long\nlegs of the jumpers.\n\n\"Zingo,\" they yelled to the first jack-rabbit. He got all ready. \"And\nnow zingo!\" they yelled again. And the jack-rabbit took a run, lifted\noff his feet and went on and on and up and up till he went over the\nroof of the skyscraper and then went down and down till he lit on his\nfeet and came running on his long legs back to the public square where\nhe started from, back where Young Leather and Red Slippers petted him\nand rubbed his long ears and said, \"That's the boy.\"\n\nThen three jack-rabbits made the jump over the skyscraper. \"Zingo,\"\nthey heard and got ready. \"And now zingo,\" they heard and all three\ntogether in a row, their long ears touching each other, they lifted\noff their feet and went on and on and up and up till they cleared the\nroof of the skyscraper. Then they came down and down till they lit on\ntheir feet and came running to the hands of Young Leather and Red\nSlippers to have their long legs and their long ears rubbed and\npetted.\n\nThen came the turn of the fifth jack-rabbit, the beautiful one with\nstripes and spots. \"Ah, we're sorry to see you go, Ah-h, we're sorry,\"\nthey said, rubbing his long ears and feeling of his long legs.\n\nThen Young Leather and Red Slippers kissed him on the nose, kissed the\nlast and fifth of the five long-legged spider jack-rabbits.\n\n\"Good-by, old bunny, good-by, you're the dandiest bunny there ever\nwas,\" they whispered in his long ears. And he, because he knew what\nthey were saying and why they were saying it, he wiggled his long ears\nand looked long and steady at them from his deep eyes.\n\n\"Zango,\" they yelled. He got ready. \"And now zango!\" they yelled\nagain. And the fifth jack-rabbit with his stripes and spots lifted off\nhis feet and went on and on and on and up and up and when he came to\nthe roof of the skyscraper he kept on going on and on and up and up\ntill after a while he was gone all the way out of sight.\n\nThey waited and watched, they watched and waited. He never came back.\nHe never was heard of again. He was gone. With the stripes on his back\nand the spots on his hair, he was gone. And Young Leather and Red\nSlippers said they were glad they had kissed him on the nose before he\nwent away on a long trip far off, so far off he never came back.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n [Illustration]\n\n The Wooden Indian and the Shaghorn\n Buffalo\n\n\nOne night a milk white moon was shining down on Main Street. The\nsidewalks and the stones, the walls and the windows all stood out milk\nwhite. And there was a thin blue mist drifted and shifted like a\nwoman's veil up and down Main Street, up to the moon and back again.\nYes, all Main Street was a mist blue and a milk white, mixed up and\nsoft all over and all through.\n\nIt was past midnight. The Wooden Indian in front of the cigar store\nstepped down off his stand. The Shaghorn Buffalo in front of the\nhaberdasher shop lifted his head and shook his whiskers, raised his\nhoofs out of his hoof-tracks.\n\nThen--this is what happened. They moved straight toward each other. In\nthe middle of Main Street they met. The Wooden Indian jumped straddle\nof the Shaghorn Buffalo. And the Shaghorn Buffalo put his head down\nand ran like a prairie wind straight west on Main Street.\n\nAt the high hill over the big bend of the Clear Green River they\nstopped. They stood looking. Drifting and shifting like a woman's blue\nveil, the blue mist filled the valley and the milk white moon filled\nthe valley. And the mist and the moon touched with a lingering,\nwistful kiss the clear green water of the Clear Green River.\n\nSo they stood looking, the Wooden Indian with his copper face and\nwooden feathers, and the Shaghorn Buffalo with his big head and heavy\nshoulders slumping down close to the ground.\n\n[Illustration: So they stood looking]\n\nAnd after they had looked a long while, and each of them got an eyeful\nof the high hill, the big bend and the moon mist on the river all blue\nand white and soft, after they had looked a long while, they turned\naround and the Shaghorn Buffalo put his head down and ran like a\nprairie wind down Main Street till he was exactly in front of the\ncigar store and the haberdasher shop. Then whisk! both of them were\nright back like they were before, standing still, taking whatever\ncomes.\n\nThis is the story as it came from the night policeman of the Village\nof Cream Puffs. He told the people the next day, \"I was sitting on the\nsteps of the cigar store last night watching for burglars. And when I\nsaw the Wooden Indian step down and the Shaghorn Buffalo step out, and\nthe two of them go down Main Street like the wind, I says to myself,\nmarvelish, 'tis marvelish, 'tis marvelish.\"\n\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n6. Four Stories About\n Dear, Dear Eyes\n\n _People_: The White Horse Girl\n The Blue Wind Boy\n The Gray Man on Horseback\n Six Girls With Balloons\n\n Henry Hagglyhoagly\n Susan Slackentwist\n Two Wool Yarn Mittens\n\n Peter Potato Blossom Wishes\n Her Father\n Many Shoes\n Slippers\n A Slipper Moon\n\n\n [Illustration]\n\n The White Horse Girl and the Blue Wind\n Boy\n\n\nWhen the dishes are washed at night time and the cool of the evening\nhas come in summer or the lamps and fires are lit for the night in\nwinter, then the fathers and mothers in the Rootabaga Country\nsometimes tell the young people the story of the White Horse Girl and\nthe Blue Wind Boy.\n\nThe White Horse Girl grew up far in the west of the Rootabaga Country.\nAll the years she grew up as a girl she liked to ride horses. Best of\nall things for her was to be straddle of a white horse loping with a\nloose bridle among the hills and along the rivers of the west\nRootabaga Country.\n\nShe rode one horse white as snow, another horse white as new washed\nsheep wool, and another white as silver. And she could not tell\nbecause she did not know which of these three white horses she liked\nbest.\n\n\"Snow is beautiful enough for me any time,\" she said, \"new washed\nsheep wool, or silver out of a ribbon of the new moon, any or either\nis white enough for me. I like the white manes, the white flanks, the\nwhite noses, the white feet of all my ponies. I like the forelocks\nhanging down between the white ears of all three--my ponies.\"\n\nAnd living neighbor to the White Horse Girl in the same prairie\ncountry, with the same black crows flying over their places, was the\nBlue Wind Boy. All the years he grew up as a boy he liked to walk with\nhis feet in the dirt and the grass listening to the winds. Best of all\nthings for him was to put on strong shoes and go hiking among the\nhills and along the rivers of the west Rootabaga Country, listening to\nthe winds.\n\nThere was a blue wind of day time, starting sometimes six o'clock on a\nsummer morning or eight o'clock on a winter morning. And there was a\nnight wind with blue of summer stars in summer and blue of winter\nstars in winter. And there was yet another, a blue wind of the times\nbetween night and day, a blue dawn and evening wind. All three of\nthese winds he liked so well he could not say which he liked best.\n\n\"The early morning wind is strong as the prairie and whatever I tell\nit I know it believes and remembers,\" he said, \"and the night wind\nwith the big dark curves of the night sky in it, the night wind gets\ninside of me and understands all my secrets. And the blue wind of the\ntimes between, in the dusk when it is neither night nor day, this is\nthe wind that asks me questions and tells me to wait and it will bring\nme whatever I want.\"\n\nOf course, it happened as it had to happen, the White Horse Girl and\nthe Blue Wind Boy met. She, straddling one of her white horses, and\nhe, wearing his strong hiking shoes in the dirt and the grass, it had\nto happen they should meet among the hills and along the rivers of the\nwest Rootabaga Country where they lived neighbors.\n\nAnd of course, she told him all about the snow white horse and the\nhorse white as new washed sheep wool and the horse white as a silver\nribbon of the new moon. And he told her all about the blue winds he\nliked listening to, the early morning wind, the night sky wind, and\nthe wind of the dusk between, the wind that asked him questions and\ntold him to wait.\n\nOne day the two of them were gone. On the same day of the week the\nWhite Horse Girl and the Blue Wind Boy went away. And their fathers\nand mothers and sisters and brothers and uncles and aunts wondered\nabout them and talked about them, because they didn't tell anybody\nbeforehand they were going. Nobody at all knew beforehand or afterward\nwhy they were going away, the real honest why of it.\n\nThey left a short letter. It read:\n\n _To All Our Sweethearts, Old Folks and Young Folks:_\n\n _We have started to go where the white horses come from and where\n the blue winds begin. Keep a corner in your hearts for us while\n we are gone._\n\n _The White Horse Girl._\n _The Blue Wind Boy._\n\nThat was all they had to guess by in the west Rootabaga Country, to\nguess and guess where two darlings had gone.\n\nMany years passed. One day there came riding across the Rootabaga\nCountry a Gray Man on Horseback. He looked like he had come a long\nways. So they asked him the question they always asked of any rider\nwho looked like he had come a long ways, \"Did you ever see the White\nHorse Girl and the Blue Wind Boy?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" he answered, \"I saw them.\n\n\"It was a long, long ways from here I saw them,\" he went on, \"it would\ntake years and years to ride to where they are. They were sitting\ntogether and talking to each other, sometimes singing, in a place\nwhere the land runs high and tough rocks reach up. And they were\nlooking out across water, blue water as far as the eye could see. And\naway far off the blue waters met the blue sky.\n\n\"'Look!' said the Boy, 'that's where the blue winds begin.'\n\n\"And far out on the blue waters, just a little this side of where the\nblue winds begin, there were white manes, white flanks, white noses,\nwhite galloping feet.\n\n\"'Look!' said the Girl, 'that's where the white horses come from.'\n\n\"And then nearer to the land came thousands in an hour, millions in a\nday, white horses, some white as snow, some like new washed sheep\nwool, some white as silver ribbons of the new moon.\n\n\"I asked them, 'Whose place is this?' They answered, 'It belongs to\nus; this is what we started for; this is where the white horses come\nfrom; this is where the blue winds begin.'\"\n\nAnd that was all the Gray Man on Horseback would tell the people of\nthe west Rootabaga Country. That was all he knew, he said, and if\nthere was any more he would tell it.\n\nAnd the fathers and mothers and sisters and brothers and uncles and\naunts of the White Horse Girl and the Blue Wind Boy wondered and\ntalked often about whether the Gray Man on Horseback made up the story\nout of his head or whether it happened just like he told it.\n\nAnyhow this is the story they tell sometimes to the young people of\nthe west Rootabaga Country when the dishes are washed at night and the\ncool of the evening has come in summer or the lamps and fires are lit\nfor the night in winter.\n\n\n [Illustration]\n\n What Six Girls with Balloons Told the\n Gray Man on Horseback\n\n\nOnce there came riding across the Rootabaga Country a Gray Man on\nHorseback. He looked as if he had come a long ways. He looked like a\nbrother to the same Gray Man on Horseback who said he had seen the\nWhite Horse Girl and the Blue Wind Boy.\n\nHe stopped in the Village of Cream Puffs. His gray face was sad and\nhis eyes were gray deep and sad. He spoke short and seemed strong.\nSometimes his eyes looked as if they were going to flash, but instead\nof fire they filled with shadows.\n\nYet--he did laugh once. It did happen once he lifted his head and face\nto the sky and let loose a long ripple of laughs.\n\nOn Main Street near the Roundhouse of the Big Spool, where they wind\nup the string that pulls the light little town back when the wind\nblows it away, there he was riding slow on his gray horse when he met\nsix girls with six fine braids of yellow hair and six balloons apiece.\nThat is, each and every one of the six girls had six fine long braids\nof yellow hair and each braid of hair had a balloon tied on the end. A\nlittle blue wind was blowing and the many balloons tied to the braids\nof the six girls swung up and down and slow and fast whenever the blue\nwind went up and down and slow and fast.\n\nFor the first time since he had been in the Village, the eyes of the\nGray Man filled with lights and his face began to look hopeful. He\nstopped his horse when he came even with the six girls and the\nballoons floating from the braids of yellow hair.\n\n\"Where you going?\" he asked.\n\n\"Who--hoo-hoo? Who--who--who?\" the six girls cheeped out.\n\n\"All six of you and your balloons, where you going?\"\n\n\"Oh, hoo-hoo-hoo, back where we came from,\" and they all turned their\nheads back and forth and sideways, which of course turned all the\nballoons back and forth and sideways because the balloons were\nfastened to the fine braids of hair which were fastened to their\nheads.\n\n\"And where do you go when you get back where you came from?\" he asked\njust to be asking.\n\n\"Oh, hoo-hoo-hoo, then we start out and go straight ahead and see what\nwe can see,\" they all answered just to be answering and they dipped\ntheir heads and swung them up which of course dipped all the balloons\nand swung them up.\n\nSo they talked, he asking just to be asking and the six balloon girls\nanswering just to be answering.\n\nAt last his sad mouth broke into a smile and his eyes were lit like a\nmorning sun coming up over harvest fields. And he said to them, \"Tell\nme why are balloons--that is what I want you to tell me--why are\nballoons?\"\n\nThe first little girl put her thumb under her chin, looked up at her\nsix balloons floating in the little blue wind over her head, and said:\n\"Balloons are wishes. The wind made them. The west wind makes the red\nballoons. The south wind makes the blue. The yellow and green balloons\ncome from the east wind and the north wind.\"\n\nThe second little girl put her first finger next to her nose, looked\nup at her six balloons dipping up and down like hill flowers in a\nsmall wind, and said:\n\n\"A balloon used to be a flower. It got tired. Then it changed itself\nto a balloon. I listened one time to a yellow balloon. It was talking\nto itself like people talk. It said, 'I used to be a yellow pumpkin\nflower stuck down close to the ground, now I am a yellow balloon high\nup in the air where nobody can walk on me and I can see everything.'\"\n\nThe third little girl held both of her ears like she was afraid they\nwould wiggle while she slid with a skip, turned quick, and looking up\nat her balloons, spoke these words:\n\n\"A balloon is foam. It comes the same as soap bubbles come. A long\ntime ago it used to be sliding along on water, river water, ocean\nwater, waterfall water, falling and falling over a rocky waterfall,\nany water you want. The wind saw the bubble and picked it up and\ncarried it away, telling it, 'Now you're a balloon--come along and see\nthe world.'\"\n\nThe fourth little girl jumped straight into the air so all six of her\nballoons made a jump like they were going to get loose and go to the\nsky--and when the little girl came down from her jump and was standing\non her two feet with her head turned looking up at the six balloons,\nshe spoke the shortest answer of all, saying:\n\n\"Balloons are to make us look up. They help our necks.\"\n\nThe fifth little girl stood first on one foot, then another, bent her\nhead down to her knees and looked at her toes, then swinging straight\nup and looking at the flying spotted yellow and red and green\nballoons, she said:\n\n\"Balloons come from orchards. Look for trees where half is oranges and\nhalf is orange balloons. Look for apple trees where half is red\npippins and half is red pippin balloons. Look for watermelons too. A\nlong green balloon with white and yellow belly stripes is a ghost. It\ncame from a watermelon said good-by.\"\n\nThe sixth girl, the last one, kicked the heel of her left foot with\nthe toe of her right foot, put her thumbs under her ears and wiggled\nall her fingers, then stopped all her kicking and wiggling, and stood\nlooking up at her balloons all quiet because the wind had gone\ndown--and she murmured like she was thinking to herself:\n\n\"Balloons come from fire chasers. Every balloon has a fire chaser\nchasing it. All the fire chasers are made terrible quick and when they\ncome they burn quick, so the balloon is made light so it can run away\nterrible quick. Balloons slip away from fire. If they don't they can't\nbe balloons. Running away from fire keeps them light.\"\n\nAll the time he listened to the six girls the face of the Gray Man\nkept getting more hopeful. His eyes lit up. Twice he smiled. And after\nhe said good-by and rode up the street, he lifted his head and face to\nthe sky and let loose a long ripple of laughs.\n\nHe kept looking back when he left the Village and the last thing he\nsaw was the six girls each with six balloons fastened to the six\nbraids of yellow hair hanging down their backs.\n\nThe sixth little girl kicked the heel of her left foot with the toe of\nher right foot and said, \"He is a nice man. I think he must be our\nuncle. If he comes again we shall all ask him to tell us where he\nthinks balloons come from.\"\n\nAnd the other five girls all answered, \"Yes,\" or \"Yes, yes,\" or \"Yes,\nyes, yes,\" real fast like a balloon with a fire chaser after it.\n\n\n [Illustration]\n\n How Henry Hagglyhoagly Played the\n Guitar with His Mittens On\n\n\nSometimes in January the sky comes down close if we walk on a country\nroad, and turn our faces up to look at the sky.\n\nSometimes on that kind of a January night the stars look like numbers,\nlook like the arithmetic writing of a girl going to school and just\nbeginning arithmetic.\n\nIt was this kind of a night Henry Hagglyhoagly was walking down a\ncountry road on his way to the home of Susan Slackentwist, the\ndaughter of the rutabaga king near the Village of Liver-and-Onions.\nWhen Henry Hagglyhoagly turned his face up to look at the sky it\nseemed to him as though the sky came down close to his nose, and there\nwas a writing in stars as though some girl had been doing arithmetic\nexamples, writing number 4 and number 7 and 4 and 7 over and over\nagain across the sky.\n\n\"Why is it so bitter cold weather?\" Henry Hagglyhoagly asked himself,\n\"if I say many bitter bitters it is not so bitter as the cold wind and\nthe cold weather.\"\n\n\"You are good, mittens, keeping my fingers warm,\" he said every once\nin a while to the wool yarn mittens on his hands.\n\nThe wind came tearing along and put its chilly, icy, clammy clamps on\nthe nose of Henry Hagglyhoagly, fastening the clamps like a nipping,\ngripping clothes pin on his nose. He put his wool yarn mittens up on\nhis nose and rubbed till the wind took off the chilly, icy, clammy\nclamps. His nose was warm again; he said, \"Thank you, mittens, for\nkeeping my nose warm.\"\n\n[Illustration: It seemed to him as though the sky came down close\nto his nose]\n\nHe spoke to his wool yarn mittens as though they were two kittens or\npups, or two little cub bears, or two little Idaho ponies. \"You're my\nchums keeping me company,\" he said to the mittens.\n\n\"Do you know what we got here under our left elbow?\" he said to the\nmittens, \"I shall mention to you what is here under my left elbow.\n\n\"It ain't a mandolin, it ain't a mouth organ nor an accordion nor a\nconcertina nor a fiddle. It is a guitar, a Spanish Spinnish Splishy\nguitar made special.\n\n\"Yes, mittens, they said a strong young man like me ought to have a\npiano because a piano is handy to play for everybody in the house and\na piano is handy to put a hat and overcoat on or books or flowers.\n\n\"I snizzled at 'em, mittens. I told 'em I seen a Spanish Spinnish\nSplishy guitar made special in a hardware store window for eight\ndollars and a half.\n\n\"And so, mittens--are you listening, mittens?--after cornhusking was\nall husked and the oats thrashing all thrashed and the rutabaga\ndigging all dug, I took eight dollars and a half in my inside vest\npocket and I went to the hardware store.\n\n\"I put my thumbs in my vest pocket and I wiggled my fingers like a man\nwhen he is proud of what he is going to have if he gets it. And I said\nto the head clerk in the hardware store, 'Sir, the article I desire to\npurchase this evening as one of your high class customers, the article\nI desire to have after I buy it for myself, is the article there in\nthe window, sir, the Spanish Spinnish Splishy guitar.'\n\n\"And, mittens, if you are listening, I am taking this Spanish Spinnish\nSplishy guitar to go to the home of Susan Slackentwist, the daughter\nof the rutabaga king near the Village of Liver-and-Onions, to sing a\nserenade song.\"\n\nThe cold wind of the bitter cold weather blew and blew, trying to blow\nthe guitar out from under the left elbow of Henry Hagglyhoagly. And\nthe worse the wind blew the tighter he held his elbow holding the\nguitar where he wanted it.\n\nHe walked on and on with his long legs stepping long steps till at\nlast he stopped, held his nose in the air, and sniffed.\n\n\"Do I sniff something or do I not?\" he asked, lifting his wool yarn\nmittens to his nose and rubbing his nose till it was warm. Again he\nsniffed.\n\n\"Ah hah, yeah, yeah, this is the big rutabaga field near the home of\nthe rutabaga king and the home of his daughter, Susan Slackentwist.\"\n\nAt last he came to the house, stood under the window and slung the\nguitar around in front of him to play the music to go with the song.\n\n\"And now,\" he asked his mittens, \"shall I take you off or keep you on?\nIf I take you off the cold wind of the bitter cold weather will freeze\nmy hands so stiff and bitter cold my fingers will be too stiff to play\nthe guitar. _I will play with mittens on._\"\n\nWhich he did. He stood under the window of Susan Slackentwist and\nplayed the guitar with his mittens on, the warm wool yarn mittens he\ncalled his chums. It was the first time any strong young man going to\nsee his sweetheart ever played the guitar with his mittens on when it\nwas a bitter night with a cold wind and cold weather.\n\nSusan Slackentwist opened her window and threw him a snow-bird feather\nto keep for a keepsake to remember her by. And for years afterward\nmany a sweetheart in the Rootabaga Country told her lover, \"If you\nwish to marry me let me hear you under my window on a winter night\nplaying the guitar with wool yarn mittens on.\"\n\nAnd when Henry Hagglyhoagly walked home on his long legs stepping long\nsteps, he said to his mittens, \"This Spanish Spinnish Splishy guitar\nmade special will bring us luck.\" And when he turned his face up, the\nsky came down close and he could see stars fixed like numbers and the\narithmetic writing of a girl going to school learning to write number\n4 and number 7 and 4 and 7 over and over.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n [Illustration]\n\n Never Kick a Slipper at the Moon\n\n\nWhen a girl is growing up in the Rootabaga Country she learns some\nthings to do, some things _not_ to do.\n\n\"Never kick a slipper at the moon if it is the time for the Dancing\nSlipper Moon when the slim early moon looks like the toe and the heel\nof a dancer's foot,\" was the advice Mr. Wishes, the father of Peter\nPotato Blossom Wishes, gave to his daughter.\n\n\"Why?\" she asked him.\n\n\"Because your slipper will go straight up, on and on to the moon, and\nfasten itself on the moon as if the moon is a foot ready for dancing,\"\nsaid Mr. Wishes.\n\n\"A long time ago there was one night when a secret word was passed\naround to all the shoes standing in the bedrooms and closets.\n\n\"The whisper of the secret was: 'To-night all the shoes and the\nslippers and the boots of the world are going walking without any feet\nin them. To-night when those who put us on their feet in the daytime,\nare sleeping in their beds, we all get up and walk and go walking\nwhere we walk in the daytime.'\n\n\"And in the middle of the night, when the people in the beds were\nsleeping, the shoes and the slippers and the boots everywhere walked\nout of the bedrooms and the closets. Along the sidewalks on the\nstreets, up and down stairways, along hallways, the shoes and slippers\nand the boots tramped and marched and stumbled.\n\n\"Some walked pussyfoot, sliding easy and soft just like people in the\ndaytime. Some walked clumping and clumping, coming down heavy on the\nheels and slow on the toes, just like people in the daytime.\n\n\"Some turned their toes in and walked pigeon-toe, some spread their\ntoes out and held their heels in, just like people in the daytime.\nSome ran glad and fast, some lagged slow and sorry.\n\n\"Now there was a little girl in the Village of Cream Puffs who came\nhome from a dance that night. And she was tired from dancing round\ndances and square dances, one steps and two steps, toe dances and toe\nand heel dances, dances close up and dances far apart, she was so\ntired she took off only one slipper, tumbled onto her bed and went to\nsleep with one slipper on.\n\n\"She woke up in the morning when it was yet dark. And she went to the\nwindow and looked up in the sky and saw a Dancing Slipper Moon dancing\nfar and high in the deep blue sea of the moon sky.\n\n\"'Oh--what a moon--what a dancing slipper of a moon!' she cried with a\nlittle song to herself.\n\n\"She opened the window, saying again, 'Oh! what a moon!'--and kicked\nher foot with the slipper on it straight toward the moon.\n\n\"The slipper flew off and flew up and went on and on and up and up in\nthe moonshine.\n\n\"It never came back, that slipper. It was never seen again. When they\nasked the girl about it she said, 'It slipped off my foot and went up\nand up and the last I saw of it the slipper was going on straight to\nthe moon.'\"\n\nAnd these are the explanations why fathers and mothers in the\nRootabaga Country say to their girls growing up, \"Never kick a slipper\nat the moon if it is the time of the Dancing Slipper Moon when the\nends of the moon look like the toe and the heel of a dancer's foot.\"\n\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n7. One Story--\"Only the\n Fire-Born Understand Blue\"\n\n _People_: Fire the Goat\n Flim the Goose\n Shadows\n\n\n [Illustration]\n\n Sand Flat Shadows\n\n\nFire the Goat and Flim the Goose slept out. Stub pines stood over\nthem. And away up next over the stub pines were stars.\n\nIt was a white sand flat they slept on. The floor of the sand flat ran\nstraight to the Big Lake of the Booming Rollers.\n\nAnd just over the sand flat and just over the booming rollers was a\nhigh room where the mist people were making pictures. Gray pictures,\nblue and sometimes a little gold, and often silver, were the pictures.\n\nAnd next just over the high room where the mist people were making\npictures, next just over were the stars.\n\nOver everything and always last and highest of all, were the stars.\n\nFire the Goat took off his horns. Flim the Goose took off his wings.\n\"This is where we sleep,\" they said to each other, \"here in the stub\npines on the sand flats next to the booming rollers and high over\neverything and always last and highest of all, the stars.\"\n\nFire the Goat laid his horns under his head. Flim the Goose laid his\nwings under his head. \"This is the best place for what you want to\nkeep,\" they said to each other. Then they crossed their fingers for\nluck and lay down and went to sleep and slept. And while they slept\nthe mist people went on making pictures. Gray pictures, blue and\nsometimes a little gold but more often silver, such were the pictures\nthe mist people went on making while Fire the Goat and Flim the Goose\nwent on sleeping. And over everything and always last and highest of\nall, were the stars.\n\nThey woke up. Fire the Goat took his horns out and put them on. \"It's\nmorning now,\" he said.\n\nFlim the Goose took his wings out and put them on. \"It's another day\nnow,\" he said.\n\nThen they sat looking. Away off where the sun was coming up, inching\nand pushing up far across the rim curve of the Big Lake of the Booming\nRollers, along the whole line of the east sky, there were people and\nanimals, all black or all so gray they were near black.\n\nThere was a big horse with his mouth open, ears laid back, front legs\nthrown in two curves like harvest sickles.\n\nThere was a camel with two humps, moving slow and grand like he had\nall the time of all the years of all the world to go in.\n\nThere was an elephant without any head, with six short legs. There\nwere many cows. There was a man with a club over his shoulder and a\nwoman with a bundle on the back of her neck.\n\nAnd they marched on. They were going nowhere, it seemed. And they were\ngoing slow. They had plenty of time. There was nothing else to do. It\nwas fixed for them to do it, long ago it was fixed. And so they were\nmarching.\n\nSometimes the big horse's head sagged and dropped off and came back\nagain. Sometimes the humps of the camel sagged and dropped off and\ncame back again. And sometimes the club on the man's shoulder got\nbigger and heavier and the man staggered under it and then his legs\ngot bigger and stronger and he steadied himself and went on. And again\nsometimes the bundle on the back of the neck of the woman got bigger\nand heavier and the bundle sagged and the woman staggered and her legs\ngot bigger and stronger and she steadied herself and went on.\n\nThis was the show, the hippodrome, the spectacular circus that passed\non the east sky before the eyes of Fire the Goat and Flim the Goose.\n\n\"Which is this, who are they and why do they come?\" Flim the Goose\nasked Fire the Goat.\n\n[Illustration: Away off where the sun was coming up, there were\npeople and animals]\n\n\"Do you ask me because you wish me to tell you?\" asked Fire the Goat.\n\n\"Indeed it is a question to which I want an honest answer.\"\n\n\"Has never the father or mother nor the uncle or aunt nor the kith and\nkin of Flim the Goose told him the what and the which of this?\"\n\n\"Never has the such of this which been put here this way to me by\nanybody.\"\n\nFlim the Goose held up his fingers and said, \"I don't talk to you with\nmy fingers crossed.\"\n\nAnd so Fire the Goat began to explain to Flim the Goose all about the\nshow, the hippodrome, the mastodonic cyclopean spectacle which was\npassing on the east sky in front of the sun coming up.\n\n\"People say they are shadows,\" began Fire the Goat. \"That is a name, a\nword, a little cough and a couple of syllables.\n\n\"For some people shadows are comic and only to laugh at. For some\nother people shadows are like a mouth and its breath. The breath comes\nout and it is nothing. It is like air and nobody can make it into a\npackage and carry it away. It will not melt like gold nor can you\nshovel it like cinders. So to these people it means nothing.\n\n\"And then there are other people,\" Fire the Goat went on. \"There are\nother people who understand shadows. The fire-born understand. The\nfire-born know where shadows come from and why they are.\n\n\"Long ago, when the Makers of the World were done making the round\nearth, the time came when they were ready to make the animals to put\non the earth. They were not sure how to make the animals. They did not\nknow what shape animals they wanted.\n\n\"And so they practised. They did not make real animals at first. They\nmade only shapes of animals. And these shapes were shadows, shadows\nlike these you and I, Fire the Goat and Flim the Goose, are looking at\nthis morning across the booming rollers on the east sky where the sun\nis coming up.\n\n\"The shadow horse over there on the east sky with his mouth open, his\nears laid back, and his front legs thrown in a curve like harvest\nsickles, that shadow horse was one they made long ago when they were\npractising to make a real horse. That shadow horse was a mistake and\nthey threw him away. Never will you see two shadow horses alike. All\nshadow horses on the sky are different. Each one is a mistake, a\nshadow horse thrown away because he was not good enough to be a real\nhorse.\n\n\"That elephant with no head on his neck, stumbling so grand on six\nlegs--and that grand camel with two humps, one bigger than the\nother--and those cows with horns in front and behind--they are all\nmistakes, they were all thrown away because they were not made good\nenough to be real elephants, real cows, real camels. They were made\njust for practice, away back early in the world before any real\nanimals came on their legs to eat and live and be here like the rest\nof us.\n\n\"That man--see him now staggering along with the club over his\nshoulder--see how his long arms come to his knees and sometimes his\nhands drag below his feet. See how heavy the club on his shoulders\nloads him down and drags him on. He is one of the oldest shadow men.\nHe was a mistake and they threw him away. He was made just for\npractice.\n\n\"And that woman. See her now at the end of that procession across the\nbooming rollers on the east sky. See her the last of all, the end of\nthe procession. On the back of her neck a bundle. Sometimes the bundle\ngets bigger. The woman staggers. Her legs get bigger and stronger. She\npicks herself up and goes along shaking her head. She is the same as\nthe others. She is a shadow and she was made as a mistake. Early,\nearly in the beginnings of the world she was made, for practice.\n\n\"Listen, Flim the Goose. What I am telling you is a secret of the\nfire-born. I do not know whether you understand. We have slept\ntogether a night on the sand flats next to the booming rollers, under\nthe stub pines with the stars high over--and so I tell what the\nfathers of the fire-born tell their sons.\"\n\nAnd that day Fire the Goat and Flim the Goose moved along the sand\nflat shore of the Big Lake of the Booming Rollers. It was a blue day,\nwith a fire-blue of the sun mixing itself in the air and the water.\nOff to the north the booming rollers were blue sea-green. To the east\nthey were sometimes streak purple, sometimes changing bluebell\nstripes. And to the south they were silver blue, sheet blue.\n\nWhere the shadow hippodrome marched on the east sky that morning was a\nlong line of blue-bird spots.\n\n\"Only the fire-born understand blue,\" said Fire the Goat to Flim the\nGoose. And that night as the night before they slept on a sand flat.\nAnd again Fire the Goat took off his horns and laid them under his\nhead while he slept and Flim the Goose took off his wings and laid\nthem under his head while he slept.\n\nAnd twice in the night, Fire the Goat whispered in his sleep,\nwhispered to the stars, \"Only the fire-born understand blue.\"\n\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n8. Two Stories About Corn Fairies,\n Blue Foxes, Flongboos and Happenings\n That Happened in the\n United States and Canada\n\n _People_: Spink\n Skabootch\n A Man\n Corn Fairies\n\n Blue Foxes\n Flongboos\n A Philadelphia Policeman\n Passenger Conductor\n Chicago Newspapers\n The Head Spotter of the Weather Makers at Medicine Hat\n\n\n [Illustration]\n\n How to Tell Corn Fairies If You See 'Em\n\n\nIf you have ever watched the little corn begin to march across the\nblack lands and then slowly change to big corn and go marching on from\nthe little corn moon of summer to the big corn harvest moon of autumn,\nthen you must have guessed who it is that helps the corn come along.\nIt is the corn fairies. Leave out the corn fairies and there wouldn't\nbe any corn.\n\nAll children know this. All boys and girls know that corn is no good\nunless there are corn fairies.\n\nHave you ever stood in Illinois or Iowa and watched the late summer\nwind or the early fall wind running across a big cornfield? It looks\nas if a big, long blanket were being spread out for dancers to come\nand dance on. If you look close and if you listen close you can see\nthe corn fairies come dancing and singing--sometimes. If it is a wild\nday and a hot sun is pouring down while a cool north wind blows--and\nthis happens sometimes--then you will be sure to see thousands of corn\nfairies marching and countermarching in mocking grand marches over the\nbig, long blanket of green and silver. Then too they sing, only you\nmust listen with your littlest and newest ears if you wish to hear\ntheir singing. They sing soft songs that go pla-sizzy pla-sizzy-sizzy,\nand each song is softer than an eye wink, softer than a Nebraska\nbaby's thumb.\n\nAnd Spink, who is a little girl living in the same house with the man\nwriting this story, and Skabootch, who is another little girl in the\nsame house--both Spink and Skabootch are asking the question, \"How can\nwe tell corn fairies if we see 'em? If we meet a corn fairy how will\nwe know it?\" And this is the explanation the man gave to Spink who is\nolder than Skabootch, and to Skabootch who is younger than Spink:--\n\nAll corn fairies wear overalls. They work hard, the corn fairies, and\nthey are proud. The reason they are proud is because they work so\nhard. And the reason they work so hard is because they have overalls.\n\nBut understand this. The overalls are corn gold cloth, woven from\nleaves of ripe corn mixed with ripe October corn silk. In the first\nweek of the harvest moon coming up red and changing to yellow and\nsilver the corn fairies sit by thousands between the corn rows weaving\nand stitching the clothes they have to wear next winter, next spring,\nnext summer.\n\nThey sit cross-legged when they sew. And it is a law among them each\none must point the big toe at the moon while sewing the harvest moon\nclothes. When the moon comes up red as blood early in the evening they\npoint their big toes slanting toward the east. Then towards midnight\nwhen the moon is yellow and half way up the sky their big toes are\nonly half slanted as they sit cross-legged sewing. And after midnight\nwhen the moon sails its silver disk high overhead and toward the west,\nthen the corn fairies sit sewing with their big toes pointed nearly\nstraight up.\n\nIf it is a cool night and looks like frost, then the laughter of the\ncorn fairies is something worth seeing. All the time they sit sewing\ntheir next year clothes they are laughing. It is not a law they have\nto laugh. They laugh because they are half-tickled and glad because it\nis a good corn year.\n\nAnd whenever the corn fairies laugh then the laugh comes out of the\nmouth like a thin gold frost. If you should be lucky enough to see a\nthousand corn fairies sitting between the corn rows and all of them\nlaughing, you would laugh with wonder yourself to see the gold frost\ncoming from their mouths while they laughed.\n\nTravelers who have traveled far, and seen many things, say that if you\nknow the corn fairies with a real knowledge you can always tell by the\nstitches in their clothes what state they are from.\n\nIn Illinois the corn fairies stitch fifteen stitches of ripe corn silk\nacross the woven corn leaf cloth. In Iowa they stitch sixteen\nstitches, in Nebraska seventeen, and the farther west you go the more\ncorn silk stitches the corn fairies have in the corn cloth clothes\nthey wear.\n\nIn Minnesota one year there were fairies with a blue sash of\ncorn-flowers across the breast. In the Dakotas the same year all the\nfairies wore pumpkin-flower neckties, yellow four-in-hands and yellow\nascots. And in one strange year it happened in both the states of Ohio\nand Texas the corn fairies wore little wristlets of white morning\nglories.\n\nThe traveler who heard about this asked many questions and found out\nthe reason why that year the corn fairies wore little wristlets of\nwhite morning glories. He said, \"Whenever fairies are sad they wear\nwhite. And this year, which was long ago, was the year men were\ntearing down all the old zigzag rail fences. Now those old zigzag rail\nfences were beautiful for the fairies because a hundred fairies could\nsit on one rail and thousands and thousands of them could sit on the\nzigzags and sing pla-sizzy pla-sizzy, softer than an eye-wink, softer\nthan a baby's thumb, all on a moonlight summer night. And they found\nout that year was going to be the last year of the zigzag rail fences.\nIt made them sorry and sad, and when they are sorry and sad they wear\nwhite. So they picked the wonderful white morning glories running\nalong the zigzag rail fences and made them into little wristlets and\nwore those wristlets the next year to show they were sorry and sad.\"\n\nOf course, all this helps you to know how the corn fairies look in the\nevening, the night time and the moonlight. Now we shall see how they\nlook in the day time.\n\nIn the day time the corn fairies have their overalls of corn gold\ncloth on. And they walk among the corn rows and climb the corn stalks\nand fix things in the leaves and stalks and ears of the corn. They\nhelp it to grow.\n\nEach one carries on the left shoulder a mouse brush to brush away the\nfield mice. And over the right shoulder each one has a cricket broom\nto sweep away the crickets. The brush is a whisk brush to brush away\nmice that get foolish. And the broom is to sweep away crickets that\nget foolish.\n\nAround the middle of each corn fairy is a yellow-belly belt. And stuck\nin this belt is a purple moon shaft hammer. Whenever the wind blows\nstrong and nearly blows the corn down, then the fairies run out and\ntake their purple moon shaft hammers out of their yellow-belly belts\nand nail down nails to keep the corn from blowing down. When a rain\nstorm is blowing up terrible and driving all kinds of terribles across\nthe cornfield, then you can be sure of one thing. Running like the\nwind among the corn rows are the fairies, jerking their purple moon\nshaft hammers out of their belts and nailing nails down to keep the\ncorn standing up so it will grow and be ripe and beautiful when the\nharvest moon comes again in the fall.\n\nSpink and Skabootch ask where the corn fairies get the nails. The\nanswer to Spink and Skabootch is, \"Next week you will learn all about\nwhere the corn fairies get the nails to nail down the corn if you will\nkeep your faces washed and your ears washed till next week.\"\n\nAnd the next time you stand watching a big cornfield in late summer or\nearly fall, when the wind is running across the green and silver,\nlisten with your littlest and newest ears. Maybe you will hear the\ncorn fairies going pla-sizzy pla-sizzy-sizzy, softer than an eye wink,\nsofter than a Nebraska baby's thumb.\n\n\n [Illustration]\n\n How the Animals Lost Their Tails and\n Got Them Back Traveling From\n Philadelphia to Medicine Hat\n\n\nFar up in North America, near the Saskatchewan river, in the Winnipeg\nwheat country, not so far from the town of Moose Jaw named for the jaw\nof a moose shot by a hunter there, up where the blizzards and the\nchinooks begin, where nobody works unless they have to and they nearly\nall have to, there stands the place known as Medicine Hat.\n\nAnd there on a high stool in a high tower on a high hill sits the Head\nSpotter of the Weather Makers.\n\nWhen the animals lost their tails it was because the Head Spotter of\nthe Weather Makers at Medicine Hat was careless.\n\nThe tails of the animals were stiff and dry because for a long while\nthere was dusty dry weather. Then at last came rain. And the water\nfrom the sky poured on the tails of the animals and softened them.\n\nThen the chilly chills came whistling with icy mittens and they froze\nall the tails stiff. A big wind blew up and blew and blew till all the\ntails of the animals blew off.\n\nIt was easy for the fat stub hogs with their fat stub tails. But it\nwas not so easy for the blue fox who uses his tail to help him when he\nruns, when he eats, when he walks or talks, when he makes pictures or\nwrites letters in the snow or when he puts a snack of bacon meat with\nstripes of fat and lean to hide till he wants it under a big rock by a\nriver.\n\n[Illustration: There on a high stool in a high tower, on a high hill\nsits the Head Spotter of the Weather Makers]\n\nIt was easy enough for the rabbit who has long ears and no tail at all\nexcept a white thumb of cotton. But it was hard for the yellow\nflongboo who at night lights up his house in a hollow tree with his\nfire yellow torch of a tail. It is hard for the yellow flongboo to\nlose his tail because it lights up his way when he sneaks at night on\nthe prairie, sneaking up on the flangwayers, the hippers and\nhangjasts, so good to eat.\n\nThe animals picked a committee of representatives to represent them in\na parleyhoo to see what steps could be taken by talking to do\nsomething. There were sixty-six representatives on the committee and\nthey decided to call it the Committee of Sixty Six. It was a\ndistinguished committee and when they all sat together holding their\nmouths under their noses (just like a distinguished committee) and\nblinking their eyes up over their noses and cleaning their ears and\nscratching themselves under the chin looking thoughtful (just like a\ndistinguished committee) then anybody would say just to look at them,\n\"This must be quite a distinguished committee.\"\n\nOf course, they would all have looked more distinguished if they had\nhad their tails on. If the big wavy streak of a blue tail blows off\nbehind a blue fox, he doesn't look near so distinguished. Or, if the\nlong yellow torch of a tail blows off behind a yellow flongboo, he\ndoesn't look so distinguished as he did before the wind blew.\n\nSo the Committee of Sixty Six had a meeting and a parleyhoo to decide\nwhat steps could be taken by talking to do something. For chairman\nthey picked an old flongboo who was an umpire and used to umpire many\nmix-ups. Among the flongboos he was called \"the umpire of umpires,\"\n\"the king of umpires,\" \"the prince of umpires,\" \"the peer of umpires.\"\nWhen there was a fight and a snag and a wrangle between two families\nliving next door neighbors to each other and this old flongboo was\ncalled in to umpire and to say which family was right and which family\nwas wrong, which family started it and which family ought to stop it,\nhe used to say, \"The best umpire is the one who knows just how far to\ngo and how far not to go.\" He was from Massachusetts, born near\nChappaquiddick, this old flongboo, and he lived there in a horse\nchestnut tree six feet thick half way between South Hadley and\nNorthampton. And at night, before he lost his tail, he lighted up the\nbig hollow cave inside the horse chestnut tree with his yellow torch\nof a tail.\n\nAfter he was nominated with speeches and elected with votes to be the\nchairman, he stood up on the platform and took a gavel and banged with\nthe gavel and made the Committee of Sixty Six come to order.\n\n\"It is no picnic to lose your tail and we are here for business,\" he\nsaid, banging his gavel again.\n\nA blue fox from Waco, Texas, with his ears full of dry bluebonnet\nleaves from a hole where he lived near the Brazos river, stood up and\nsaid, \"Mr. Chairman, do I have the floor?\"\n\n\"You have whatever you get away with--I get your number,\" said the\nchairman.\n\n\"I make a motion,\" said the blue fox from Waco, \"and I move you, Sir,\nthat this committee get on a train at Philadelphia and ride on the\ntrain till it stops and then take another train and take more trains\nand keep on riding till we get to Medicine Hat, near the Saskatchewan\nriver, in the Winnipeg wheat country where the Head Spotter of the\nWeather Makers sits on a high stool in a high tower on a high hill\nspotting the weather. There we will ask him if he will respectfully\nlet us beseech him to bring back weather that will bring back our\ntails. It was the weather took away our tails; it is the weather can\nbring back our tails.\"\n\n\"All in favor of the motion,\" said the chairman, \"will clean their\nright ears with their right paws.\"\n\nAnd all the blue foxes and all the yellow flongboos began cleaning\ntheir right ears with their right paws.\n\n\"All who are against the motion will clean their left ears with their\nleft paws,\" said the chairman.\n\nAnd all the blue foxes and all the yellow flongboos began cleaning\ntheir left ears with their left paws.\n\n\"The motion is carried both ways--it is a razmataz,\" said the\nchairman. \"Once again, all in favor of the motion will stand up on the\ntoes of their hind legs and stick their noses straight up in the air.\"\nAnd all the blue foxes and all the yellow flongboos stood up on the\ntoes of their hind legs and stuck their noses straight up in the air.\n\n\"And now,\" said the chairman, \"all who are against the motion will\nstand on the top and the apex of their heads, stick their hind legs\nstraight up in the air, and make a noise like a woof woof.\"\n\nAnd then not one of the blue foxes and not one of the yellow flongboos\nstood on the top and the apex of his head nor stuck his hind legs up\nin the air nor made a noise like a woof woof.\n\n\"The motion is carried and this is no picnic,\" said the chairman.\n\nSo the committee went to Philadelphia to get on a train to ride on.\n\n\"Would you be so kind as to tell us the way to the union depot,\" the\nchairman asked a policeman. It was the first time a flongboo ever\nspoke to a policeman on the streets of Philadelphia.\n\n\"It pays to be polite,\" said the policeman.\n\n\"May I ask you again if you would kindly direct us to the union depot?\nWe wish to ride on a train,\" said the flongboo.\n\n\"Polite persons and angry persons are different kinds,\" said the\npoliceman.\n\nThe flongboo's eyes changed their lights and a slow torch of fire\nsprang out behind where his tail used to be. And speaking to the\npoliceman, he said, \"Sir, I must inform you, publicly and respectfully,\nthat we are The Committee of Sixty Six. We are honorable and\ndistinguished representatives from places your honest and ignorant\ngeography never told you about. This committee is going to ride on the\ncars to Medicine Hat near the Saskatchewan river in the Winnipeg wheat\ncountry where the blizzards and chinooks begin. We have a special\nmessage and a secret errand for the Head Spotter of the Weather\nMakers.\"\n\n\"I am a polite friend of all respectable people--that is why I wear\nthis star to arrest people who are not respectable,\" said the\npoliceman, touching with his pointing finger the silver and nickel\nstar fastened with a safety pin on his blue uniform coat.\n\n\"This is the first time ever in the history of the United States that\na committee of sixty-six blue foxes and flongboos has ever visited a\ncity in the United States,\" insinuated the flongboo.\n\n\"I beg to be mistaken,\" finished the policeman. \"The union depot is\nunder that clock.\" And he pointed to a clock near by.\n\n\"I thank you for myself, I thank you for the Committee of Sixty Six, I\nthank you for the sake of all the animals in the United States who\nhave lost their tails,\" finished the chairman.\n\nOver to the Philadelphia union depot they went, all sixty-six, half\nblue foxes, half flongboos. As they pattered pitty-pat, pitty-pat,\neach with feet and toenails, ears and hair, everything but tails, into\nthe Philadelphia union depot, they had nothing to say. And yet though\nthey had nothing to say the passengers in the union depot waiting for\ntrains thought they had something to say and were saying it. So the\npassengers in the union depot waiting for trains listened. But with\nall their listening the passengers never heard the blue foxes and\nyellow flongboos say anything.\n\n\"They are saying it to each other in some strange language from where\nthey belong,\" said one passenger waiting for a train.\n\n\"They have secrets to keep among each other, and never tell us,\" said\nanother passenger.\n\n\"We will find out all about it reading the newspapers upside down\nto-morrow morning,\" said a third passenger.\n\nThen the blue foxes and the yellow flongboos pattered pitty-pat,\npitty-pat, each with feet and toenails, ears and hair, everything\nexcept tails, pattered scritch scratch over the stone floors out into\nthe train shed. They climbed into a special smoking car hooked on\nahead of the engine.\n\n\"This car hooked on ahead of the engine was put on special for us so\nwe will always be ahead and we will get there before the train does,\"\nsaid the chairman to the committee.\n\nThe train ran out of the train shed. It kept on the tracks and never\nleft the rails. It came to the Horseshoe Curve near Altoona where the\ntracks bend like a big horseshoe. Instead of going around the long\nwinding bend of the horseshoe tracks up and around the mountains, the\ntrain acted different. The train jumped off the tracks down into the\nvalley and cut across in a straight line on a cut-off, jumped on the\ntracks again and went on toward Ohio.\n\nThe conductor said, \"If you are going to jump the train off the\ntracks, tell us about it beforehand.\"\n\n\"When we lost our tails nobody told us about it beforehand,\" said the\nold flongboo umpire.\n\nTwo baby blue foxes, the youngest on the committee, sat on the front\nplatform. Mile after mile of chimneys went by. Four hundred smokestacks\nstood in a row and tubs on tubs of sooty black soot marched out.\n\n\"This is the place where the black cats come to be washed,\" said the\nfirst baby blue fox.\n\n\"I believe your affidavit,\" said the second blue fox.\n\nCrossing Ohio and Indiana at night the flongboos took off the roof of\nthe car. The conductor told them, \"I must have an explanation.\" \"It\nwas between us and the stars,\" they told him.\n\nThe train ran into Chicago. That afternoon there were pictures upside\ndown in the newspapers showing the blue foxes and the yellow flongboos\nclimbing telephone poles standing on their heads eating pink ice cream\nwith iron axes.\n\nEach blue fox and yellow flongboo got a newspaper for himself and each\none looked long and careful upside down to see how he looked in the\npicture in the newspaper climbing a telephone pole standing on his\nhead eating pink ice cream with an iron ax.\n\nCrossing Minnesota the sky began to fill with the snow ghosts of\nMinnesota snow weather. Again the foxes and flongboos lifted the roof\noff the car, telling the conductor they would rather wreck the train\nthan miss the big show of the snow ghosts of the first Minnesota snow\nweather of the winter.\n\nSome went to sleep but the two baby blue foxes stayed up all night\nwatching the snow ghosts and telling snow ghost stories to each other.\n\nEarly in the night the first baby blue fox said to the second, \"Who\nare the snow ghosts the ghosts of?\" The second baby blue fox answered,\n\"Everybody who makes a snowball, a snow man, a snow fox or a snow fish\nor a snow pattycake, everybody has a snow ghost.\"\n\nAnd that was only the beginning of their talk. It would take a big book\nto tell all that the two baby foxes told each other that night about\nthe Minnesota snow ghosts, because they sat up all night telling old\nstories their fathers and mothers and grandfathers and grandmothers\ntold them, and making up new stories never heard before about where the\nsnow ghosts go on Christmas morning and how the snow ghosts watch the\nNew Year in.\n\nSomewhere between Winnipeg and Moose Jaw, somewhere it was they\nstopped the train and all ran out in the snow where the white moon was\nshining down a valley of birch trees. It was the Snowbird Valley where\nall the snowbirds of Canada come early in the winter and make their\nsnow shoes.\n\nAt last they came to Medicine Hat, near the Saskatchewan River, where\nthe blizzards and the chinooks begin, where nobody works unless they\nhave to and they nearly all have to. There they ran in the snow till\nthey came to the place where the Head Spotter of the Weather Makers\nsits on a high stool in a high tower on a high hill watching the\nweather.\n\n\"Let loose another big wind to blow back our tails to us, let loose a\nbig freeze to freeze our tails onto us again, and so let us get back\nour lost tails,\" they said to the Head Spotter of the Weather Makers.\n\nWhich was just what he did, giving them exactly what they wanted, so\nthey all went back home satisfied, the blue foxes each with a big wavy\nbrush of a tail to help him when he runs, when he eats, when he walks\nor talks, when he makes pictures or writes letters in the snow or when\nhe puts a snack of bacon meat with stripes of fat and lean to hide\ntill he wants it under a big rock by the river--and the yellow\nflongboos each with a long yellow torch of a tail to light up his home\nin a hollow tree or to light up his way when he sneaks at night on the\nprairie, sneaking up on the flangwayer, the hipper or the hangjast.\n\n[Illustration]","title":"Rootabaga Stories","tradition":"folklore-oral-tradition","translated_text":null,"word_count":28617}