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diff --git a/27085.txt b/27085.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..923fd5b --- /dev/null +++ b/27085.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4013 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Rootabaga Stories, by Carl Sandburg + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Rootabaga Stories + +Author: Carl Sandburg + +Illustrator: Maud Petersham + Miska Petersham + +Release Date: October 29, 2008 [EBook #27085] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROOTABAGA STORIES *** + + + + +Produced by Betsie Bush, ronnie sahlberg and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was made using scans of public domain material from +the Children's Books Online - Rosetta Project) + + + + + +[Illustration: The balloons floated and filled the sky] + + ROOTABAGA + STORIES + + BY + CARL SANDBURG + + + Author of "Slabs of the Sunburnt West," "Smoke + and Steel," "Chicago Poems," "Cornhuskers" + + + ILLUSTRATIONS AND DECORATIONS + BY + MAUD AND MISKA PETERSHAM + + + [Illustration] + + NEW YORK + HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY + + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY + HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY, INC. + + + PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY + THE QUINN & BODEN COMPANY + RAHWAY, N J + + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + TO + SPINK AND SKABOOTCH + + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + CONTENTS + + 1. + + Three Stories About the Finding of the Zigzag Railroad, + the Pigs with Bibs On, the Circus Clown Ovens, + the Village of Liver-and-Onions, the + Village of Cream Puffs. + + How They Broke Away to Go to the Rootabaga Country 3 + + How They Bring Back the Village of Cream Puffs When the + Wind Blows It Away 19 + + How the Five Rusty Rats Helped Find a New Village 29 + + + 2. + + Five Stories About the Potato Face Blind Man + + The Potato Face Blind Man Who Lost the Diamond Rabbit on + His Gold Accordion 41 + + How the Potato Face Blind Man Enjoyed Himself on a Fine + Spring Morning 45 + + Poker Face the Baboon and Hot Dog the Tiger 53 + + The Toboggan-to-the-Moon Dream of the Potato Face Blind + Man 59 + + How Gimme the Ax Found Out About + the Zigzag Railroad and + Who Made It Zigzag 65 + + + 3. + + Three Stories About the Gold Buckskin Whincher + + The Story of Blixie Bimber and the Power + of the Gold + Buckskin Whincher 73 + + The Story of Jason Squiff and Why He Had a Popcorn Hat, + Popcorn Mittens and Popcorn Shoes 79 + + The Story of Rags Habakuk, the Two Blue Rats, and the Circus + Man Who Came with Spot Cash Money 89 + + + 4. + + Four Stories About the Deep Doom of Dark Doorways + + The Wedding Procession of the Rag Doll and the Broom Handle + and Who Was in It 99 + + How the Hat Ashes Shovel Helped Snoo Foo 105 + + Three Boys With Jugs of Molasses and Secret Ambitions 109 + + How Bimbo the Snip's Thumb Stuck to His Nose When the + Wind Changed 123 + + + 5. + + Three Stories About Three Ways the Wind Went Winding + + The Two Skyscrapers Who Decided to Have a Child 133 + + The Dollar Watch and the Five Jack Rabbits 141 + + The Wooden Indian and the Shaghorn Buffalo 151 + + + 6. + + Four Stories About Dear, Dear Eyes + + The White Horse Girl and the Blue Wind Boy 159 + + What Six Girls with Balloons Told the Gray Man on + Horseback 167 + + How Henry Hagglyhoagly Played the Guitar with His Mittens + On 175 + + + 7. + + One Story--"Only the Fire-Born Understand Blue" + + Never Kick a Slipper at the Moon 185 + + Sand Flat Shadows 191 + + + 8. + + Two Stories About Corn Fairies, Blue Foxes, Flongboos + and Happenings That Happened in the United States + and Canada + + How to Tell Corn Fairies If You See 'Em 205 + + How the Animals Lost Their Tails and Got Them Back + Traveling From Philadelphia to Medicine Hat 213 + + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS + + PAGE + +The balloons floated and filled the sky Frontispiece + +He opened the ragbag and took out all the spot cash money 7 + +Then the uncles asked her the first question first 21 + +They held on to the long curved tails of the rusty rats 33 + +"I am sure many people will stop and remember the +Potato Face Blind Man" 47 + +His hat was popcorn, his mittens popcorn and his +shoes popcorn 83 + +They stepped into the molasses with their bare feet 113 + +The monkey took the place of the traffic policeman 129 + +So they stood looking 153 + +It seemed to him as though the sky came down close +to his nose 177 + +Away off where the sun was coming up, there were +people and animals 195 + +There on a high stool in a high tower, on a high hill +sits the Head Spotter of the Weather Makers 215 + + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + + +1. Three Stories About the Finding + of the Zigzag Railroad, the Pigs + with Bibs On, the Circus Clown + Ovens, the Village of Liver-and-Onions, + the Village of Cream + Puffs. + + _People_: Gimme the Ax + Please Gimme + Ax Me No Questions + The Ticket Agent + Wing Tip the Spick + The Four Uncles + The Rat in a Blizzard + The Five Rusty Rats + + _More People_: + Balloon Pickers + Baked Clowns + Polka Dot Pigs + + + [Illustration] + + How They Broke Away to Go to the + Rootabaga Country + + +Gimme the Ax lived in a house where everything is the same as it +always was. + +"The chimney sits on top of the house and lets the smoke out," said +Gimme the Ax. "The doorknobs open the doors. The windows are always +either open or shut. We are always either upstairs or downstairs in +this house. Everything is the same as it always was." + +So he decided to let his children name themselves. + +"The first words they speak as soon as they learn to make words shall +be their names," he said. "They shall name themselves." + +When the first boy came to the house of Gimme the Ax, he was named +Please Gimme. When the first girl came she was named Ax Me No +Questions. + +And both of the children had the shadows of valleys by night in their +eyes and the lights of early morning, when the sun is coming up, on +their foreheads. + +And the hair on top of their heads was a dark wild grass. And they +loved to turn the doorknobs, open the doors, and run out to have the +wind comb their hair and touch their eyes and put its six soft fingers +on their foreheads. + +And then because no more boys came and no more girls came, Gimme the +Ax said to himself, "My first boy is my last and my last girl is my +first and they picked their names themselves." + +Please Gimme grew up and his ears got longer. Ax Me No Questions grew +up and her ears got longer. And they kept on living in the house where +everything is the same as it always was. They learned to say just as +their father said, "The chimney sits on top of the house and lets the +smoke out, the doorknobs open the doors, the windows are always either +open or shut, we are always either upstairs or downstairs--everything +is the same as it always was." + +After a while they began asking each other in the cool of the evening +after they had eggs for breakfast in the morning, "Who's who? How +much? And what's the answer?" + +"It is too much to be too long anywhere," said the tough old man, +Gimme the Ax. + +And Please Gimme and Ax Me No Questions, the tough son and the tough +daughter of Gimme the Ax, answered their father, "It _is_ too much to +be too long anywhere." + +So they sold everything they had, pigs, pastures, pepper pickers, +pitchforks, everything except their ragbags and a few extras. + +When their neighbors saw them selling everything they had, the +different neighbors said, "They are going to Kansas, to Kokomo, to +Canada, to Kankakee, to Kalamazoo, to Kamchatka, to the Chattahoochee." + +One little sniffer with his eyes half shut and a mitten on his nose, +laughed in his hat five ways and said, "They are going to the moon and +when they get there they will find everything is the same as it always +was." + +All the spot cash money he got for selling everything, pigs, pastures, +pepper pickers, pitchforks, Gimme the Ax put in a ragbag and slung on +his back like a rag picker going home. + +Then he took Please Gimme, his oldest and youngest and only son, and +Ax Me No Questions, his oldest and youngest and only daughter, and +went to the railroad station. + +The ticket agent was sitting at the window selling railroad tickets +the same as always. + +[Illustration: He opened the ragbag and took out all the spot cash money] + +"Do you wish a ticket to go away and come back or do you wish a ticket +to go away and _never_ come back?" the ticket agent asked wiping sleep +out of his eyes. + +"We wish a ticket to ride where the railroad tracks run off into the +sky and never come back--send us far as the railroad rails go and then +forty ways farther yet," was the reply of Gimme the Ax. + +"So far? So early? So soon?" asked the ticket agent wiping more sleep +out his eyes. "Then I will give you a new ticket. It blew in. It is a +long slick yellow leather slab ticket with a blue spanch across it." + +Gimme the Ax thanked the ticket agent once, thanked the ticket agent +twice, and then instead of thanking the ticket agent three times he +opened the ragbag and took out all the spot cash money he got for +selling everything, pigs, pastures, pepper pickers, pitchforks, and +paid the spot cash money to the ticket agent. + +Before he put it in his pocket he looked once, twice, three times at +the long yellow leather slab ticket with a blue spanch across it. + +Then with Please Gimme and Ax Me No Questions he got on the railroad +train, showed the conductor his ticket and they started to ride to +where the railroad tracks run off into the blue sky and then forty +ways farther yet. + +The train ran on and on. It came to the place where the railroad +tracks run off into the blue sky. And it ran on and on chick +chick-a-chick chick-a-chick chick-a-chick. + +Sometimes the engineer hooted and tooted the whistle. Sometimes the +fireman rang the bell. Sometimes the open-and-shut of the steam hog's +nose choked and spit pfisty-pfoost, pfisty-pfoost, pfisty-pfoost. But +no matter what happened to the whistle and the bell and the steam hog, +the train ran on and on to where the railroad tracks run off into the +blue sky. And then it ran on and on more and more. + +Sometimes Gimme the Ax looked in his pocket, put his fingers in and +took out the long slick yellow leather slab ticket with a blue spanch +across it. + +"Not even the Kings of Egypt with all their climbing camels, and all +their speedy, spotted, lucky lizards, ever had a ride like this," he +said to his children. + +Then something happened. They met another train running on the same +track. One train was going one way. The other was going the other way. +They met. They passed each other. + +"What was it--what happened?" the children asked their father. + +"One train went over, the other train went under," he answered. "This +is the Over and Under country. Nobody gets out of the way of anybody +else. They either go over or under." + +Next they came to the country of the balloon pickers. Hanging down +from the sky strung on strings so fine the eye could not see them at +first, was the balloon crop of that summer. The sky was thick with +balloons. Red, blue, yellow balloons, white, purple and orange +balloons--peach, watermelon and potato balloons--rye loaf and wheat +loaf balloons--link sausage and pork chop balloons--they floated and +filled the sky. + +The balloon pickers were walking on high stilts picking balloons. Each +picker had his own stilts, long or short. For picking balloons near +the ground he had short stilts. If he wanted to pick far and high he +walked on a far and high pair of stilts. + +Baby pickers on baby stilts were picking baby balloons. When they fell +off the stilts the handful of balloons they were holding kept them in +the air till they got their feet into the stilts again. + +"Who is that away up there in the sky climbing like a bird in the +morning?" Ax Me No Questions asked her father. + +"He was singing too happy," replied the father. "The songs came out of +his neck and made him so light the balloons pulled him off his +stilts." + +"Will he ever come down again back to his own people?" + +"Yes, his heart will get heavy when his songs are all gone. Then he +will drop down to his stilts again." + +The train was running on and on. The engineer hooted and tooted the +whistle when he felt like it. The fireman rang the bell when he felt +that way. And sometimes the open-and-shut of the steam hog had to go +pfisty-pfoost, pfisty-pfoost. + +"Next is the country where the circus clowns come from," said Gimme +the Ax to his son and daughter. "Keep your eyes open." + +They did keep their eyes open. They saw cities with ovens, long and +short ovens, fat stubby ovens, lean lank ovens, all for baking either +long or short clowns, or fat and stubby or lean and lank clowns. + +After each clown was baked in the oven it was taken out into the +sunshine and put up to stand like a big white doll with a red mouth +leaning against the fence. + +Two men came along to each baked clown standing still like a doll. One +man threw a bucket of white fire over it. The second man pumped a wind +pump with a living red wind through the red mouth. + +The clown rubbed his eyes, opened his mouth, twisted his neck, wiggled +his ears, wriggled his toes, jumped away from the fence and began +turning handsprings, cartwheels, somersaults and flipflops in the +sawdust ring near the fence. + +"The next we come to is the Rootabaga Country where the big city is +the Village of Liver-and-Onions," said Gimme the Ax, looking again in +his pocket to be sure he had the long slick yellow leather slab ticket +with a blue spanch across it. + +The train ran on and on till it stopped running straight and began +running in zigzags like one letter Z put next to another Z and the +next and the next. + +The tracks and the rails and the ties and the spikes under the train +all stopped being straight and changed to zigzags like one letter Z +and another letter Z put next after the other. + +"It seems like we go half way and then back up," said Ax Me No +Questions. + +"Look out of the window and see if the pigs have bibs on," said Gimme +the Ax. "If the pigs are wearing bibs then this is the Rootabaga +country." + +And they looked out of the zigzagging windows of the zigzagging cars +and the first pigs they saw had bibs on. And the next pigs and the +next pigs they saw all had bibs on. + +The checker pigs had checker bibs on, the striped pigs had striped +bibs on. And the polka dot pigs had polka dot bibs on. + +"Who fixes it for the pigs to have bibs on?" Please Gimme asked his +father. + +"The fathers and mothers fix it," answered Gimme the Ax. "The checker +pigs have checker fathers and mothers. The striped pigs have striped +fathers and mothers. And the polka dot pigs have polka dot fathers and +mothers." + +And the train went zigzagging on and on running on the tracks and the +rails and the spikes and the ties which were all zigzag like the +letter Z and the letter Z. + +And after a while the train zigzagged on into the Village of +Liver-and-Onions, known as the biggest city in the big, big Rootabaga +country. + +And so if you are going to the Rootabaga country you will know when +you get there because the railroad tracks change from straight to +zigzag, the pigs have bibs on and it is the fathers and mothers who +fix it. + +And if you start to go to that country remember first you must sell +everything you have, pigs, pastures, pepper pickers, pitchforks, put +the spot cash money in a ragbag and go to the railroad station and ask +the ticket agent for a long slick yellow leather slab ticket with a +blue spanch across it. + +And you mustn't be surprised if the ticket agent wipes sleep from his +eyes and asks, "So far? So early? So soon?" + +[Illustration] + + + [Illustration] + + How They Bring Back the Village of + Cream Puffs When the Wind Blows + It Away + + +A girl named Wing Tip the Spick came to the Village of Liver-and-Onions +to visit her uncle and her uncle's uncle on her mother's side and her +uncle and her uncle's uncle on her father's side. + +It was the first time the four uncles had a chance to see their little +relation, their niece. Each one of the four uncles was proud of the +blue eyes of Wing Tip the Spick. + +The two uncles on her mother's side took a long deep look into her +blue eyes and said, "Her eyes are so blue, such a clear light blue, +they are the same as cornflowers with blue raindrops shining and +dancing on silver leaves after a sun shower in any of the summer +months." + +And the two uncles on her father's side, after taking a long deep look +into the eyes of Wing Tip the Spick, said, "Her eyes are so blue, such +a clear light shining blue, they are the same as cornflowers with blue +raindrops shining and dancing on the silver leaves after a sun shower +in any of the summer months." + +And though Wing Tip the Spick didn't listen and didn't hear what the +uncles said about her blue eyes, she did say to herself when they were +not listening, "I know these are sweet uncles and I am going to have a +sweet time visiting my relations." + +The four uncles said to her, "Will you let us ask you two questions, +first the first question and second the second question?" + +[Illustration: Then the uncles asked her the first question first] + +"I will let you ask me fifty questions this morning, fifty questions +to-morrow morning, and fifty questions any morning. I like to listen +to questions. They slip in one ear and slip out of the other." + +Then the uncles asked her the first question first, "Where do you come +from?" and the second question second, "Why do you have two freckles +on your chin?" + +"Answering your first question first," said Wing Tip the Spick, "I +come from the Village of Cream Puffs, a little light village on the +upland corn prairie. From a long ways off it looks like a little hat +you could wear on the end of your thumb to keep the rain off your +thumb." + +"Tell us more," said one uncle. "Tell us much," said another uncle. +"Tell it without stopping," added another uncle. "Interruptions nix +nix," murmured the last of the uncles. + +"It is a light little village on the upland corn prairie many miles +past the sunset in the west," went on Wing Tip the Spick. "It is light +the same as a cream puff is light. It sits all by itself on the big +long prairie where the prairie goes up in a slope. There on the slope +the winds play around the village. They sing it wind songs, summer +wind songs in summer, winter wind songs in winter." + +"And sometimes like an accident, the wind gets rough. And when the +wind gets rough it picks up the little Village of Cream Puffs and +blows it away off in the sky--all by itself." + +"O-o-h-h," said one uncle. "Um-m-m-m," said the other three uncles. + +"Now the people in the village all understand the winds with their +wind songs in summer and winter. And they understand the rough wind +who comes sometimes and picks up the village and blows it away off +high in the sky all by itself. + +"If you go to the public square in the middle of the village you will +see a big roundhouse. If you take the top off the roundhouse you will +see a big spool with a long string winding up around the spool. + +"Now whenever the rough wind comes and picks up the village and blows +it away off high in the sky all by itself then the string winds loose +of the spool, because the village is fastened to the string. So the +rough wind blows and blows and the string on the spool winds looser +and looser the farther the village goes blowing away off into the sky +all by itself. + +"Then at last when the rough wind, so forgetful, so careless, has had +all the fun it wants, then the people of the village all come together +and begin to wind up the spool and bring back the village where it was +before." + +"O-o-h-h," said one uncle. "Um-m-m-m," said the other three uncles. + +"And sometimes when you come to the village to see your little +relation, your niece who has four such sweet uncles, maybe she will +lead you through the middle of the city to the public square and show +you the roundhouse. They call it the Roundhouse of the Big Spool. And +they are proud because it was thought up and is there to show when +visitors come." + +"And now will you answer the second question second--why do you have +two freckles on your chin?" interrupted the uncle who had said before, +"Interruptions nix nix." + +"The freckles are put on," answered Wing Tip the Spick. "When a girl +goes away from the Village of Cream Puffs her mother puts on two +freckles, on the chin. Each freckle must be the same as a little burnt +cream puff kept in the oven too long. After the two freckles looking +like two little burnt cream puffs are put on her chin, they remind the +girl every morning when she combs her hair and looks in the looking +glass. They remind her where she came from and she mustn't stay away +too long." + +"O-h-h-h," said one uncle. "Um-m-m-m," said the other three uncles. +And they talked among each other afterward, the four uncles by +themselves, saying: + +"She has a gift. It is her eyes. They are so blue, such a clear light +blue, the same as cornflowers with blue raindrops shining and dancing +on silver leaves after a sun shower in any of the summer months." + +At the same time Wing Tip the Spick was saying to herself, "I know for +sure now these are sweet uncles and I am going to have a sweet time +visiting my relations." + +[Illustration] + + + [Illustration] + + How the Five Rusty Rats Helped Find a + New Village + + +One day while Wing Tip the Spick was visiting her four uncles in the +Village of Liver-and-Onions, a blizzard came up. Snow filled the sky +and the wind blew and made a noise like heavy wagon axles grinding and +crying. + +And on this day a gray rat came to the house of the four uncles, a rat +with gray skin and gray hair, gray as the gray gravy on a beefsteak. +The rat had a basket. In the basket was a catfish. And the rat said, +"Please let me have a little fire and a little salt as I wish to make +a little bowl of hot catfish soup to keep me warm through the +blizzard." + +And the four uncles all said together, "This is no time for rats to be +around--and we would like to ask you where you got the catfish in the +basket." + +"Oh, oh, oh, please--in the name of the five rusty rats, the five +lucky rats of the Village of Cream Puffs, please don't," was the +exclamation of Wing Tip the Spick. + +The uncles stopped. They looked long and deep into the eyes of Wing +Tip the Spick and thought, as they had thought before, how her eyes +were clear light blue the same as cornflowers with blue raindrops +shining on the silver leaves in a summer sun shower. + +And the four uncles opened the door and let the gray rat come in with +the basket and the catfish. They showed the gray rat the way to the +kitchen and the fire and the salt. And they watched the rat and kept +him company while he fixed himself a catfish soup to keep him warm +traveling through the blizzard with the sky full of snow. + +After they opened the front door and let the rat out and said good-by, +they turned to Wing Tip the Spick and asked her to tell them about the +five rusty lucky rats of the Village of Cream Puffs where she lived +with her father and her mother and her folks. + +"When I was a little girl growing up, before I learned all I learned +since I got older, my grandfather gave me a birthday present because I +was nine years old. I remember how he said to me, 'You will never be +nine years old again after this birthday, so I give you this box for a +birthday present.' + +"In the box was a pair of red slippers with a gold clock on each +slipper. One of the clocks ran fast. The other clock ran slow. And he +told me if I wished to be early anywhere I should go by the clock that +ran fast. And if I wished to be late anywhere I should go by the clock +that ran slow. + +"And that same birthday he took me down through the middle of the +Village of Cream Puffs to the public square near the Roundhouse of the +Big Spool. There he pointed his finger at the statue of the five rusty +rats, the five lucky rats. And as near as I can remember his words, he +said: + +"'Many years ago, long before the snow birds began to wear funny +little slip-on hats and funny little slip-on shoes, and away back long +before the snow birds learned how to slip off their slip-on hats and +how to slip off their slip-on shoes, long ago in the faraway Village +of Liver-and-Onions, the people who ate cream puffs came together and +met in the streets and picked up their baggage and put their +belongings on their shoulders and marched out of the Village of +Liver-and-Onions saying, "We shall find a new place for a village and +the name of it shall be the Village of Cream Puffs. + +[Illustration: They held on to the long curved tails of the rusty rats] + +"'They marched out on the prairie with their baggage and belongings in +sacks on their shoulders. And a blizzard came up. Snow filled the sky. +The wind blew and blew and made a noise like heavy wagon axles +grinding and crying. + +"'The snow came on. The wind twisted all day and all night and all the +next day. The wind changed black and twisted and spit icicles in their +faces. They got lost in the blizzard. They expected to die and be +buried in the snow for the wolves to come and eat them. + +"'Then the five lucky rats came, the five rusty rats, rust on their +skin and hair, rust on their feet and noses, rust all over, and +especially, most especially of all, rust on their long curved tails. +They dug their noses down into the snow and their long curved tails +stuck up far above the snow where the people who were lost in the +blizzard could take hold of the tails like handles. + +"'And so, while the wind and the snow blew and the blizzard beat its +icicles in their faces, they held on to the long curved tails of the +rusty rats till they came to the place where the Village of Cream +Puffs now stands. It was the rusty rats who saved their lives and +showed them where to put their new village. That is why this statue +now stands in the public square, this statue of the shapes of the five +rusty rats, the five lucky rats with their noses down in the snow and +their long curved tails lifted high out of the snow.' + +"That is the story as my grandfather told it to me. And he said it +happened long ago, long before the snow birds began to wear slip-on +hats and slip-on shoes, long before they learned how to slip off the +slip-on hats and to slip off the slip-on shoes." + +"O-h-h-h," said one of the uncles. "Um-m-m-m," said the other three +uncles. + +"And sometime," added Wing Tip the Spick, "when you go away from the +Village of Liver-and-Onions and cross the Shampoo River and ride many +miles across the upland prairie till you come to the Village of Cream +Puffs, you will find a girl there who loves four uncles very much. + +"And if you ask her politely, she will show you the red slippers with +gold clocks on them, one clock to be early by, the other to be late +by. And if you are still more polite she will take you through the +middle of the town to the public square and show you the statue of the +five rusty lucky rats with their long curved tails sticking up in the +air like handles. And the tails are curved so long and so nice you +will feel like going up and taking hold of them to see what will +happen to you." + +[Illustration] + + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + + +2. Five Stories About the + Potato Face Blind Man + + _People_: The Potato Face Blind Man + Any Ice Today + Pick Ups + Lizzie Lazarus + Poker Face the Baboon + Hot Dog the Tiger + Whitson Whimble + A Man Shoveling Money + A Watermelon Moon + White Gold Boys + Blue Silver Girls + Big White Moon Spiders + Zizzies + Gimme the Ax Again + + + [Illustration] + + The Potato Face Blind Man Who Lost + the Diamond Rabbit on His Gold + Accordion + + +There was a Potato Face Blind Man used to play an accordion on the Main +Street corner nearest the postoffice in the Village of Liver-and-Onions. + +Any Ice Today came along and said, "It looks like it used to be an 18 +carat gold accordion with rich pawnshop diamonds in it; it looks like +it used to be a grand accordion once and not so grand now." + +"Oh, yes, oh, yes, it was gold all over on the outside," said the +Potato Face Blind Man, "and there was a diamond rabbit next to the +handles on each side, two diamond rabbits." + +"How do you mean diamond rabbits?" Any Ice Today asked. + +"Ears, legs, head, feet, ribs, tail, all fixed out in diamonds to make +a nice rabbit with his diamond chin on his diamond toenails. When I +play good pieces so people cry hearing my accordion music, then I put +my fingers over and feel of the rabbit's diamond chin on his diamond +toenails, 'Attaboy, li'l bunny, attaboy, li'l bunny.'" + +"Yes I hear you talking but it is like dream talking. I wonder why +your accordion looks like somebody stole it and took it to a pawnshop +and took it out and somebody stole it again and took it to a pawnshop +and took it out and somebody stole it again. And they kept on stealing +it and taking it out of the pawnshop and stealing it again till the +gold wore off so it looks like a used-to-be-yesterday." + +"Oh, yes, o-h, y-e-s, you are right. It is not like the accordion it +used to be. It knows more knowledge than it used to know just the same +as this Potato Face Blind Man knows more knowledge than he used to +know." + +"Tell me about it," said Any Ice Today. + +"It is simple. If a blind man plays an accordion on the street to make +people cry it makes them sad and when they are sad the gold goes away +off the accordion. And if a blind man goes to sleep because his music +is full of sleepy songs like the long wind in a sleepy valley, then +while the blind man is sleeping the diamonds in the diamond rabbit all +go away. I play a sleepy song and go to sleep and I wake up and the +diamond ear of the diamond rabbit is gone. I play another sleepy song +and go to sleep and wake up and the diamond tail of the diamond rabbit +is gone. After a while all the diamond rabbits are gone, even the +diamond chin sitting on the diamond toenails of the rabbits next to +the handles of the accordion, even those are gone." + +"Is there anything I can do?" asked Any Ice Today. + +"I do it myself," said the Potato Face Blind Man. "If I am too sorry I +just play the sleepy song of the long wind going up the sleepy +valleys. And that carries me away where I have time and money to dream +about the new wonderful accordions and postoffices where everybody +that gets a letter and everybody that don't get a letter stops and +remembers the Potato Face Blind Man." + +[Illustration] + + + [Illustration] + + How the Potato Face Blind Man Enjoyed + Himself on a Fine Spring Morning + + +On a Friday morning when the flummywisters were yodeling yisters high +in the elm trees, the Potato Face Blind Man came down to his work +sitting at the corner nearest the postoffice in the Village of +Liver-and-Onions and playing his gold-that-used-to-be accordion for +the pleasure of the ears of the people going into the postoffice to +see if they got any letters for themselves or their families. + +"It is a good day, a lucky day," said the Potato Face Blind Man, +"because for a beginning I have heard high in the elm trees the +flummywisters yodeling their yisters in the long branches of the +lingering leaves. So--so--I am going to listen to myself playing on my +accordion the same yisters, the same yodels, drawing them like long +glad breathings out of my glad accordion, long breathings of the +branches of the lingering leaves." + +And he sat down in his chair. On the sleeve of his coat he tied a +sign, "I Am Blind _Too_." On the top button of his coat he hung a +little thimble. On the bottom button of his coat he hung a tin copper +cup. On the middle button he hung a wooden mug. By the side of him on +the left side on the sidewalk he put a galvanized iron washtub, and on +the right side an aluminum dishpan. + +"It is a good day, a lucky day, and I am sure many people will stop +and remember the Potato Face Blind Man," he sang to himself like a +little song as he began running his fingers up and down the keys of +the accordion like the yisters of the lingering leaves in the elm +trees. + +[Illustration: "I am sure many people will stop and remember the +Potato Face Blind Man"] + +Then came Pick Ups. Always it happened Pick Ups asked questions and +wished to know. And so this is how the questions and answers ran when +the Potato Face filled the ears of Pick Ups with explanations. + +"What is the piece you are playing on the keys of your accordion so +fast sometimes, so slow sometimes, so sad some of the moments, so glad +some of the moments?" + +"It is the song the mama flummywisters sing when they button loose the +winter underwear of the baby flummywisters and sing: + + "Fly, you little flummies, + Sing, you little wisters." + +"And why do you have a little thimble on the top button of your coat?" + +"That is for the dimes to be put in. Some people see it and say, 'Oh, +I must put in a whole thimbleful of dimes.'" + +"And the tin copper cup?" + +"That is for the base ball players to stand off ten feet and throw in +nickels and pennies. The one who throws the most into the cup will be +the most lucky." + +"And the wooden mug?" + +"There is a hole in the bottom of it. The hole is as big as the +bottom. The nickel goes in and comes out again. It is for the very +poor people who wish to give me a nickel and yet get the nickel back." + +"The aluminum dishpan and the galvanized iron washtub--what are they +doing by the side of you on both sides on the sidewalk?" + +"Sometime maybe it will happen everybody who goes into the postoffice +and comes out will stop and pour out all their money, because they +might get afraid their money is no good any more. If such a happening +ever happens then it will be nice for the people to have some place to +pour their money. Such is the explanation why you see the aluminum +dishpan and galvanized iron tub." + +"Explain your sign--why is it, 'I Am Blind _Too_.'" + +"Oh, I am sorry to explain to you, Pick Ups, why this is so which. +Some of the people who pass by here going into the postoffice and +coming out, they have eyes--but they see nothing with their eyes. They +look where they are going and they get where they wish to get, but +they forget why they came and they do not know how to come away. They +are my blind brothers. It is for them I have the sign that reads, 'I +Am Blind _Too_.'" + +"I have my ears full of explanations and I thank you," said Pick Ups. + +"Good-by," said the Potato Face Blind Man as he began drawing long +breathings like lingering leaves out of the accordion--along with the +song the mama flummywisters sing when they button loose the winter +underwear of the baby flummywisters. + + + [Illustration] + + Poker Face the Baboon and Hot Dog + the Tiger + + +When the moon has a green rim with red meat inside and black seeds on +the red meat, then in the Rootabaga Country they call it a Watermelon +Moon and look for anything to happen. + +It was a night when a Watermelon Moon was shining. Lizzie Lazarus came +to the upstairs room of the Potato Face Blind Man. Poker Face the +Baboon and Hot Dog the Tiger were with her. She was leading them with +a pink string. + +"You see they are wearing pajamas," she said. "They sleep with you +to-night and to-morrow they go to work with you like mascots." + +"How like mascots?" asked the Potato Face Blind Man. + +"They are luck bringers. They keep your good luck if it is good. They +change your bad luck if it is bad." + +"I hear you and my ears get your explanations." + +So the next morning when the Potato Face Blind Man sat down to play +his accordion on the corner nearest the postoffice in the Village of +Liver-and-Onions, next to him on the right hand side sitting on the +sidewalk was Poker Face the Baboon and on the left hand side sitting +next to him was Hot Dog the Tiger. + +They looked like dummies--they were so quiet. They looked as if they +were made of wood and paper and then painted. In the eyes of Poker +Face was something faraway. In the eyes of Hot Dog was something +hungry. Whitson Whimble, the patent clothes wringer manufacturer, came +by in his big limousine automobile car without horses to pull it. He +was sitting back on the leather upholstered seat cushions. + +"Stop here," he commanded the chauffeur driving the car. + +Then Whitson Whimble sat looking. First he looked into the eyes of +Poker Face the Baboon and saw something faraway. Then he looked into +the eyes of Hot Dog the Tiger and saw something hungry. Then he read +the sign painted by the Potato Face Blind Man saying, "You look at 'em +and see 'em; I look at 'em and I don't. You watch what their eyes say; +I can only feel their hair." Then Whitson Whimble commanded the +chauffeur driving the car, "Go on." + +Fifteen minutes later a man in overalls came down Main Street with a +wheelbarrow. He stopped in front of the Potato Face Blind Man, Poker +Face the Baboon, and Hot Dog the Tiger. + +"Where is the aluminum dishpan?" he asked. + +"On my left side on the sidewalk," answered the Potato Face Blind Man. + +"Where is the galvanized iron washtub?" + +"On my right side on the sidewalk." + +Then the man in overalls took a shovel and began shoveling silver +dollars out of the wheelbarrow into the aluminum dishpan and the +galvanized iron washtub. He shoveled out of the wheelbarrow till the +dishpan was full, till the washtub was full. Then he put the shovel +into the wheelbarrow and went up Main Street. + +Six o'clock that night Pick Ups came along. The Potato Face Blind Man +said to him, "I have to carry home a heavy load of money to-night, an +aluminum dishpan full of silver dollars and a galvanized iron washtub +full of silver dollars. So I ask you, will you take care of Poker Face +the Baboon and Hot Dog the Tiger?" + +"Yes," said Pick Ups, "I will." And he did. He tied a pink string to +their legs and took them home and put them in the woodshed. + +Poker Face the Baboon went to sleep on the soft coal at the north end +of the woodshed and when he was asleep his face had something faraway +in it and he was so quiet he looked like a dummy with brown hair of +the jungle painted on his black skin and a black nose painted on his +brown face. Hot Dog the Tiger went to sleep on the hard coal at the +south end of the woodshed and when he was asleep his eyelashes had +something hungry in them and he looked like a painted dummy with black +stripes painted over his yellow belly and a black spot painted away at +the end of his long yellow tail. + +In the morning the woodshed was empty. Pick Ups told the Potato Face +Blind Man, "They left a note in their own handwriting on perfumed pink +paper. It said, '_Mascots never stay long_.'" + +And that is why for many years the Potato Face Blind Man had silver +dollars to spend--and that is why many people in the Rootabaga Country +keep their eyes open for a Watermelon Moon in the sky with a green rim +and red meat inside and black seeds making spots on the red meat. + +[Illustration] + + + [Illustration] + + The Toboggan-to-the-Moon Dream of the + Potato Face Blind Man + + +One morning in October the Potato Face Blind Man sat on the corner +nearest the postoffice. + +Any Ice Today came along and said, "This is the sad time of the year." + +"Sad?" asked the Potato Face Blind Man, changing his accordion from +his right knee to his left knee, and singing softly to the tune he was +fumbling on the accordion keys, "Be Happy in the Morning When the +Birds Bring the Beans." + +"Yes," said Any Ice Today, "is it not sad every year when the leaves +change from green to yellow, when the leaves dry on the branches and +fall into the air, and the wind blows them and they make a song +saying, 'Hush baby, hush baby,' and the wind fills the sky with them +and they are like a sky full of birds who forget they know any songs." + +"It is sad and not sad," was the blind man's word. + +"Listen," said the Potato Face. "For me this is the time of the year +when the dream of the white moon toboggan comes back. Five weeks +before the first snow flurry this dream always comes back to me. It +says, 'The black leaves are falling now and they fill the sky but five +weeks go by and then for every black leaf there will be a thousand +snow crystals shining white.'" + +"What was your dream of the white moon toboggan?" asked Any Ice Today. + +"It came to me first when I was a boy, when I had my eyes, before my +luck changed. I saw the big white spiders of the moon working, rushing +around climbing up, climbing down, snizzling and sniffering. I looked +a long while before I saw what the big white spiders on the moon were +doing. I saw after a while they were weaving a long toboggan, a white +toboggan, white and soft as snow. And after a long while of snizzling +and sniffering, climbing up and climbing down, at last the toboggan +was done, a snow white toboggan running from the moon down to the +Rootabaga Country. + +"And sliding, sliding down from the moon on this toboggan were the +White Gold Boys and the Blue Silver Girls. They tumbled down at my +feet because, you see, the toboggan ended right at my feet. I could +lean over and pick up the White Gold Boys and the Blue Silver Girls as +they slid out of the toboggan at my feet. I could pick up a whole +handful of them and hold them in my hand and talk with them. Yet, you +understand, whenever I tried to shut my hand and keep any of them they +would snizzle and sniffer and jump out of the cracks between my +fingers. Once there was a little gold and silver dust on my left hand +thumb, dust they snizzled out while slipping away from me. + +"Once I heard a White Gold Boy and a Blue Silver Girl whispering. They +were standing on the tip of my right hand little finger, whispering. +One said, 'I got pumpkins--what did you get?' The other said, 'I got +hazel nuts.' I listened more and I found out there are millions of +pumpkins and millions of hazel nuts so small you and I can not see +them. These children from the moon, however, they can see them and +whenever they slide down on the moon toboggan they take back their +pockets full of things so little we have never seen them." + +"They are wonderful children," said Any Ice Today. "And will you tell +me how they get back to the moon after they slide down the toboggan?" + +"Oh, that is easy," said Potato Face. "It is just as easy for them to +slide _up_ to the moon as to slide down. Sliding up and sliding down +is the same for them. The big white spiders fixed it that way when +they snizzled and sniffered and made the toboggan." + + + [Illustration] + + How Gimme the Ax Found Out About + the Zigzag Railroad and Who Made + It Zigzag + + +One day Gimme the Ax said to himself, "Today I go to the postoffice +and around, looking around. Maybe I will hear about something +happening last night when I was sleeping. Maybe a policeman began +laughing and fell in a cistern and came out with a wheelbarrow full of +goldfish wearing new jewelry. How do I know? Maybe the man in the moon +going down a cellar stairs to get a pitcher of butter-milk for the +woman in the moon to drink and stop crying, maybe he fell down the +stairs and broke the pitcher and laughed and picked up the broken +pieces and said to himself, 'One, two, three, four, accidents happen +in the best regulated families.' How do I know?" + +So with his mind full of simple and refreshing thoughts, Gimme the Ax +went out into the backyard garden and looked at the different necktie +poppies growing early in the summer. Then he picked one of the necktie +poppies to wear for a necktie scarf going downtown to the postoffice +and around looking around. + +"It is a good speculation to look nice around looking around in a +necktie scarf," said Gimme the Ax. "It is a necktie with a picture +like whiteface pony spots on a green frog swimming in the moonshine." + +So he went downtown. For the first time he saw the Potato Face Blind +Man playing an accordion on the corner next nearest the postoffice. He +asked the Potato Face to tell him why the railroad tracks run zigzag +in the Rootabaga Country. + +"Long ago," said the Potato Face Blind Man, "long before the necktie +poppies began growing in the backyard, long before there was a necktie +scarf like yours with whiteface pony spots on a green frog swimming in +the moonshine, back in the old days when they laid the rails for the +railroad they laid the rails straight." + +"Then the zizzies came. The zizzy is a bug. He runs zigzag on zigzag +legs, eats zigzag with zigzag teeth, and spits zigzag with a zigzag +tongue. + +"Millions of zizzies came hizzing with little hizzers on their heads +and under their legs. They jumped on the rails with their zigzag legs, +and spit and twisted with their zigzag teeth and tongues till they +twisted the whole railroad and all the rails and tracks into a zigzag +railroad with zigzag rails for the trains, the passenger trains and +the freight trains, all to run zigzag on. + +"Then the zizzies crept away into the fields where they sleep and +cover themselves with zigzag blankets on special zigzag beds. + +"Next day came shovelmen with their shovels, smooth engineers with +smooth blue prints, and water boys with water pails and water dippers +for the shovelmen to drink after shoveling the railroad straight. And +I nearly forgot to say the steam and hoist operating engineers came +and began their steam hoist and operating to make the railroad +straight. + +"They worked hard. They made the railroad straight again. They looked +at the job and said to themselves and to each other, 'This is it--we +done it.' + +"Next morning the zizzies opened their zigzag eyes and looked over to +the railroad and the rails. When they saw the railroad all straight +again, and the rails and the ties and the spikes all straight again, +the zizzies didn't even eat breakfast that morning. + +"They jumped out of their zigzag beds, jumped onto the rails with +their zigzag legs and spit and twisted till they spit and twisted all +the rails and the ties and the spikes back into a zigzag like the +letter Z and the letter Z at the end of the alphabet. + +"After that the zizzies went to breakfast. And they said to themselves +and to each other, the same as the shovelmen, the smooth engineers and +the steam hoist and operating engineers, 'This is it--we done it.'" + +"So that is the how of the which--it was the zizzies," said Gimme the +Ax. + +"Yes, it was the zizzies," said the Potato Face Blind Man. "That is +the story told to me." + +"Who told it to you?" + +"_Two little zizzies._ They came to me one cold winter night and slept +in my accordion where the music keeps it warm in winter. In the +morning I said, 'Good morning, zizzies, did you have a good sleep last +night and pleasant dreams?' And after they had breakfast they told me +the story. Both told it zigzag but it was the same kind of zigzag each +had together." + +[Illustration] + + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + + +3. Three Stories About the + Gold Buckskin Whincher + + _People_: Blixie Bimber + Peter Potato Blossom Wishes + Jimmie the Flea + Silas Baxby + Fritz Axenbax + James Sixbixdix + Jason Squiff, the Cistern Cleaner + Rags Habakuk, the Rag Man + Two Daughters of the Rag Man + Two Blue Rats + A Circus Man With Spot Cash + A Moving Picture Actor + A Taxicab Driver + + + [Illustration] + + The Story of Blixie Bimber and the Power + of the Gold Buckskin Whincher + + +Blixie Bimber grew up looking for luck. If she found a horseshoe she +took it home and put it on the wall of her room with a ribbon tied to +it. She would look at the moon through her fingers, under her arms, +over her right shoulder but never--never over her _left_ shoulder. She +listened and picked up everything anybody said about the ground hog +and whether the ground hog saw his shadow when he came out the second +of February. + +If she dreamed of onions she knew the next day she would find a silver +spoon. If she dreamed of fishes she knew the next day she would meet a +strange man who would call her by her first name. She grew up looking +for luck. + +She was sixteen years old and quite a girl, with her skirts down to +her shoe tops, when something happened. She was going to the +postoffice to see if there was a letter for her from Peter Potato +Blossom Wishes, her best chum, or a letter from Jimmy the Flea, her +best friend she kept steady company with. + +Jimmy the Flea was a climber. He climbed skyscrapers and flagpoles and +smokestacks and was a famous steeplejack. Blixie Bimber liked him +because he was a steeplejack, a little, but more because he was a +whistler. + +Every time Blixie said to Jimmy, "I got the blues--whistle the blues +out of me," Jimmy would just naturally whistle till the blues just +naturally went away from Blixie. + +On the way to the postoffice, Blixie found a gold buckskin _whincher_. +There it lay in the middle of the sidewalk. How and why it came to be +there she never knew and nobody ever told her. "It's luck," she said +to herself as she picked it up quick. + +And so--she took it home and fixed it on a little chain and wore it +around her neck. + +She did not know and nobody ever told her a gold buckskin whincher is +different from just a plain common whincher. It has a _power_. And if +a thing has a power over you then you just naturally can't help +yourself. + +So--around her neck fixed on a little chain Blixie Bimber wore the +gold buckskin whincher and never knew it had a power and all the time +the power was working. + +"The first man you meet with an X in his name you must fall head over +heels in love with him," said the silent power in the gold buckskin +whincher. + +And that was why Blixie Bimber stopped at the postoffice and went back +again asking the clerk at the postoffice window if he was sure there +wasn't a letter for her. The name of the clerk was Silas Baxby. For +six weeks he kept steady company with Blixie Bimber. They went to +dances, hayrack rides, picnics and high jinks together. + +All the time the power in the gold buckskin whincher was working. It +was hanging by a little chain around her neck and always working. It +was saying, "The next man you meet with two X's in his name you must +leave all and fall head over heels in love with him." + +She met the high school principal. His name was Fritz Axenbax. Blixie +dropped her eyes before him and threw smiles at him. And for six weeks +he kept steady company with Blixie Bimber. They went to dances, +hayrack rides, picnics and high jinks together. + +"Why do you go with him for steady company?" her relatives asked. + +"It's a power he's got," Blixie answered, "I just can't help it--it's +a power." + +"One of his feet is bigger than the other--how can you keep steady +company with him?" they asked again. + +All she would answer was, "It's a power." + +All the time, of course, the gold buckskin whincher on the little +chain around her neck was working. It was saying, "If she meets a man +with three X's in his name she must fall head over heels in love with +him." + +At a band concert in the public square one night she met James +Sixbixdix. There was no helping it. She dropped her eyes and threw her +smiles at him. And for six weeks they kept steady company going to +band concerts, dances, hayrack rides, picnics and high jinks together. + +"Why do you keep steady company with him? He's a musical soup eater," +her relatives said to her. And she answered, "It's a power--I can't +help myself." + +Leaning down with her head in a rain water cistern one day, listening +to the echoes against the strange wooden walls of the cistern, the +gold buckskin whincher on the little chain around her neck slipped off +and fell down into the rain water. + +"My luck is gone," said Blixie. Then she went into the house and made +two telephone calls. One was to James Sixbixdix telling him she +couldn't keep the date with him that night. The other was to Jimmy the +Flea, the climber, the steeplejack. + +"Come on over--I got the blues and I want you to whistle 'em away," +was what she telephoned Jimmy the Flea. + +And so--if you ever come across a gold buckskin whincher, be careful. +It's got a power. It'll make you fall head over heels in love with the +next man you meet with an X in his name. Or it will do other strange +things because different whinchers have different powers. + + + [Illustration] + + The Story of Jason Squiff and Why He + Had a Popcorn Hat, Popcorn Mittens + and Popcorn Shoes + + +Jason Squiff was a cistern cleaner. He had greenish yellowish hair. If +you looked down into a cistern when he was lifting buckets of slush +and mud you could tell where he was, you could pick him out down in +the dark cistern, by the lights of his greenish yellowish hair. + +Sometimes the buckets of slush and mud tipped over and ran down on the +top of his head. This covered his greenish yellowish hair. And then it +was hard to tell where he was and it was not easy to pick him out down +in the dark where he was cleaning the cistern. + +One day Jason Squiff came to the Bimber house and knocked on the door. + +"Did I understand," he said, speaking to Mrs. Bimber, Blixie Bimber's +mother, "do I understand you sent for me to clean the cistern in your +back yard?" + +"You understand exactly such," said Mrs. Bimber, "and you are welcome +as the flowers that bloom in the spring, tra-la-la." + +"Then I will go to work and clean the cistern, tra-la-la," he +answered, speaking to Mrs. Bimber. "I'm the guy, tra-la-la," he said +further, running his excellent fingers through his greenish yellowish +hair which was shining brightly. + +He began cleaning the cistern. Blixie Bimber came out in the back +yard. She looked down in the cistern. It was all dark. It looked like +nothing but all dark down there. By and by she saw something greenish +yellowish. She watched it. Soon she saw it was Jason Squiff's head and +hair. And then she knew the cistern was being cleaned and Jason Squiff +was on the job. So she sang tra-la-la and went back into the house and +told her mother Jason Squiff was on the job. + +The last bucketful of slush and mud came at last for Jason Squiff. He +squinted at the bottom. Something was shining. He reached his fingers +down through the slush and mud and took out what was shining. + +It was the gold buckskin whincher Blixie Bimber lost from the gold +chain around her neck the week before when she was looking down into +the cistern to see what she could see. It was exactly the same gold +buckskin whincher shining and glittering like a sign of happiness. + +"It's luck," said Jason Squiff, wiping his fingers on his greenish +yellowish hair. Then he put the gold buckskin whincher in his vest +pocket and spoke to himself again, "It's luck." + +A little after six o'clock that night Jason Squiff stepped into his +house and home and said hello to his wife and daughters. They all +began to laugh. Their laughter was a ticklish laughter. + +"Something funny is happening," he said. + +"And you are it," they all laughed at him again with ticklish +laughter. + +Then they showed him. His hat was popcorn, his mittens popcorn and his +shoes popcorn. He didn't know the gold buckskin whincher had a power +and was working all the time. He didn't know the whincher in his vest +pocket was saying, "You have a letter Q in your name and because you +have the pleasure and happiness of having a Q in your name you must +have a popcorn hat, popcorn mittens and popcorn shoes." + +The next morning he put on another hat, another pair of mittens and +another pair of shoes. And the minute he put them on they changed to +popcorn. + +So he tried on all his hats, mittens and shoes. Always they changed to +popcorn the minute he had them on. + +[Illustration: His hat was popcorn, his mittens popcorn and his +shoes popcorn] + +He went downtown to the stores. He bought a new hat, mittens and +shoes. And the minute he had them on they changed to popcorn. + +So he decided he would go to work and clean cisterns with his popcorn +hat, popcorn mittens and popcorn shoes on. + +The people of the Village of Cream Puffs enjoyed watching him walk up +the street, going to clean cisterns. People five and six blocks away +could see him coming and going with his popcorn hat, popcorn mittens +and popcorn shoes. + +When he was down in a cistern the children enjoyed looking down into +the cistern to see him work. When none of the slush and mud fell on +his hat and mittens he was easy to find. The light of the shining +popcorn lit up the whole inside of the cistern. + +Sometimes, of course, the white popcorn got full of black slush and +black mud. And then when Jason Squiff came up and walked home he was +not quite so dazzling to look at. + +It was a funny winter for Jason Squiff. + +"It's a crime, a dirty crime," he said to himself. "Now I can never be +alone with my thoughts. Everybody looks at me when I go up the +street." + +"If I meet a funeral even the pall bearers begin to laugh at my +popcorn hat. If I meet people going to a wedding they throw all the +rice at me as if I am a bride and a groom all together. + +"The horses try to eat my hat wherever I go. Three hats I have fed to +horses this winter. + +"And if I accidentally drop one of my mittens the chickens eat it." + +Then Jason Squiff began to change. He became proud. + +"I always wanted a white beautiful hat like this white popcorn hat," +he said to himself. "And I always wanted white beautiful mittens and +white beautiful shoes like these white popcorn mittens and shoes." + +When the boys yelled, "Snow man! yah-de-dah-de-dah, Snow man!" he just +waved his hand to them with an upward gesture of his arm to show he +was proud of how he looked. + +"They all watch for me," he said to himself, "I am distinquished--am I +not?" he asked himself. + +And he put his right hand into his left hand and shook hands with +himself and said, "You certainly look fixed up." + +One day he decided to throw away his vest. In the vest pocket was the +gold buckskin whincher, with the power working, the power saying, "You +have a letter Q in your name and because you have the pleasure and +happiness of having a Q in your name you must have a popcorn hat, +popcorn mittens and popcorn shoes." + +Yes, he threw away the vest. He forgot all about the gold buckskin +whincher being in the vest. + +He just handed the vest to a rag man. And the rag man put the vest +with the gold buckskin whincher in a bag on his back and walked away. + +After that Jason Squiff was like other people. His hats would never +change to popcorn nor his mittens to popcorn nor his shoes to popcorn. + +And when anybody looked at him down in a cistern cleaning the cistern +or when anybody saw him walking along the street they knew him by his +greenish yellowish hair which was always full of bright lights. + +And so--if you have a Q in your name, be careful if you ever come +across a gold buckskin whincher. Remember different whinchers have +different powers. + + + [Illustration] + + The Story of Rags Habakuk, the Two + Blue Rats, and the Circus Man Who + Came with Spot Cash Money + + +Rags Habakuk was going home. His day's work was done. The sun was +down. Street lamps began shining. Burglars were starting on their +night's work. It was no time for an honest ragman to be knocking on +people's back doors, saying, "Any rags?" or else saying, "Any rags? +any bottles? any bones?" or else saying "Any rags? any bottles? any +bones? any old iron? any copper, brass, old shoes all run down and no +good to anybody to-day? any old clothes, old coats, pants, vests? I +take any old clothes you got." + +Yes, Rags Habakuk was going home. In the gunnysack bag on his back, +humped up on top of the rag humps in the bag, was an old vest. It was +the same old vest Jason Squiff threw out of a door at Rags Habakuk. In +the pocket of the vest was the gold buckskin whincher with a power in +it. + +Well, Rags Habakuk got home just like always, sat down to supper and +smacked his mouth and had a big supper of fish, just like always. Then +he went out to a shanty in the back yard and opened up the gunnysack +rag bag and fixed things out classified just like every day when he +came home he opened the gunnysack bag and fixed things out classified. + +The last thing of all he fixed out classified was the vest with the +gold buckskin whincher in the pocket. "Put it on--it's a glad rag," he +said, looking at the vest. "It's a lucky vest." So he put his right +arm in the right armhole and his left arm in the left armhole. And +there he was with his arms in the armholes of the old vest all fixed +out classified new. + +Next morning Rags Habakuk kissed his wife g'by and his eighteen year +old girl g'by and his nineteen year old girl g'by. He kissed them just +like he always kissed them--in a hurry--and as he kissed each one he +said, "I will be back soon if not sooner and when I come back I will +return." + +Yes, up the street went Rags Habakuk. And soon as he left home +something happened. Standing on his right shoulder was a blue rat and +standing on his left shoulder was a blue rat. The only way he knew +they were there was by looking at them. + +There they were, close to his ears. He could feel the far edge of +their whiskers against his ears. + +"This never happened to me before all the time I been picking rags," +he said. "Two blue rats stand by my ears and never say anything even +if they know I am listening to anything they tell me." + +So Rags Habakuk walked on two blocks, three blocks, four blocks, +squinting with his right eye slanting at the blue rat on his right +shoulder and squinting with his left eye slanting at the blue rat on +his left shoulder. + +"If I stood on somebody's shoulder with my whiskers right up in +somebody's ear I would say something for somebody to listen to," he +muttered. + +Of course, he did not understand it was the gold buckskin whincher and +the power working. Down in the pocket of the vest he had on, the gold +buckskin whincher power was saying, "Because you have two K's in your +name you must have two blue rats on your shoulders, one blue rat for +your right ear, one blue rat for your left ear." + +It was good business. Never before did Rags Habakuk get so much old +rags. + +"Come again--you and your lucky blue rats," people said to him. They +dug into their cellars and garrets and brought him bottles and bones +and copper and brass and old shoes and old clothes, coats, pants, +vests. + +Every morning when he went up the street with the two blue rats on his +shoulders, blinking their eyes straight ahead and chewing their +whiskers so they sometimes tickled the ears of old Rags Habakuk, +sometimes women came running out on the front porch to look at him and +say, "Well, if he isn't a queer old mysterious ragman and if those +ain't queer old mysterious blue rats!" + +All the time the gold buckskin whincher and the power was working. It +was saying, "So long as old Rags Habakuk keeps the two blue rats he +shall have good luck--but if he ever sells one of the blue rats then +one of his daughters shall marry a taxicab driver--and if he ever +sells the other blue rat then his other daughter shall marry a +moving-picture hero actor." + +Then terrible things happened. A circus man came. "I give you one +thousand dollars spot cash money for one of the blue rats," he +expostulated with his mouth. "And I give you two thousand dollars spot +cash money for the two of the blue rats both of them together." + +"Show me how much spot cash money two thousand dollars is all counted +out in one pile for one man to carry away home in his gunnysack rag +bag," was the answer of Rags Habakuk. + +The circus man went to the bank and came back with spot cash +greenbacks money. + +"This spot cash greenbacks money is made from the finest silk rags +printed by the national government for the national republic to make +business rich and prosperous," said the circus man, expostulating with +his mouth. + +"T-h-e f-i-n-e-s-t s-i-l-k r-a-g-s," he expostulated again holding two +fingers under the nose of Rags Habakuk. + +"I take it," said Rags Habakuk, "I take it. It is a whole gunnysack +bag full of spot cash greenbacks money. I tell my wife it is printed +by the national government for the national republic to make business +rich and prosperous." + +Then he kissed the blue rats, one on the right ear, the other on the +left ear, and handed them over to the circus man. + +And that was why the next month his eighteen year old daughter married +a taxicab driver who was so polite all the time to his customers that +he never had time to be polite to his wife. + +And that was why his nineteen year old daughter married a moving-picture +hero actor who worked so hard being nice and kind in the moving pictures +that he never had enough left over for his wife when he got home after +the day's work. + +And the lucky vest with the gold buckskin whincher was stolen from +Rags Habakuk by the taxicab driver. + +[Illustration] + + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + + +4. Four Stories About the Deep + Doom of Dark Doorways + + _People_: The Rag Doll + The Broom Handle + Spoon Lickers + Chocolate Chins + Dirty Bibs + Tin Pan Bangers + Clean Ears + Easy Ticklers + Musical Soup Eaters + Chubby Chubs + Sleepy Heads + + Snoo Foo + Blink, Swink and Jink + Blunk, Swunk and Junk + Missus Sniggers + + Eeta Peeca Pie + Meeny Miney + Miney Mo + A Potato Bug Millionaire + + Bimbo the Snip + Bevo the Hike + A Ward Alderman + A Barn Boss + A Weather Man + A Traffic Policeman + A Monkey + A Widow Woman + An Umbrella Handle Maker + + + [Illustration] + + The Wedding Procession of the Rag Doll + and the Broom Handle and Who Was in It + + +The Rag Doll had many friends. The Whisk Broom, the Furnace Shovel, +the Coffee Pot, they all liked the Rag Doll very much. + +But when the Rag Doll married, it was the Broom Handle she picked +because the Broom Handle fixed her eyes. + +A proud child, proud but careless, banged the head of the Rag Doll +against a door one day and knocked off both the glass eyes sewed on +long ago. It was then the Broom Handle found two black California +prunes, and fastened the two California prunes just where the eyes +belonged. So then the Rag Doll had two fine black eyes brand new. She +was even nicknamed Black Eyes by some people. + +There was a wedding when the Rag Doll married the Broom Handle. It was +a grand wedding with one of the grandest processions ever seen at a +rag doll wedding. And we are sure no broom handle ever had a grander +wedding procession when he got married. + +Who marched in the procession? Well, first came the Spoon Lickers. +Every one of them had a tea spoon, or a soup spoon, though most of +them had a big table spoon. On the spoons, what did they have? Oh, +some had butter scotch, some had gravy, some had marshmallow fudge. +Every one had something slickery sweet or fat to eat on the spoon. And +as they marched in the wedding procession of the Rag Doll and the +Broom Handle, they licked their spoons and looked around and licked +their spoons again. + +Next came the Tin Pan Bangers. Some had dishpans, some had frying +pans, some had potato peeling pans. All the pans were tin with tight +tin bottoms. And the Tin Pan Bangers banged with knives and forks and +iron and wooden bangers on the bottoms of the tin pans. And as they +marched in the wedding procession of the Rag Doll and the Broom Handle +they banged their pans and looked around and banged again. + +Then came the Chocolate Chins. They were all eating chocolates. And +the chocolate was slippery and slickered all over their chins. Some of +them spattered the ends of their noses with black chocolate. Some of +them spread the brown chocolate nearly up to their ears. And then as +they marched in the wedding procession of the Rag Doll and the Broom +Handle they stuck their chins in the air and looked around and stuck +their chins in the air again. + +Then came the Dirty Bibs. They wore plain white bibs, checker bibs, +stripe bibs, blue bibs and bibs with butterflies. But all the bibs +were dirty. The plain white bibs were dirty, the checker bibs were +dirty, the stripe bibs, the blue bibs and the bibs with butterflies on +them, they were all dirty. And so in the wedding procession of the Rag +Doll and the Broom Handle, the Dirty Bibs marched with their dirty +fingers on the bibs and they looked around and laughed and looked +around and laughed again. + +Next came the Clean Ears. They were proud. How they got into the +procession nobody knows. Their ears were all clean. They were clean +not only on the outside but they were clean on the inside. There was +not a speck of dirt or dust or muss or mess on the inside nor the +outside of their ears. And so in the wedding procession of the Rag +Doll and the Broom Handle, they wiggled their ears and looked around +and wiggled their ears again. + +The Easy Ticklers were next in the procession. Their faces were +shining. Their cheeks were like bars of new soap. Their ribs were +strong and the meat and the fat was thick on their ribs. It was plain +to see they were saying, "Don't tickle me because I tickle so easy." +And as they marched in the wedding procession of the Rag Doll and the +Broom Handle, they tickled themselves and laughed and looked around +and tickled themselves again. + +The music was furnished mostly by the Musical Soup Eaters. They +marched with big bowls of soup in front of them and big spoons for +eating the soup. They whistled and chuzzled and snozzled the soup and +the noise they made could be heard far up at the head of the +procession where the Spoon Lickers were marching. So they dipped their +soup and looked around and dipped their soup again. + +The Chubby Chubs were next. They were roly poly, round faced smackers +and snoozers. They were not fat babies--oh no, oh no--not fat but just +chubby and easy to squeeze. They marched on their chubby legs and +chubby feet and chubbed their chubbs and looked around and chubbed +their chubbs again. + +The last of all in the wedding procession of the Rag Doll and the +Broom Handle were the Sleepyheads. They were smiling and glad to be +marching but their heads were slimpsing down and their smiles were +half fading away and their eyes were half shut or a little more than +half shut. They staggered just a little as though their feet were not +sure where they were going. They were the Sleepyheads, the last of +all, in the wedding procession of the Rag Doll and the Broom Handle +and the Sleepyheads they never looked around at all. + +It _was_ a grand procession, don't you think so? + +[Illustration] + + + [Illustration] + + How the Hat Ashes Shovel Helped Snoo + Foo + + +If you want to remember the names of all six of the Sniggers children, +remember that the three biggest were named Blink, Swink and Jink but +the three littlest ones were named Blunk, Swunk and Junk. One day last +January the three biggest had a fuss with the three littlest. The fuss +was about a new hat for Snoo Foo, the snow man, about what kind of a +hat he should wear and how he should wear it. Blink, Swink and Jink +said, "He wants a crooked hat put on straight." Blunk, Swunk and Junk +said, "He wants a straight hat put on crooked." They fussed and +fussed. Blink fussed with Blunk, Swink fussed with Swunk, and Jink +fussed with Junk. The first ones to make up after the fuss were Jink +and Junk. They decided the best way to settle the fuss. "Let's put a +crooked hat on crooked," said Jink. "No, let's put a straight hat on +straight," said Junk. Then they stood looking and looking into each +other's shiny laughing eyes and then both of them exploded to each +other at the same time, "Let's put on two hats, a crooked hat crooked +and a straight hat straight." + +Well, they looked around for hats. But there were not any hats +anywhere, that is, no hats big enough for a snow man with a big head +like Snoo Foo. So they went in the house and asked their mother for +_the hat ashes shovel_. Of course, in most any other house, the mother +would be all worried if six children came tramping and clomping in, +banging the door and all six ejaculating to their mother at once, +"Where is the hat ashes shovel?" But Missus Sniggers wasn't worried at +all. She rubbed her chin with her finger and said softly, "Oh lah de +dah, oh lah de dah, where is that hat ashes shovel, last week I had it +when I was making a hat for Mister Sniggers; I remember I had that hat +ashes shovel right up here over the clock, oh lah de dah, oh lah de +dah. Go out and ring the front door bell," she said to Jink Sniggers. +Jink ran away to the front door. And Missus Sniggers and the five +children waited. Bling-bling the bell began ringing and--listen--the +door of the clock opened and the hat ashes shovel fell out. "Oh lah de +dah, get out of here in a hurry," said Missus Sniggers. + +Well, the children ran out and dug a big pail of hat ashes with the +hat ashes shovel. And they made two hats for Snoo Foo. One was a +crooked hat. The other was a straight hat. And they put the crooked +hat on crooked and the straight hat on straight. And there stood Snoo +Foo in the front yard and everybody who came by on the street, he +would take off his hat to them, the crooked hat with his arm crooked +and the straight hat with his arm straight. That was the end of the +fuss between the Sniggers children and it was Jink, the littlest one +of the biggest, and Junk, the littlest one of the littlest, who +settled the fuss by looking clean into each other's eyes and laughing. +If you ever get into a fuss try this way of settling it. + + + [Illustration] + + Three Boys With Jugs of Molasses and + Secret Ambitions + + +In the Village of Liver-and-Onions, if _one_ boy goes to the grocery +for a jug of molasses it is just like always. And if _two_ boys go to +the grocery for a jug of molasses together it is just like always. But +if _three_ boys go to the grocery for a jug of molasses each and all +together then it is not like always at all, at all. + +Eeta Peeca Pie grew up with wishes and wishes working inside him. And +for every wish inside him he had a freckle outside on his face. +Whenever he smiled the smile ran way back into the far side of his +face and got lost in the wishing freckles. + +Meeny Miney grew up with suspicions and suspicions working inside him. +And after a while some of the suspicions got fastened on his eyes and +some of the suspicions got fastened on his mouth. So when he looked at +other people straight in the face they used to say, "Meeny Miney looks +so sad-like I wonder if he'll get by." + +Miney Mo was different. He wasn't sad-like and suspicious like Meeny +Miney. Nor was he full of wishes inside and freckles outside like Eeta +Peeca Pie. He was all mixed up inside with wishes and suspicions. So +he had a few freckles and a few suspicions on his face. When he looked +other people straight in the face they used to say, "I don't know +whether to laugh or cry." + +So here we have 'em, three boys growing up with wishes, suspicions and +mixed-up wishes and suspicions. They all looked different from each +other. Each one, however, had a secret ambition. And all three had the +same secret ambition. + +An ambition is a little creeper that creeps and creeps in your heart +night and day, singing a little song, "Come and find me, come and find +me." + +The secret ambition in the heart of Eeta Peeca Pie, Meeney Miney, and +Miney Mo was an ambition to go railroading, to ride on railroad cars +night and day, year after year. The whistles and the wheels of +railroad trains were music to them. + +Whenever the secret ambition crept in their hearts and made them too +sad, so sad it was hard to live and stand for it, they would all three +put their hands on each other's shoulder and sing the song of Joe. The +chorus was like this: + + Joe, Joe, broke his toe, + On the way to Mexico. + Came back, broke his back, + Sliding on the railroad track. + +One fine summer morning all three mothers of all three boys gave each +one a jug and said, "Go to the grocery and get a jug of molasses." All +three got to the grocery at the same time. And all three went out of +the door of the grocery together, each with a jug of molasses together +and each with his secret ambition creeping around in his heart, all +three together. + +Two blocks from the grocery they stopped under a slippery elm tree. +Eeta Peeca Pie was stretching his neck looking straight up into the +slippery elm tree. He said it was always good for his freckles and it +helped his wishes to stand under a slippery elm and look up. + +While he was looking up his left hand let go the jug handle of the jug +of molasses. And the jug went ka-flump, ka-flumpety-flump down on the +stone sidewalk, cracked to pieces and let the molasses go running out +over the sidewalk. + +If you have never seen it, let me tell you molasses running out of a +broken jug, over a stone sidewalk under a slippery elm tree, looks +peculiar and mysterious. + +[Illustration: They stepped into the molasses with their bare feet] + +Eeta Peeca Pie stepped into the molasses with his bare feet. "It's a +lotta fun," he said. "It tickles all over." So Meeney Miney and Miney +Mo both stepped into the molasses with their bare feet. + +Then what happened just happened. One got littler. Another got +littler. All three got littler. + +"You look to me only big as a potato bug," said Eeta Peeca Pie to +Meeney Miney and Miney Mo. "It's the same like you look to us," said +Meeney Miney and Miney Mo to Eeta Peeca Pie. And then because their +secret ambition began to hurt them they all stood with hands on each +other's shoulders and sang the Mexico Joe song. + +Off the sidewalk they strolled, across a field of grass. They passed +many houses of spiders and ants. In front of one house they saw Mrs. +Spider over a tub washing clothes for Mr. Spider. + +"Why do you wear that frying pan on your head?" they asked her. + +"In this country all ladies wear the frying pan on their head when +they want a hat." + +"But what if you want a hat when you are frying with the frying pan?" +asked Eeta Peeca Pie. + +"That never happens to any respectable lady in this country." + +"Don't you never have no new style hats?" asked Meeney Miney. + +"No, but we always have new style frying pans every spring and fall." + +Hidden in the roots of a pink grass clump, they came to a city of +twisted-nose spiders. On the main street was a store with a show +window full of pink parasols. They walked in and said to the clerk, +"We want to buy parasols." + +"We don't sell parasols here," said the spider clerk. + +"Well, lend us a parasol apiece," said all three. + +"Gladly, most gladly," said the clerk. + +"How do you do it?" asked Eeta. + +"I don't have to," answered the spider clerk. + +"How did it begin?" + +"It never was otherwise." + +"Don't you never get tired?" + +"Every parasol is a joy." + +"What do you do when the parasols are gone?" + +"They always come back. These are the famous twisted-nose parasols made +from the famous pink grass. You will lose them all, all three. Then +they will all walk back to me here in this store on main street. I can +not sell you something I know you will surely lose. Neither can I ask +you to pay, for something you will forget, somewhere sometime, and when +you forget it, it will walk back here to me again. Look--look!" + +As he said "Look," the door opened and five pink parasols came +waltzing in and waltzed up into the show window. + +"They always come back. Everybody forgets. Take your parasols and go. +You will forget them and they will come back to me." + +"He looks like he had wishes inside him," said Eeta Peeca Pie. + +"He looks like he had suspicions," said Meeney Miney. + +"He looks like he was all mixed up wishes and suspicions," said Miney +Mo. + +And once more because they all felt lonesome and their secret +ambitions were creeping and eating, they put their hands on their +shoulders and sang the Mexico Joe song. + +Then came happiness. They entered the Potato Bug Country. And they had +luck first of all the first hour they were in the Potato Bug Country. +They met a Potato Bug millionaire. + +"How are you a millionaire?" they asked him. + +"Because I got a million," he answered. + +"A million what?" + +"A million _fleems_." + +"Who wants fleems?" + +"You want fleems if you're going to live here." + +"Why so?" + +"Because fleems is our money. In the Potato Bug Country, if you got no +fleems you can't buy nothing nor anything. But if you got a million +fleems you're a Potato Bug millionaire." + +Then he surprised them. + +"I like you because you got wishes and freckles," he said to Eeta +Peeca Pie, filling the pockets of Eeta with fleems. + +"And I like you because you got suspicions and you're sad-like," he +said to Meeney Miney filling Meeney Miney's pockets full of fleems. + +"And I like you because you got some wishes and some suspicions and +you look mixed up," he said to Miney Mo, sticking handfuls and +handfuls of fleems into the pockets of Miney Mo. + +Wishes do come true. And suspicions do come true. Here they had been +wishing all their lives, and had suspicions of what was going to +happen, and now it all came true. + +With their pockets filled with fleems they rode on all the railroad +trains of the Potato Bug Country. They went to the railroad stations +and bought tickets for the fast trains and the slow trains and even +the trains that back up and run backward instead of where they start +to go. + +On the dining cars of the railroads of the Potato Bug Country they ate +wonder ham from the famous Potato Bug Pigs, eggs from the Potato Bug +Hens, et cetera. + +It seemed to them they stayed a long while in the Potato Bug Country, +years and years. Yes, the time came when all their fleems were gone. +Then whenever they wanted a railroad ride or something to eat or a +place to sleep, they put their hands on each other's shoulders and +sang the Mexico Joe song. In the Potato Bug Country they all said the +Mexico Joe song was wonderful. + +One morning while they were waiting to take an express train on the +Early Ohio & Southwestern they sat near the roots of a big potato +plant under the big green leaves. And far above them they saw a dim +black cloud and they heard a shaking and a rustling and a spattering. +They did not know it was a man of the Village of Liver-and-Onions. +They did not know it was Mr. Sniggers putting paris green on the +potato plants. + +A big drop of paris green spattered down and fell onto the heads and +shoulders of all three, Eeta Peeca Pie, Meeny Miney and Miney Mo. + +Then what happened just happened. They got bigger and bigger--one, +two, three. And when they jumped up and ran out of the potato rows, +Mr. Sniggers thought they were boys playing tricks. + +When they got home to their mothers and told all about the jug of +molasses breaking on the stone sidewalk under the slippery elm tree, +their mothers said it was careless. The boys said it was lucky because +it helped them get their secret ambitions. + +And a secret ambition is a little creeper that creeps and creeps in +your heart night and day, singing a little song, "Come and find me, +come and find me." + +[Illustration] + + + [Illustration] + + How Bimbo the Snip's Thumb Stuck to + His Nose When the Wind Changed + + +Once there was a boy in the Village of Liver-and-Onions whose name was +Bimbo the Snip. He forgot nearly everything his father and mother told +him to do and told him not to do. + +One day his father, Bevo the Hike, came home and found Bimbo the Snip +sitting on the front steps with his thumb fastened to his nose and the +fingers wiggling. + +"I can't take my thumb away," said Bimbo the Snip, "because when I put +my thumb to my nose and wiggled my fingers at the iceman the wind +changed. And just like mother always said, if the wind changed the +thumb would stay fastened to my nose and not come off." + +Bevo the Hike took hold of the thumb and pulled. He tied a clothes +line rope around it and pulled. He pushed with his foot and heel +against it. And all the time the thumb stuck fast and the fingers +wiggled from the end of the nose of Bimbo the Snip. + +Bevo the Hike sent for the ward alderman. The ward alderman sent for +the barn boss of the street cleaning department. The barn boss of the +street cleaning department sent for the head vaccinator of the +vaccination bureau of the health department. The head vaccinator of +the vaccination bureau of the health department sent for the big main +fixer of the weather bureau where they understand the tricks of the +wind and the wind changing. + +And the big main fixer of the weather bureau said, "If you hit the +thumb six times with the end of a traffic policeman's club, the thumb +will come loose." + +So Bevo the Hike went to a traffic policeman standing on a street +corner with a whistle telling the wagons and cars which way to go. + +He told the traffic policeman, "The wind changed and Bimbo the Snip's +thumb is fastened to his nose and will not come loose till it is hit +six times with the end of a traffic policeman's club." + +"I can't help you unless you find a monkey to take my place standing +on the corner telling the wagons and cars which way to go," answered +the traffic policeman. + +So Bevo the Hike went to the zoo and said to a monkey, "The wind +changed and Bimbo the Snip's thumb is fastened to his nose and will +not come loose till it is hit with the end of a traffic policeman's +club six times and the traffic policeman cannot leave his place on the +street corner telling the traffic which way to go unless a monkey +comes and takes his place." + +The monkey answered, "Get me a ladder with a whistle so I can climb up +and whistle and tell the traffic which way to go." + +So Bevo the Hike hunted and hunted over the city and looked and looked +and asked and asked till his feet and his eyes and his head and his +heart were tired from top to bottom. + +Then he met an old widow woman whose husband had been killed in a +sewer explosion when he was digging sewer ditches. And the old woman +was carrying a bundle of picked-up kindling wood in a bag on her back +because she did not have money enough to buy coal. + +Bevo the Hike told her, "You have troubles. So have I. You are +carrying a load on your back people can see. I am carrying a load and +nobody sees it." + +"Tell me your troubles," said the old widow woman. He told her. And +she said, "In the next block is an old umbrella handle maker. He has a +ladder with a whistle. He climbs on the ladder when he makes long long +umbrella handles. And he has the whistle on the ladder to be +whistling." + +Bevo the Hike went to the next block, found the house of the umbrella +handle maker and said to him, "The wind changed and Bimbo the Snip's +thumb is fastened to his nose and will not come loose till it is hit +with the end of a traffic policeman's club six times and the traffic +policeman cannot leave the corner where he is telling the traffic +which way to go unless a monkey takes his place and the monkey cannot +take his place unless he has a ladder with a whistle to stand on and +whistle the wagons and cars which way to go." + +Then the umbrella handle maker said, "To-night I have a special job +because I must work on a long, long umbrella handle and I will need +the ladder to climb up and the whistle to be whistling. But if you +promise to have the ladder back by to-night you can take it." + +Bevo the Hike promised. Then he took the ladder with a whistle to the +monkey, the monkey took the place of the traffic policeman while the +traffic policeman went to the home of Bevo the Hike where Bimbo the +Snip was sitting on the front steps with his thumb fastened to his +nose wiggling his fingers at everybody passing by on the street. + +The traffic policeman hit Bimbo the Snip's thumb five times with the +club. And the thumb stuck fast. But the sixth time it was hit with the +end of the traffic policeman's thumb club, it came loose. + +Then Bevo thanked the policeman, thanked the monkey, and took the +ladder with the whistle back to the umbrella handle maker's house and +thanked him. + +When Bevo the Hike got home that night Bimbo the Snip was in bed and +all tickled. He said to his father, "I will be careful how I stick my +thumb to my nose and wiggle my fingers the next time the wind +changes." + +[Illustration: The monkey took the place of the traffic policeman] + + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + + +5. Three Stories About Three + Ways the Wind Went Winding + + _People_: Two Skyscrapers + The Northwest Wind + The Golden Spike Limited Train + A Tin Brass Goat + A Tin Brass Goose + Newsies + + Young Leather + Red Slippers + A Man to be Hanged + Five Jackrabbits + + The Wooden Indian + The Shaghorn Buffalo + The Night Policeman + + + [Illustration] + + The Two Skyscrapers Who Decided to + Have a Child + + +Two skyscrapers stood across the street from each other in the Village +of Liver-and-Onions. In the daylight when the streets poured full of +people buying and selling, these two skyscrapers talked with each +other the same as mountains talk. + +In the night time when all the people buying and selling were gone +home and there were only policemen and taxicab drivers on the streets, +in the night when a mist crept up the streets and threw a purple and +gray wrapper over everything, in the night when the stars and the sky +shook out sheets of purple and gray mist down over the town, then the +two skyscrapers leaned toward each other and whispered. + +Whether they whispered secrets to each other or whether they whispered +simple things that you and I know and everybody knows, that is their +secret. One thing is sure: they often were seen leaning toward each +other and whispering in the night the same as mountains lean and +whisper in the night. + +High on the roof of one of the skyscrapers was a tin brass goat +looking out across prairies, and silver blue lakes shining like blue +porcelain breakfast plates, and out across silver snakes of winding +rivers in the morning sun. And high on the roof of the other +skyscraper was a tin brass goose looking out across prairies, and +silver blue lakes shining like blue porcelain breakfast plates, and +out across silver snakes of winding rivers in the morning sun. + +Now the Northwest Wind was a friend of the two skyscrapers. Coming so +far, coming five hundred miles in a few hours, coming so fast always +while the skyscrapers were standing still, standing always on the same +old street corners always, the Northwest Wind was a bringer of news. + +"Well, I see the city is here yet," the Northwest Wind would whistle +to the skyscrapers. + +And they would answer, "Yes, and are the mountains standing yet way +out yonder where you come from, Wind?" + +"Yes, the mountains are there yonder, and farther yonder is the sea, +and the railroads are still going, still running across the prairie to +the mountains, to the sea," the Northwest Wind would answer. + +And now there was a pledge made by the Northwest Wind to the two +skyscrapers. Often the Northwest Wind shook the tin brass goat and +shook the tin brass goose on top of the skyscrapers. + +"Are you going to blow loose the tin brass goat on my roof?" one +asked. + +"Are you going to blow loose the tin brass goose on my roof?" the +other asked. + +"Oh, no," the Northwest Wind laughed, first to one and then to the +other, "if I ever blow loose your tin brass goat and if I ever blow +loose your tin brass goose, it will be when I am sorry for you because +you are up against hard luck and there is somebody's funeral." + +So time passed on and the two skyscrapers stood with their feet among +the policemen and the taxicabs, the people buying and selling,--the +customers with parcels, packages and bundles--while away high on their +roofs stood the goat and the goose looking out on silver blue lakes +like blue porcelain breakfast plates and silver snakes of rivers +winding in the morning sun. + +So time passed on and the Northwest Wind kept coming, telling the news +and making promises. + +So time passed on. And the two skyscrapers decided to have a child. + +And they decided when their child came it should be a _free_ child. + +"It must be a free child," they said to each other. "It must not be a +child standing still all its life on a street corner. Yes, if we have +a child she must be free to run across the prairie, to the mountains, +to the sea. Yes, it must be a free child." + +So time passed on. Their child came. It was a railroad train, the +Golden Spike Limited, the fastest long distance train in the Rootabaga +Country. It ran across the prairie, to the mountains, to the sea. + +They were glad, the two skyscrapers were, glad to have a free child +running away from the big city, far away to the mountains, far away to +the sea, running as far as the farthest mountains and sea coasts +touched by the Northwest Wind. + +They were glad their child was useful, the two skyscrapers were, glad +their child was carrying a thousand people a thousand miles a day, so +when people spoke of the Golden Spike Limited, they spoke of it as a +strong, lovely child. + +Then time passed on. There came a day when the newsies yelled as +though they were crazy. "Yah yah, blah blah, yoh yoh," was what it +sounded like to the two skyscrapers who never bothered much about what +the newsies were yelling. + +"Yah yah, blah blah, yoh yoh," was the cry of the newsies that came up +again to the tops of the skyscrapers. + +At last the yelling of the newsies came so strong the skyscrapers +listened and heard the newsies yammering, "All about the great train +wreck! All about the Golden Spike disaster! Many lives lost! Many +lives lost!" + +And the Northwest Wind came howling a slow sad song. And late that +afternoon a crowd of policemen, taxicab drivers, newsies and customers +with bundles, all stood around talking and wondering about two things +next to each other on the street car track in the middle of the +street. One was a tin brass goat. The other was a tin brass goose. And +they lay next to each other. + + + [Illustration] + + The Dollar Watch and the Five Jack + Rabbits + + +Long ago, long before the waylacks lost the wonderful stripes of oat +straw gold and the spots of timothy hay green in their marvelous +curving tail feathers, long before the doo-doo-jangers whistled among +the honeysuckle blossoms and the bitter-basters cried their last and +dying wrangling cries, long before the sad happenings that came later, +it was then, some years earlier than the year Fifty Fifty, that Young +Leather and Red Slippers crossed the Rootabaga Country. + +To begin with, they were walking across the Rootabaga Country. And +they were walking because it made their feet glad to feel the dirt of +the earth under their shoes and they were close to the smells of the +earth. They learned the ways of birds and bugs, why birds have wings, +why bugs have legs, why the gladdywhingers have spotted eggs in a +basket nest in a booblow tree, and why the chizzywhizzies scrape off +little fiddle songs all summer long while the summer nights last. + +Early one morning they were walking across the corn belt of the +Rootabaga Country singing, "Deep Down Among the Dagger Dancers." They +had just had a breakfast of coffee and hot hankypank cakes covered +with cow's butter. Young Leather said to Red Slippers, "What is the +best secret we have come across this summer?" + +"That is easy to answer," Red Slippers said with a long flish of her +long black eyelashes. "The best secret we have come across is a rope +of gold hanging from every star in the sky and when we want to go up +we go up." + +Walking on they came to a town where they met a man with a sorry face. +"Why?" they asked him. And he answered, "My brother is in jail." + +"What for?" they asked him again. And he answered again, "My brother +put on a straw hat in the middle of the winter and went out on the +streets laughing; my brother had his hair cut pompompadour and went +out on the streets bareheaded in the summertime laughing; and these +things were against the law. Worst of all he sneezed at the wrong time +and he sneezed before the wrong persons; he sneezed when it was not +wise to sneeze. So he will be hanged to-morrow morning. The gallows +made of lumber and the rope made of hemp--they are waiting for him +to-morrow morning. They will tie around his neck the hangman's necktie +and hoist him high." + +The man with a sorry face looked more sorry than ever. It made Young +Leather feel reckless and it made Red Slippers feel reckless. They +whispered to each other. Then Young Leather said, "Take this dollar +watch. Give it to your brother. Tell him when they are leading him to +the gallows he must take this dollar watch in his hand, wind it up and +push on the stem winder. The rest will be easy." + +So the next morning when they were leading the man to be hanged to the +gallows made of lumber and the rope made of hemp, where they were +going to hoist him high because he sneezed in the wrong place before +the wrong people, he used his fingers winding up the watch and pushing +on the stem winder. There was a snapping and a slatching like a gas +engine slipping into a big pair of dragon fly wings. The dollar watch +changed into a dragon fly ship. The man who was going to be hanged +jumped into the dragon fly ship and flew whonging away before anybody +could stop him. + +Young Leather and Red Slippers were walking out of the town laughing +and singing again, "Deep Down Among the Dagger Dancers." The man with +a sorry face, not so sorry now any more, came running after them. +Behind the man and running after him were five long-legged spider +jack-rabbits. + +"These are for you," was his exclamation. And they all sat down on the +stump of a booblow tree. He opened his sorry face and told the secrets +of the five long-legged spider jack-rabbits to Young Leather and Red +Slippers. They waved good-by and went on up the road leading the five +new jack-rabbits. + +In the next town they came to was a skyscraper higher than all the +other skyscrapers. A rich man dying wanted to be remembered and left +in his last will and testament a command they should build a building +so high it would scrape the thunder clouds and stand higher than all +other skyscrapers with his name carved in stone letters on the top of +it, and an electric sign at night with his name on it, and a clock on +the tower with his name on it. + +"I am hungry to be remembered and have my name spoken by many people +after I am dead," the rich man told his friends. "I command you, +therefore, to throw the building high in the air because the higher it +goes the longer I will be remembered and the longer the years men will +mention my name after I am dead." + +So there it was. Young Leather and Red Slippers laughed when they +first saw the skyscraper, when they were far off along a country road +singing their old song, "Deep Down Among the Dagger Dancers." + +"We got a show and we give a performance and we want the whole town to +see it," was what Young Leather and Red Slippers said to the mayor of +the town when they called on him at the city hall. "We want a license +and a permit to give this free show in the public square." + +"What do you do?" asked the mayor. + +"We jump five jack-rabbits, five long-legged spider jack-rabbits over +the highest skyscraper you got in your city," they answered him. + +"If it's free and you don't sell anything nor take any money away from +us while it is daylight and you are giving your performance, then here +is your license permit," said the mayor speaking in the manner of a +politician who has studied politics. + +Thousands of people came to see the show on the public square. They +wished to know how it would look to see five long-legged, spider +jack-rabbits jump over the highest skyscraper in the city. + +Four of the jack-rabbits had stripes. The fifth had stripes--and +spots. Before they started the show Young Leather and Red Slippers +held the jack-rabbits one by one in their arms and petted them, rubbed +the feet and rubbed the long ears and ran their fingers along the long +legs of the jumpers. + +"Zingo," they yelled to the first jack-rabbit. He got all ready. "And +now zingo!" they yelled again. And the jack-rabbit took a run, lifted +off his feet and went on and on and up and up till he went over the +roof of the skyscraper and then went down and down till he lit on his +feet and came running on his long legs back to the public square where +he started from, back where Young Leather and Red Slippers petted him +and rubbed his long ears and said, "That's the boy." + +Then three jack-rabbits made the jump over the skyscraper. "Zingo," +they heard and got ready. "And now zingo," they heard and all three +together in a row, their long ears touching each other, they lifted +off their feet and went on and on and up and up till they cleared the +roof of the skyscraper. Then they came down and down till they lit on +their feet and came running to the hands of Young Leather and Red +Slippers to have their long legs and their long ears rubbed and +petted. + +Then came the turn of the fifth jack-rabbit, the beautiful one with +stripes and spots. "Ah, we're sorry to see you go, Ah-h, we're sorry," +they said, rubbing his long ears and feeling of his long legs. + +Then Young Leather and Red Slippers kissed him on the nose, kissed the +last and fifth of the five long-legged spider jack-rabbits. + +"Good-by, old bunny, good-by, you're the dandiest bunny there ever +was," they whispered in his long ears. And he, because he knew what +they were saying and why they were saying it, he wiggled his long ears +and looked long and steady at them from his deep eyes. + +"Zango," they yelled. He got ready. "And now zango!" they yelled +again. And the fifth jack-rabbit with his stripes and spots lifted off +his feet and went on and on and on and up and up and when he came to +the roof of the skyscraper he kept on going on and on and up and up +till after a while he was gone all the way out of sight. + +They waited and watched, they watched and waited. He never came back. +He never was heard of again. He was gone. With the stripes on his back +and the spots on his hair, he was gone. And Young Leather and Red +Slippers said they were glad they had kissed him on the nose before he +went away on a long trip far off, so far off he never came back. + +[Illustration] + + + [Illustration] + + The Wooden Indian and the Shaghorn + Buffalo + + +One night a milk white moon was shining down on Main Street. The +sidewalks and the stones, the walls and the windows all stood out milk +white. And there was a thin blue mist drifted and shifted like a +woman's veil up and down Main Street, up to the moon and back again. +Yes, all Main Street was a mist blue and a milk white, mixed up and +soft all over and all through. + +It was past midnight. The Wooden Indian in front of the cigar store +stepped down off his stand. The Shaghorn Buffalo in front of the +haberdasher shop lifted his head and shook his whiskers, raised his +hoofs out of his hoof-tracks. + +Then--this is what happened. They moved straight toward each other. In +the middle of Main Street they met. The Wooden Indian jumped straddle +of the Shaghorn Buffalo. And the Shaghorn Buffalo put his head down +and ran like a prairie wind straight west on Main Street. + +At the high hill over the big bend of the Clear Green River they +stopped. They stood looking. Drifting and shifting like a woman's blue +veil, the blue mist filled the valley and the milk white moon filled +the valley. And the mist and the moon touched with a lingering, +wistful kiss the clear green water of the Clear Green River. + +So they stood looking, the Wooden Indian with his copper face and +wooden feathers, and the Shaghorn Buffalo with his big head and heavy +shoulders slumping down close to the ground. + +[Illustration: So they stood looking] + +And after they had looked a long while, and each of them got an eyeful +of the high hill, the big bend and the moon mist on the river all blue +and white and soft, after they had looked a long while, they turned +around and the Shaghorn Buffalo put his head down and ran like a +prairie wind down Main Street till he was exactly in front of the +cigar store and the haberdasher shop. Then whisk! both of them were +right back like they were before, standing still, taking whatever +comes. + +This is the story as it came from the night policeman of the Village +of Cream Puffs. He told the people the next day, "I was sitting on the +steps of the cigar store last night watching for burglars. And when I +saw the Wooden Indian step down and the Shaghorn Buffalo step out, and +the two of them go down Main Street like the wind, I says to myself, +marvelish, 'tis marvelish, 'tis marvelish." + + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + + +6. Four Stories About + Dear, Dear Eyes + + _People_: The White Horse Girl + The Blue Wind Boy + The Gray Man on Horseback + Six Girls With Balloons + + Henry Hagglyhoagly + Susan Slackentwist + Two Wool Yarn Mittens + + Peter Potato Blossom Wishes + Her Father + Many Shoes + Slippers + A Slipper Moon + + + [Illustration] + + The White Horse Girl and the Blue Wind + Boy + + +When the dishes are washed at night time and the cool of the evening +has come in summer or the lamps and fires are lit for the night in +winter, then the fathers and mothers in the Rootabaga Country +sometimes tell the young people the story of the White Horse Girl and +the Blue Wind Boy. + +The White Horse Girl grew up far in the west of the Rootabaga Country. +All the years she grew up as a girl she liked to ride horses. Best of +all things for her was to be straddle of a white horse loping with a +loose bridle among the hills and along the rivers of the west +Rootabaga Country. + +She rode one horse white as snow, another horse white as new washed +sheep wool, and another white as silver. And she could not tell +because she did not know which of these three white horses she liked +best. + +"Snow is beautiful enough for me any time," she said, "new washed +sheep wool, or silver out of a ribbon of the new moon, any or either +is white enough for me. I like the white manes, the white flanks, the +white noses, the white feet of all my ponies. I like the forelocks +hanging down between the white ears of all three--my ponies." + +And living neighbor to the White Horse Girl in the same prairie +country, with the same black crows flying over their places, was the +Blue Wind Boy. All the years he grew up as a boy he liked to walk with +his feet in the dirt and the grass listening to the winds. Best of all +things for him was to put on strong shoes and go hiking among the +hills and along the rivers of the west Rootabaga Country, listening to +the winds. + +There was a blue wind of day time, starting sometimes six o'clock on a +summer morning or eight o'clock on a winter morning. And there was a +night wind with blue of summer stars in summer and blue of winter +stars in winter. And there was yet another, a blue wind of the times +between night and day, a blue dawn and evening wind. All three of +these winds he liked so well he could not say which he liked best. + +"The early morning wind is strong as the prairie and whatever I tell +it I know it believes and remembers," he said, "and the night wind +with the big dark curves of the night sky in it, the night wind gets +inside of me and understands all my secrets. And the blue wind of the +times between, in the dusk when it is neither night nor day, this is +the wind that asks me questions and tells me to wait and it will bring +me whatever I want." + +Of course, it happened as it had to happen, the White Horse Girl and +the Blue Wind Boy met. She, straddling one of her white horses, and +he, wearing his strong hiking shoes in the dirt and the grass, it had +to happen they should meet among the hills and along the rivers of the +west Rootabaga Country where they lived neighbors. + +And of course, she told him all about the snow white horse and the +horse white as new washed sheep wool and the horse white as a silver +ribbon of the new moon. And he told her all about the blue winds he +liked listening to, the early morning wind, the night sky wind, and +the wind of the dusk between, the wind that asked him questions and +told him to wait. + +One day the two of them were gone. On the same day of the week the +White Horse Girl and the Blue Wind Boy went away. And their fathers +and mothers and sisters and brothers and uncles and aunts wondered +about them and talked about them, because they didn't tell anybody +beforehand they were going. Nobody at all knew beforehand or afterward +why they were going away, the real honest why of it. + +They left a short letter. It read: + + _To All Our Sweethearts, Old Folks and Young Folks:_ + + _We have started to go where the white horses come from and where + the blue winds begin. Keep a corner in your hearts for us while + we are gone._ + + _The White Horse Girl._ + _The Blue Wind Boy._ + +That was all they had to guess by in the west Rootabaga Country, to +guess and guess where two darlings had gone. + +Many years passed. One day there came riding across the Rootabaga +Country a Gray Man on Horseback. He looked like he had come a long +ways. So they asked him the question they always asked of any rider +who looked like he had come a long ways, "Did you ever see the White +Horse Girl and the Blue Wind Boy?" + +"Yes," he answered, "I saw them. + +"It was a long, long ways from here I saw them," he went on, "it would +take years and years to ride to where they are. They were sitting +together and talking to each other, sometimes singing, in a place +where the land runs high and tough rocks reach up. And they were +looking out across water, blue water as far as the eye could see. And +away far off the blue waters met the blue sky. + +"'Look!' said the Boy, 'that's where the blue winds begin.' + +"And far out on the blue waters, just a little this side of where the +blue winds begin, there were white manes, white flanks, white noses, +white galloping feet. + +"'Look!' said the Girl, 'that's where the white horses come from.' + +"And then nearer to the land came thousands in an hour, millions in a +day, white horses, some white as snow, some like new washed sheep +wool, some white as silver ribbons of the new moon. + +"I asked them, 'Whose place is this?' They answered, 'It belongs to +us; this is what we started for; this is where the white horses come +from; this is where the blue winds begin.'" + +And that was all the Gray Man on Horseback would tell the people of +the west Rootabaga Country. That was all he knew, he said, and if +there was any more he would tell it. + +And the fathers and mothers and sisters and brothers and uncles and +aunts of the White Horse Girl and the Blue Wind Boy wondered and +talked often about whether the Gray Man on Horseback made up the story +out of his head or whether it happened just like he told it. + +Anyhow this is the story they tell sometimes to the young people of +the west Rootabaga Country when the dishes are washed at night and the +cool of the evening has come in summer or the lamps and fires are lit +for the night in winter. + + + [Illustration] + + What Six Girls with Balloons Told the + Gray Man on Horseback + + +Once there came riding across the Rootabaga Country a Gray Man on +Horseback. He looked as if he had come a long ways. He looked like a +brother to the same Gray Man on Horseback who said he had seen the +White Horse Girl and the Blue Wind Boy. + +He stopped in the Village of Cream Puffs. His gray face was sad and +his eyes were gray deep and sad. He spoke short and seemed strong. +Sometimes his eyes looked as if they were going to flash, but instead +of fire they filled with shadows. + +Yet--he did laugh once. It did happen once he lifted his head and face +to the sky and let loose a long ripple of laughs. + +On Main Street near the Roundhouse of the Big Spool, where they wind +up the string that pulls the light little town back when the wind +blows it away, there he was riding slow on his gray horse when he met +six girls with six fine braids of yellow hair and six balloons apiece. +That is, each and every one of the six girls had six fine long braids +of yellow hair and each braid of hair had a balloon tied on the end. A +little blue wind was blowing and the many balloons tied to the braids +of the six girls swung up and down and slow and fast whenever the blue +wind went up and down and slow and fast. + +For the first time since he had been in the Village, the eyes of the +Gray Man filled with lights and his face began to look hopeful. He +stopped his horse when he came even with the six girls and the +balloons floating from the braids of yellow hair. + +"Where you going?" he asked. + +"Who--hoo-hoo? Who--who--who?" the six girls cheeped out. + +"All six of you and your balloons, where you going?" + +"Oh, hoo-hoo-hoo, back where we came from," and they all turned their +heads back and forth and sideways, which of course turned all the +balloons back and forth and sideways because the balloons were +fastened to the fine braids of hair which were fastened to their +heads. + +"And where do you go when you get back where you came from?" he asked +just to be asking. + +"Oh, hoo-hoo-hoo, then we start out and go straight ahead and see what +we can see," they all answered just to be answering and they dipped +their heads and swung them up which of course dipped all the balloons +and swung them up. + +So they talked, he asking just to be asking and the six balloon girls +answering just to be answering. + +At last his sad mouth broke into a smile and his eyes were lit like a +morning sun coming up over harvest fields. And he said to them, "Tell +me why are balloons--that is what I want you to tell me--why are +balloons?" + +The first little girl put her thumb under her chin, looked up at her +six balloons floating in the little blue wind over her head, and said: +"Balloons are wishes. The wind made them. The west wind makes the red +balloons. The south wind makes the blue. The yellow and green balloons +come from the east wind and the north wind." + +The second little girl put her first finger next to her nose, looked +up at her six balloons dipping up and down like hill flowers in a +small wind, and said: + +"A balloon used to be a flower. It got tired. Then it changed itself +to a balloon. I listened one time to a yellow balloon. It was talking +to itself like people talk. It said, 'I used to be a yellow pumpkin +flower stuck down close to the ground, now I am a yellow balloon high +up in the air where nobody can walk on me and I can see everything.'" + +The third little girl held both of her ears like she was afraid they +would wiggle while she slid with a skip, turned quick, and looking up +at her balloons, spoke these words: + +"A balloon is foam. It comes the same as soap bubbles come. A long +time ago it used to be sliding along on water, river water, ocean +water, waterfall water, falling and falling over a rocky waterfall, +any water you want. The wind saw the bubble and picked it up and +carried it away, telling it, 'Now you're a balloon--come along and see +the world.'" + +The fourth little girl jumped straight into the air so all six of her +balloons made a jump like they were going to get loose and go to the +sky--and when the little girl came down from her jump and was standing +on her two feet with her head turned looking up at the six balloons, +she spoke the shortest answer of all, saying: + +"Balloons are to make us look up. They help our necks." + +The fifth little girl stood first on one foot, then another, bent her +head down to her knees and looked at her toes, then swinging straight +up and looking at the flying spotted yellow and red and green +balloons, she said: + +"Balloons come from orchards. Look for trees where half is oranges and +half is orange balloons. Look for apple trees where half is red +pippins and half is red pippin balloons. Look for watermelons too. A +long green balloon with white and yellow belly stripes is a ghost. It +came from a watermelon said good-by." + +The sixth girl, the last one, kicked the heel of her left foot with +the toe of her right foot, put her thumbs under her ears and wiggled +all her fingers, then stopped all her kicking and wiggling, and stood +looking up at her balloons all quiet because the wind had gone +down--and she murmured like she was thinking to herself: + +"Balloons come from fire chasers. Every balloon has a fire chaser +chasing it. All the fire chasers are made terrible quick and when they +come they burn quick, so the balloon is made light so it can run away +terrible quick. Balloons slip away from fire. If they don't they can't +be balloons. Running away from fire keeps them light." + +All the time he listened to the six girls the face of the Gray Man +kept getting more hopeful. His eyes lit up. Twice he smiled. And after +he said good-by and rode up the street, he lifted his head and face to +the sky and let loose a long ripple of laughs. + +He kept looking back when he left the Village and the last thing he +saw was the six girls each with six balloons fastened to the six +braids of yellow hair hanging down their backs. + +The sixth little girl kicked the heel of her left foot with the toe of +her right foot and said, "He is a nice man. I think he must be our +uncle. If he comes again we shall all ask him to tell us where he +thinks balloons come from." + +And the other five girls all answered, "Yes," or "Yes, yes," or "Yes, +yes, yes," real fast like a balloon with a fire chaser after it. + + + [Illustration] + + How Henry Hagglyhoagly Played the + Guitar with His Mittens On + + +Sometimes in January the sky comes down close if we walk on a country +road, and turn our faces up to look at the sky. + +Sometimes on that kind of a January night the stars look like numbers, +look like the arithmetic writing of a girl going to school and just +beginning arithmetic. + +It was this kind of a night Henry Hagglyhoagly was walking down a +country road on his way to the home of Susan Slackentwist, the +daughter of the rutabaga king near the Village of Liver-and-Onions. +When Henry Hagglyhoagly turned his face up to look at the sky it +seemed to him as though the sky came down close to his nose, and there +was a writing in stars as though some girl had been doing arithmetic +examples, writing number 4 and number 7 and 4 and 7 over and over +again across the sky. + +"Why is it so bitter cold weather?" Henry Hagglyhoagly asked himself, +"if I say many bitter bitters it is not so bitter as the cold wind and +the cold weather." + +"You are good, mittens, keeping my fingers warm," he said every once +in a while to the wool yarn mittens on his hands. + +The wind came tearing along and put its chilly, icy, clammy clamps on +the nose of Henry Hagglyhoagly, fastening the clamps like a nipping, +gripping clothes pin on his nose. He put his wool yarn mittens up on +his nose and rubbed till the wind took off the chilly, icy, clammy +clamps. His nose was warm again; he said, "Thank you, mittens, for +keeping my nose warm." + +[Illustration: It seemed to him as though the sky came down close +to his nose] + +He spoke to his wool yarn mittens as though they were two kittens or +pups, or two little cub bears, or two little Idaho ponies. "You're my +chums keeping me company," he said to the mittens. + +"Do you know what we got here under our left elbow?" he said to the +mittens, "I shall mention to you what is here under my left elbow. + +"It ain't a mandolin, it ain't a mouth organ nor an accordion nor a +concertina nor a fiddle. It is a guitar, a Spanish Spinnish Splishy +guitar made special. + +"Yes, mittens, they said a strong young man like me ought to have a +piano because a piano is handy to play for everybody in the house and +a piano is handy to put a hat and overcoat on or books or flowers. + +"I snizzled at 'em, mittens. I told 'em I seen a Spanish Spinnish +Splishy guitar made special in a hardware store window for eight +dollars and a half. + +"And so, mittens--are you listening, mittens?--after cornhusking was +all husked and the oats thrashing all thrashed and the rutabaga +digging all dug, I took eight dollars and a half in my inside vest +pocket and I went to the hardware store. + +"I put my thumbs in my vest pocket and I wiggled my fingers like a man +when he is proud of what he is going to have if he gets it. And I said +to the head clerk in the hardware store, 'Sir, the article I desire to +purchase this evening as one of your high class customers, the article +I desire to have after I buy it for myself, is the article there in +the window, sir, the Spanish Spinnish Splishy guitar.' + +"And, mittens, if you are listening, I am taking this Spanish Spinnish +Splishy guitar to go to the home of Susan Slackentwist, the daughter +of the rutabaga king near the Village of Liver-and-Onions, to sing a +serenade song." + +The cold wind of the bitter cold weather blew and blew, trying to blow +the guitar out from under the left elbow of Henry Hagglyhoagly. And +the worse the wind blew the tighter he held his elbow holding the +guitar where he wanted it. + +He walked on and on with his long legs stepping long steps till at +last he stopped, held his nose in the air, and sniffed. + +"Do I sniff something or do I not?" he asked, lifting his wool yarn +mittens to his nose and rubbing his nose till it was warm. Again he +sniffed. + +"Ah hah, yeah, yeah, this is the big rutabaga field near the home of +the rutabaga king and the home of his daughter, Susan Slackentwist." + +At last he came to the house, stood under the window and slung the +guitar around in front of him to play the music to go with the song. + +"And now," he asked his mittens, "shall I take you off or keep you on? +If I take you off the cold wind of the bitter cold weather will freeze +my hands so stiff and bitter cold my fingers will be too stiff to play +the guitar. _I will play with mittens on._" + +Which he did. He stood under the window of Susan Slackentwist and +played the guitar with his mittens on, the warm wool yarn mittens he +called his chums. It was the first time any strong young man going to +see his sweetheart ever played the guitar with his mittens on when it +was a bitter night with a cold wind and cold weather. + +Susan Slackentwist opened her window and threw him a snow-bird feather +to keep for a keepsake to remember her by. And for years afterward +many a sweetheart in the Rootabaga Country told her lover, "If you +wish to marry me let me hear you under my window on a winter night +playing the guitar with wool yarn mittens on." + +And when Henry Hagglyhoagly walked home on his long legs stepping long +steps, he said to his mittens, "This Spanish Spinnish Splishy guitar +made special will bring us luck." And when he turned his face up, the +sky came down close and he could see stars fixed like numbers and the +arithmetic writing of a girl going to school learning to write number +4 and number 7 and 4 and 7 over and over. + +[Illustration] + + + [Illustration] + + Never Kick a Slipper at the Moon + + +When a girl is growing up in the Rootabaga Country she learns some +things to do, some things _not_ to do. + +"Never kick a slipper at the moon if it is the time for the Dancing +Slipper Moon when the slim early moon looks like the toe and the heel +of a dancer's foot," was the advice Mr. Wishes, the father of Peter +Potato Blossom Wishes, gave to his daughter. + +"Why?" she asked him. + +"Because your slipper will go straight up, on and on to the moon, and +fasten itself on the moon as if the moon is a foot ready for dancing," +said Mr. Wishes. + +"A long time ago there was one night when a secret word was passed +around to all the shoes standing in the bedrooms and closets. + +"The whisper of the secret was: 'To-night all the shoes and the +slippers and the boots of the world are going walking without any feet +in them. To-night when those who put us on their feet in the daytime, +are sleeping in their beds, we all get up and walk and go walking +where we walk in the daytime.' + +"And in the middle of the night, when the people in the beds were +sleeping, the shoes and the slippers and the boots everywhere walked +out of the bedrooms and the closets. Along the sidewalks on the +streets, up and down stairways, along hallways, the shoes and slippers +and the boots tramped and marched and stumbled. + +"Some walked pussyfoot, sliding easy and soft just like people in the +daytime. Some walked clumping and clumping, coming down heavy on the +heels and slow on the toes, just like people in the daytime. + +"Some turned their toes in and walked pigeon-toe, some spread their +toes out and held their heels in, just like people in the daytime. +Some ran glad and fast, some lagged slow and sorry. + +"Now there was a little girl in the Village of Cream Puffs who came +home from a dance that night. And she was tired from dancing round +dances and square dances, one steps and two steps, toe dances and toe +and heel dances, dances close up and dances far apart, she was so +tired she took off only one slipper, tumbled onto her bed and went to +sleep with one slipper on. + +"She woke up in the morning when it was yet dark. And she went to the +window and looked up in the sky and saw a Dancing Slipper Moon dancing +far and high in the deep blue sea of the moon sky. + +"'Oh--what a moon--what a dancing slipper of a moon!' she cried with a +little song to herself. + +"She opened the window, saying again, 'Oh! what a moon!'--and kicked +her foot with the slipper on it straight toward the moon. + +"The slipper flew off and flew up and went on and on and up and up in +the moonshine. + +"It never came back, that slipper. It was never seen again. When they +asked the girl about it she said, 'It slipped off my foot and went up +and up and the last I saw of it the slipper was going on straight to +the moon.'" + +And these are the explanations why fathers and mothers in the +Rootabaga Country say to their girls growing up, "Never kick a slipper +at the moon if it is the time of the Dancing Slipper Moon when the +ends of the moon look like the toe and the heel of a dancer's foot." + + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + + +7. One Story--"Only the + Fire-Born Understand Blue" + + _People_: Fire the Goat + Flim the Goose + Shadows + + + [Illustration] + + Sand Flat Shadows + + +Fire the Goat and Flim the Goose slept out. Stub pines stood over +them. And away up next over the stub pines were stars. + +It was a white sand flat they slept on. The floor of the sand flat ran +straight to the Big Lake of the Booming Rollers. + +And just over the sand flat and just over the booming rollers was a +high room where the mist people were making pictures. Gray pictures, +blue and sometimes a little gold, and often silver, were the pictures. + +And next just over the high room where the mist people were making +pictures, next just over were the stars. + +Over everything and always last and highest of all, were the stars. + +Fire the Goat took off his horns. Flim the Goose took off his wings. +"This is where we sleep," they said to each other, "here in the stub +pines on the sand flats next to the booming rollers and high over +everything and always last and highest of all, the stars." + +Fire the Goat laid his horns under his head. Flim the Goose laid his +wings under his head. "This is the best place for what you want to +keep," they said to each other. Then they crossed their fingers for +luck and lay down and went to sleep and slept. And while they slept +the mist people went on making pictures. Gray pictures, blue and +sometimes a little gold but more often silver, such were the pictures +the mist people went on making while Fire the Goat and Flim the Goose +went on sleeping. And over everything and always last and highest of +all, were the stars. + +They woke up. Fire the Goat took his horns out and put them on. "It's +morning now," he said. + +Flim the Goose took his wings out and put them on. "It's another day +now," he said. + +Then they sat looking. Away off where the sun was coming up, inching +and pushing up far across the rim curve of the Big Lake of the Booming +Rollers, along the whole line of the east sky, there were people and +animals, all black or all so gray they were near black. + +There was a big horse with his mouth open, ears laid back, front legs +thrown in two curves like harvest sickles. + +There was a camel with two humps, moving slow and grand like he had +all the time of all the years of all the world to go in. + +There was an elephant without any head, with six short legs. There +were many cows. There was a man with a club over his shoulder and a +woman with a bundle on the back of her neck. + +And they marched on. They were going nowhere, it seemed. And they were +going slow. They had plenty of time. There was nothing else to do. It +was fixed for them to do it, long ago it was fixed. And so they were +marching. + +Sometimes the big horse's head sagged and dropped off and came back +again. Sometimes the humps of the camel sagged and dropped off and +came back again. And sometimes the club on the man's shoulder got +bigger and heavier and the man staggered under it and then his legs +got bigger and stronger and he steadied himself and went on. And again +sometimes the bundle on the back of the neck of the woman got bigger +and heavier and the bundle sagged and the woman staggered and her legs +got bigger and stronger and she steadied herself and went on. + +This was the show, the hippodrome, the spectacular circus that passed +on the east sky before the eyes of Fire the Goat and Flim the Goose. + +"Which is this, who are they and why do they come?" Flim the Goose +asked Fire the Goat. + +[Illustration: Away off where the sun was coming up, there were +people and animals] + +"Do you ask me because you wish me to tell you?" asked Fire the Goat. + +"Indeed it is a question to which I want an honest answer." + +"Has never the father or mother nor the uncle or aunt nor the kith and +kin of Flim the Goose told him the what and the which of this?" + +"Never has the such of this which been put here this way to me by +anybody." + +Flim the Goose held up his fingers and said, "I don't talk to you with +my fingers crossed." + +And so Fire the Goat began to explain to Flim the Goose all about the +show, the hippodrome, the mastodonic cyclopean spectacle which was +passing on the east sky in front of the sun coming up. + +"People say they are shadows," began Fire the Goat. "That is a name, a +word, a little cough and a couple of syllables. + +"For some people shadows are comic and only to laugh at. For some +other people shadows are like a mouth and its breath. The breath comes +out and it is nothing. It is like air and nobody can make it into a +package and carry it away. It will not melt like gold nor can you +shovel it like cinders. So to these people it means nothing. + +"And then there are other people," Fire the Goat went on. "There are +other people who understand shadows. The fire-born understand. The +fire-born know where shadows come from and why they are. + +"Long ago, when the Makers of the World were done making the round +earth, the time came when they were ready to make the animals to put +on the earth. They were not sure how to make the animals. They did not +know what shape animals they wanted. + +"And so they practised. They did not make real animals at first. They +made only shapes of animals. And these shapes were shadows, shadows +like these you and I, Fire the Goat and Flim the Goose, are looking at +this morning across the booming rollers on the east sky where the sun +is coming up. + +"The shadow horse over there on the east sky with his mouth open, his +ears laid back, and his front legs thrown in a curve like harvest +sickles, that shadow horse was one they made long ago when they were +practising to make a real horse. That shadow horse was a mistake and +they threw him away. Never will you see two shadow horses alike. All +shadow horses on the sky are different. Each one is a mistake, a +shadow horse thrown away because he was not good enough to be a real +horse. + +"That elephant with no head on his neck, stumbling so grand on six +legs--and that grand camel with two humps, one bigger than the +other--and those cows with horns in front and behind--they are all +mistakes, they were all thrown away because they were not made good +enough to be real elephants, real cows, real camels. They were made +just for practice, away back early in the world before any real +animals came on their legs to eat and live and be here like the rest +of us. + +"That man--see him now staggering along with the club over his +shoulder--see how his long arms come to his knees and sometimes his +hands drag below his feet. See how heavy the club on his shoulders +loads him down and drags him on. He is one of the oldest shadow men. +He was a mistake and they threw him away. He was made just for +practice. + +"And that woman. See her now at the end of that procession across the +booming rollers on the east sky. See her the last of all, the end of +the procession. On the back of her neck a bundle. Sometimes the bundle +gets bigger. The woman staggers. Her legs get bigger and stronger. She +picks herself up and goes along shaking her head. She is the same as +the others. She is a shadow and she was made as a mistake. Early, +early in the beginnings of the world she was made, for practice. + +"Listen, Flim the Goose. What I am telling you is a secret of the +fire-born. I do not know whether you understand. We have slept +together a night on the sand flats next to the booming rollers, under +the stub pines with the stars high over--and so I tell what the +fathers of the fire-born tell their sons." + +And that day Fire the Goat and Flim the Goose moved along the sand +flat shore of the Big Lake of the Booming Rollers. It was a blue day, +with a fire-blue of the sun mixing itself in the air and the water. +Off to the north the booming rollers were blue sea-green. To the east +they were sometimes streak purple, sometimes changing bluebell +stripes. And to the south they were silver blue, sheet blue. + +Where the shadow hippodrome marched on the east sky that morning was a +long line of blue-bird spots. + +"Only the fire-born understand blue," said Fire the Goat to Flim the +Goose. And that night as the night before they slept on a sand flat. +And again Fire the Goat took off his horns and laid them under his +head while he slept and Flim the Goose took off his wings and laid +them under his head while he slept. + +And twice in the night, Fire the Goat whispered in his sleep, +whispered to the stars, "Only the fire-born understand blue." + + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + + +8. Two Stories About Corn Fairies, + Blue Foxes, Flongboos and Happenings + That Happened in the + United States and Canada + + _People_: Spink + Skabootch + A Man + Corn Fairies + + Blue Foxes + Flongboos + A Philadelphia Policeman + Passenger Conductor + Chicago Newspapers + The Head Spotter of the Weather Makers at Medicine Hat + + + [Illustration] + + How to Tell Corn Fairies If You See 'Em + + +If you have ever watched the little corn begin to march across the +black lands and then slowly change to big corn and go marching on from +the little corn moon of summer to the big corn harvest moon of autumn, +then you must have guessed who it is that helps the corn come along. +It is the corn fairies. Leave out the corn fairies and there wouldn't +be any corn. + +All children know this. All boys and girls know that corn is no good +unless there are corn fairies. + +Have you ever stood in Illinois or Iowa and watched the late summer +wind or the early fall wind running across a big cornfield? It looks +as if a big, long blanket were being spread out for dancers to come +and dance on. If you look close and if you listen close you can see +the corn fairies come dancing and singing--sometimes. If it is a wild +day and a hot sun is pouring down while a cool north wind blows--and +this happens sometimes--then you will be sure to see thousands of corn +fairies marching and countermarching in mocking grand marches over the +big, long blanket of green and silver. Then too they sing, only you +must listen with your littlest and newest ears if you wish to hear +their singing. They sing soft songs that go pla-sizzy pla-sizzy-sizzy, +and each song is softer than an eye wink, softer than a Nebraska +baby's thumb. + +And Spink, who is a little girl living in the same house with the man +writing this story, and Skabootch, who is another little girl in the +same house--both Spink and Skabootch are asking the question, "How can +we tell corn fairies if we see 'em? If we meet a corn fairy how will +we know it?" And this is the explanation the man gave to Spink who is +older than Skabootch, and to Skabootch who is younger than Spink:-- + +All corn fairies wear overalls. They work hard, the corn fairies, and +they are proud. The reason they are proud is because they work so +hard. And the reason they work so hard is because they have overalls. + +But understand this. The overalls are corn gold cloth, woven from +leaves of ripe corn mixed with ripe October corn silk. In the first +week of the harvest moon coming up red and changing to yellow and +silver the corn fairies sit by thousands between the corn rows weaving +and stitching the clothes they have to wear next winter, next spring, +next summer. + +They sit cross-legged when they sew. And it is a law among them each +one must point the big toe at the moon while sewing the harvest moon +clothes. When the moon comes up red as blood early in the evening they +point their big toes slanting toward the east. Then towards midnight +when the moon is yellow and half way up the sky their big toes are +only half slanted as they sit cross-legged sewing. And after midnight +when the moon sails its silver disk high overhead and toward the west, +then the corn fairies sit sewing with their big toes pointed nearly +straight up. + +If it is a cool night and looks like frost, then the laughter of the +corn fairies is something worth seeing. All the time they sit sewing +their next year clothes they are laughing. It is not a law they have +to laugh. They laugh because they are half-tickled and glad because it +is a good corn year. + +And whenever the corn fairies laugh then the laugh comes out of the +mouth like a thin gold frost. If you should be lucky enough to see a +thousand corn fairies sitting between the corn rows and all of them +laughing, you would laugh with wonder yourself to see the gold frost +coming from their mouths while they laughed. + +Travelers who have traveled far, and seen many things, say that if you +know the corn fairies with a real knowledge you can always tell by the +stitches in their clothes what state they are from. + +In Illinois the corn fairies stitch fifteen stitches of ripe corn silk +across the woven corn leaf cloth. In Iowa they stitch sixteen +stitches, in Nebraska seventeen, and the farther west you go the more +corn silk stitches the corn fairies have in the corn cloth clothes +they wear. + +In Minnesota one year there were fairies with a blue sash of +corn-flowers across the breast. In the Dakotas the same year all the +fairies wore pumpkin-flower neckties, yellow four-in-hands and yellow +ascots. And in one strange year it happened in both the states of Ohio +and Texas the corn fairies wore little wristlets of white morning +glories. + +The traveler who heard about this asked many questions and found out +the reason why that year the corn fairies wore little wristlets of +white morning glories. He said, "Whenever fairies are sad they wear +white. And this year, which was long ago, was the year men were +tearing down all the old zigzag rail fences. Now those old zigzag rail +fences were beautiful for the fairies because a hundred fairies could +sit on one rail and thousands and thousands of them could sit on the +zigzags and sing pla-sizzy pla-sizzy, softer than an eye-wink, softer +than a baby's thumb, all on a moonlight summer night. And they found +out that year was going to be the last year of the zigzag rail fences. +It made them sorry and sad, and when they are sorry and sad they wear +white. So they picked the wonderful white morning glories running +along the zigzag rail fences and made them into little wristlets and +wore those wristlets the next year to show they were sorry and sad." + +Of course, all this helps you to know how the corn fairies look in the +evening, the night time and the moonlight. Now we shall see how they +look in the day time. + +In the day time the corn fairies have their overalls of corn gold +cloth on. And they walk among the corn rows and climb the corn stalks +and fix things in the leaves and stalks and ears of the corn. They +help it to grow. + +Each one carries on the left shoulder a mouse brush to brush away the +field mice. And over the right shoulder each one has a cricket broom +to sweep away the crickets. The brush is a whisk brush to brush away +mice that get foolish. And the broom is to sweep away crickets that +get foolish. + +Around the middle of each corn fairy is a yellow-belly belt. And stuck +in this belt is a purple moon shaft hammer. Whenever the wind blows +strong and nearly blows the corn down, then the fairies run out and +take their purple moon shaft hammers out of their yellow-belly belts +and nail down nails to keep the corn from blowing down. When a rain +storm is blowing up terrible and driving all kinds of terribles across +the cornfield, then you can be sure of one thing. Running like the +wind among the corn rows are the fairies, jerking their purple moon +shaft hammers out of their belts and nailing nails down to keep the +corn standing up so it will grow and be ripe and beautiful when the +harvest moon comes again in the fall. + +Spink and Skabootch ask where the corn fairies get the nails. The +answer to Spink and Skabootch is, "Next week you will learn all about +where the corn fairies get the nails to nail down the corn if you will +keep your faces washed and your ears washed till next week." + +And the next time you stand watching a big cornfield in late summer or +early fall, when the wind is running across the green and silver, +listen with your littlest and newest ears. Maybe you will hear the +corn fairies going pla-sizzy pla-sizzy-sizzy, softer than an eye wink, +softer than a Nebraska baby's thumb. + + + [Illustration] + + How the Animals Lost Their Tails and + Got Them Back Traveling From + Philadelphia to Medicine Hat + + +Far up in North America, near the Saskatchewan river, in the Winnipeg +wheat country, not so far from the town of Moose Jaw named for the jaw +of a moose shot by a hunter there, up where the blizzards and the +chinooks begin, where nobody works unless they have to and they nearly +all have to, there stands the place known as Medicine Hat. + +And there on a high stool in a high tower on a high hill sits the Head +Spotter of the Weather Makers. + +When the animals lost their tails it was because the Head Spotter of +the Weather Makers at Medicine Hat was careless. + +The tails of the animals were stiff and dry because for a long while +there was dusty dry weather. Then at last came rain. And the water +from the sky poured on the tails of the animals and softened them. + +Then the chilly chills came whistling with icy mittens and they froze +all the tails stiff. A big wind blew up and blew and blew till all the +tails of the animals blew off. + +It was easy for the fat stub hogs with their fat stub tails. But it +was not so easy for the blue fox who uses his tail to help him when he +runs, when he eats, when he walks or talks, when he makes pictures or +writes letters in the snow or when he puts a snack of bacon meat with +stripes of fat and lean to hide till he wants it under a big rock by a +river. + +[Illustration: There on a high stool in a high tower, on a high hill +sits the Head Spotter of the Weather Makers] + +It was easy enough for the rabbit who has long ears and no tail at all +except a white thumb of cotton. But it was hard for the yellow +flongboo who at night lights up his house in a hollow tree with his +fire yellow torch of a tail. It is hard for the yellow flongboo to +lose his tail because it lights up his way when he sneaks at night on +the prairie, sneaking up on the flangwayers, the hippers and +hangjasts, so good to eat. + +The animals picked a committee of representatives to represent them in +a parleyhoo to see what steps could be taken by talking to do +something. There were sixty-six representatives on the committee and +they decided to call it the Committee of Sixty Six. It was a +distinguished committee and when they all sat together holding their +mouths under their noses (just like a distinguished committee) and +blinking their eyes up over their noses and cleaning their ears and +scratching themselves under the chin looking thoughtful (just like a +distinguished committee) then anybody would say just to look at them, +"This must be quite a distinguished committee." + +Of course, they would all have looked more distinguished if they had +had their tails on. If the big wavy streak of a blue tail blows off +behind a blue fox, he doesn't look near so distinguished. Or, if the +long yellow torch of a tail blows off behind a yellow flongboo, he +doesn't look so distinguished as he did before the wind blew. + +So the Committee of Sixty Six had a meeting and a parleyhoo to decide +what steps could be taken by talking to do something. For chairman +they picked an old flongboo who was an umpire and used to umpire many +mix-ups. Among the flongboos he was called "the umpire of umpires," +"the king of umpires," "the prince of umpires," "the peer of umpires." +When there was a fight and a snag and a wrangle between two families +living next door neighbors to each other and this old flongboo was +called in to umpire and to say which family was right and which family +was wrong, which family started it and which family ought to stop it, +he used to say, "The best umpire is the one who knows just how far to +go and how far not to go." He was from Massachusetts, born near +Chappaquiddick, this old flongboo, and he lived there in a horse +chestnut tree six feet thick half way between South Hadley and +Northampton. And at night, before he lost his tail, he lighted up the +big hollow cave inside the horse chestnut tree with his yellow torch +of a tail. + +After he was nominated with speeches and elected with votes to be the +chairman, he stood up on the platform and took a gavel and banged with +the gavel and made the Committee of Sixty Six come to order. + +"It is no picnic to lose your tail and we are here for business," he +said, banging his gavel again. + +A blue fox from Waco, Texas, with his ears full of dry bluebonnet +leaves from a hole where he lived near the Brazos river, stood up and +said, "Mr. Chairman, do I have the floor?" + +"You have whatever you get away with--I get your number," said the +chairman. + +"I make a motion," said the blue fox from Waco, "and I move you, Sir, +that this committee get on a train at Philadelphia and ride on the +train till it stops and then take another train and take more trains +and keep on riding till we get to Medicine Hat, near the Saskatchewan +river, in the Winnipeg wheat country where the Head Spotter of the +Weather Makers sits on a high stool in a high tower on a high hill +spotting the weather. There we will ask him if he will respectfully +let us beseech him to bring back weather that will bring back our +tails. It was the weather took away our tails; it is the weather can +bring back our tails." + +"All in favor of the motion," said the chairman, "will clean their +right ears with their right paws." + +And all the blue foxes and all the yellow flongboos began cleaning +their right ears with their right paws. + +"All who are against the motion will clean their left ears with their +left paws," said the chairman. + +And all the blue foxes and all the yellow flongboos began cleaning +their left ears with their left paws. + +"The motion is carried both ways--it is a razmataz," said the +chairman. "Once again, all in favor of the motion will stand up on the +toes of their hind legs and stick their noses straight up in the air." +And all the blue foxes and all the yellow flongboos stood up on the +toes of their hind legs and stuck their noses straight up in the air. + +"And now," said the chairman, "all who are against the motion will +stand on the top and the apex of their heads, stick their hind legs +straight up in the air, and make a noise like a woof woof." + +And then not one of the blue foxes and not one of the yellow flongboos +stood on the top and the apex of his head nor stuck his hind legs up +in the air nor made a noise like a woof woof. + +"The motion is carried and this is no picnic," said the chairman. + +So the committee went to Philadelphia to get on a train to ride on. + +"Would you be so kind as to tell us the way to the union depot," the +chairman asked a policeman. It was the first time a flongboo ever +spoke to a policeman on the streets of Philadelphia. + +"It pays to be polite," said the policeman. + +"May I ask you again if you would kindly direct us to the union depot? +We wish to ride on a train," said the flongboo. + +"Polite persons and angry persons are different kinds," said the +policeman. + +The flongboo's eyes changed their lights and a slow torch of fire +sprang out behind where his tail used to be. And speaking to the +policeman, he said, "Sir, I must inform you, publicly and respectfully, +that we are The Committee of Sixty Six. We are honorable and +distinguished representatives from places your honest and ignorant +geography never told you about. This committee is going to ride on the +cars to Medicine Hat near the Saskatchewan river in the Winnipeg wheat +country where the blizzards and chinooks begin. We have a special +message and a secret errand for the Head Spotter of the Weather +Makers." + +"I am a polite friend of all respectable people--that is why I wear +this star to arrest people who are not respectable," said the +policeman, touching with his pointing finger the silver and nickel +star fastened with a safety pin on his blue uniform coat. + +"This is the first time ever in the history of the United States that +a committee of sixty-six blue foxes and flongboos has ever visited a +city in the United States," insinuated the flongboo. + +"I beg to be mistaken," finished the policeman. "The union depot is +under that clock." And he pointed to a clock near by. + +"I thank you for myself, I thank you for the Committee of Sixty Six, I +thank you for the sake of all the animals in the United States who +have lost their tails," finished the chairman. + +Over to the Philadelphia union depot they went, all sixty-six, half +blue foxes, half flongboos. As they pattered pitty-pat, pitty-pat, +each with feet and toenails, ears and hair, everything but tails, into +the Philadelphia union depot, they had nothing to say. And yet though +they had nothing to say the passengers in the union depot waiting for +trains thought they had something to say and were saying it. So the +passengers in the union depot waiting for trains listened. But with +all their listening the passengers never heard the blue foxes and +yellow flongboos say anything. + +"They are saying it to each other in some strange language from where +they belong," said one passenger waiting for a train. + +"They have secrets to keep among each other, and never tell us," said +another passenger. + +"We will find out all about it reading the newspapers upside down +to-morrow morning," said a third passenger. + +Then the blue foxes and the yellow flongboos pattered pitty-pat, +pitty-pat, each with feet and toenails, ears and hair, everything +except tails, pattered scritch scratch over the stone floors out into +the train shed. They climbed into a special smoking car hooked on +ahead of the engine. + +"This car hooked on ahead of the engine was put on special for us so +we will always be ahead and we will get there before the train does," +said the chairman to the committee. + +The train ran out of the train shed. It kept on the tracks and never +left the rails. It came to the Horseshoe Curve near Altoona where the +tracks bend like a big horseshoe. Instead of going around the long +winding bend of the horseshoe tracks up and around the mountains, the +train acted different. The train jumped off the tracks down into the +valley and cut across in a straight line on a cut-off, jumped on the +tracks again and went on toward Ohio. + +The conductor said, "If you are going to jump the train off the +tracks, tell us about it beforehand." + +"When we lost our tails nobody told us about it beforehand," said the +old flongboo umpire. + +Two baby blue foxes, the youngest on the committee, sat on the front +platform. Mile after mile of chimneys went by. Four hundred smokestacks +stood in a row and tubs on tubs of sooty black soot marched out. + +"This is the place where the black cats come to be washed," said the +first baby blue fox. + +"I believe your affidavit," said the second blue fox. + +Crossing Ohio and Indiana at night the flongboos took off the roof of +the car. The conductor told them, "I must have an explanation." "It +was between us and the stars," they told him. + +The train ran into Chicago. That afternoon there were pictures upside +down in the newspapers showing the blue foxes and the yellow flongboos +climbing telephone poles standing on their heads eating pink ice cream +with iron axes. + +Each blue fox and yellow flongboo got a newspaper for himself and each +one looked long and careful upside down to see how he looked in the +picture in the newspaper climbing a telephone pole standing on his +head eating pink ice cream with an iron ax. + +Crossing Minnesota the sky began to fill with the snow ghosts of +Minnesota snow weather. Again the foxes and flongboos lifted the roof +off the car, telling the conductor they would rather wreck the train +than miss the big show of the snow ghosts of the first Minnesota snow +weather of the winter. + +Some went to sleep but the two baby blue foxes stayed up all night +watching the snow ghosts and telling snow ghost stories to each other. + +Early in the night the first baby blue fox said to the second, "Who +are the snow ghosts the ghosts of?" The second baby blue fox answered, +"Everybody who makes a snowball, a snow man, a snow fox or a snow fish +or a snow pattycake, everybody has a snow ghost." + +And that was only the beginning of their talk. It would take a big book +to tell all that the two baby foxes told each other that night about +the Minnesota snow ghosts, because they sat up all night telling old +stories their fathers and mothers and grandfathers and grandmothers +told them, and making up new stories never heard before about where the +snow ghosts go on Christmas morning and how the snow ghosts watch the +New Year in. + +Somewhere between Winnipeg and Moose Jaw, somewhere it was they +stopped the train and all ran out in the snow where the white moon was +shining down a valley of birch trees. It was the Snowbird Valley where +all the snowbirds of Canada come early in the winter and make their +snow shoes. + +At last they came to Medicine Hat, near the Saskatchewan River, where +the blizzards and the chinooks begin, where nobody works unless they +have to and they nearly all have to. There they ran in the snow till +they came to the place where the Head Spotter of the Weather Makers +sits on a high stool in a high tower on a high hill watching the +weather. + +"Let loose another big wind to blow back our tails to us, let loose a +big freeze to freeze our tails onto us again, and so let us get back +our lost tails," they said to the Head Spotter of the Weather Makers. + +Which was just what he did, giving them exactly what they wanted, so +they all went back home satisfied, the blue foxes each with a big wavy +brush of a tail to help him when he runs, when he eats, when he walks +or talks, when he makes pictures or writes letters in the snow or when +he puts a snack of bacon meat with stripes of fat and lean to hide +till he wants it under a big rock by the river--and the yellow +flongboos each with a long yellow torch of a tail to light up his home +in a hollow tree or to light up his way when he sneaks at night on the +prairie, sneaking up on the flangwayer, the hipper or the hangjast. + +[Illustration] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Rootabaga Stories, by Carl Sandburg + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROOTABAGA STORIES *** + +***** This file should be named 27085.txt or 27085.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/0/8/27085/ + +Produced by Betsie Bush, ronnie sahlberg and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was made using scans of public domain material from +the Children's Books Online - Rosetta Project) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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