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."