Rootabaga Stories-Carl Sandburg

0:00This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information and to find out how you can volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Read and Recorded by Betsy Bush, Marquette Michigan, July 2006. Rootabega Stories by Carl Sandberg. Part 1. Three stories about the finding of the zigzag railroad, the pigs with bibs on, the circus clown ovens, the village of livern onions, the village of cream puffs. People. Give me the axe. Please give me. X-Meno Questions, the ticket agent, wing tip the spick, the four uncles, the rat in a blizzard, the four rusty rats, more people, balloon pickers, baked clowns, polka dot pigs.

1:01How they broke away to go to the Rootabega Country. Give me the axe. Live 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 give me the axe. The door knobs 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 give me the axe, he was named please give me. When the first girl came, she was named X-Meno 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.

2:01And the hair on top of their heads was a dark wild grass. And they loved to turn the door knobs, 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 boy has came and no more girls came, give me the axe said to himself. My first boy is my last, and my last girl is my first, and they picked their names themselves. Please give me, grew up, and his ears got longer. X-Meno 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 door knobs 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?

3:12It is too much to be too long anywhere, said the tough old man, give me the axe. And please give me, and X-Meno Questions, the tough son and the tough daughter of give me the axe, 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 the rag bags 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 Kankake, to Kalamazoo, to Kamchatka, to the Chetahuchi. 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, give me the axe, put in a rag bag and slung on his back, like a rag picker going home.

4:22Then he took, please give me his oldest and youngest and only son, and X-Meno 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. 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 as far as the railroad rails go and then forty ways farther yet. Was the reply of Gimme the axe? So far, so early, so soon, asked the ticket agent wiping more sleep out of his eyes. Then I will give you a new ticket. It blew in. It is a long slick leather slab ticket with a blue spanch across it. Gimme the axe, thank the ticket agent once, thank the ticket agent twice, and then instead of thinking the ticket agent three times, he opened the rag bag and took out all the spot cash money he got for selling everything.

5:34Pigs, 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 Pleas Gimme and Axmeenow 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, chick, chick, chick, chick, chick, chick, chick. Sometimes the engineer hooded and tutored the whistle. Sometimes the fireman rang the bell. Sometimes the open and shut of the steam hogs nose choked and spit, fist fist fist fist fist fist. 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.

6:43Sometimes Gimme the Axe 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.

7:50The sky was thick with balloons. Red, blue, yellow balloons. White, purple and orange balloons. Peach, watermelon, and potato balloons. Rylof and Wheatloaf 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 onto the stilts again. Who is that away up there in the sky climbing like a bird in the morning? X-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.

8:57Will 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 who did 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 fist fist fist fist. Next is the country where the circus clowns come from. Said give me the axe 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 and stubby ovens. Lean link ovens all for baking either long or short clowns or fat and stubby or lean and link 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.

10:01Two 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 hand springs, cartwheels, summer salts, and flip-flops in the sawdust ring near the fence. The next we come to is the Rudebega country where the big city is the village of liver and onions. Said give me the axe, 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 until it stopped running straight and began running in zig-zags 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 zig-zags like one letter Z and another letter Z put next after the other.

11:11It seems like we go halfway and then back up. Said Axe Meenow questions. Look out of the window and see if the pigs have bibs on. Said give me the axe. If the pigs are wearing bibs, then this is the Rudebega country. And they looked out of the zig-zagging window of the zig-zagging cars, and the first pigs they saw had bibs on. And the next pigs and the next pigs, they 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 give me asked his father. The mothers and fathers fix it. Answered give me the axe. 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 to zig-zagging on and on, running on the tracks and the rails and the spikes, and the ties which were all zig-zag like the letters Z, and the letter Z.

12:19And after a while, the train zig-zagged on into the village of Liveranongans, known as the biggest city in the big, big Rudebega country. And so, if you are going to the Rudebega country, you will know when you get there, because the railroad tracks change from straight to zig-zag, 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 rag bag, and go to the railroad station, and ask the ticket agent for a long slick yellow leather slab ticket with a blue sponge 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. How they bring back the village of Kreme Puffs when the wind blows it away. A girl named Wingtip the Speck came to the village of Liveranongans 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.

13:30It 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 Wingtip the Speck. 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 though Wingtip the Speck didn't listen and didn't hear what the uncle said about the blue eyes of Wingtip the Speck, they 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 Wingtip the Speck didn't listen and didn't hear what the uncle said about her blue eyes,

14:32she did say to herself when they were not listening. I know these are sweet uncles and I'm 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. I will let you ask me 50 questions this morning, 50 questions tomorrow morning and 50 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 Wingtip the Speck, I come from the village of Kreme 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.

15:36Tell us more, said one uncle. Tell us much, said another uncle. Tell it without stopping, added another uncle. Interruptions, nicks, nicks 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 Wingtip the Speck. It is light the same as a Kreme Puff is light. It sits 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 Kreme Puffs and blows it away off in the sky all by itself. Oh, said one uncle.

16:37Mmm, 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 of 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 off 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 it lasts when the rough wind so forgetful, so careless has had all the fun it wants,

17:40then the people of the village all come together and begin to wind up the spool and bring back the village where it was before. Oh, said one uncle. Mmm, 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 next, nicks. 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.

18:41Each 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. Oh, said one uncle. Mmm, said the other three uncles. And they talked among each other afterward, the four uncles by themselves saying, she was 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.

19:43How 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 Liveren-Ugnans, 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 is the gray gravy on a beef steak. The rat had a basket. In the basket was a catfish. 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 Creme Puffs, please don't, was the exclamation of wing tip the spick.

20:50The 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 goodbye, they turned to wing tip the spick and asked her to tell them about the five rusty rats of the village of Creme 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.

21:50I 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 wish to be early anywhere, I should go by the clock that ran fast. And if I wish 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 Creme 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 snowbirds began to wear funny little slip on hats and funny little slip on shoes. And a way back long before the snowbirds learned how to slip off their slip on hats and how to slip off their slip on shoes, long ago in the far away village of liver and onions.

22:59The people who ate Creme 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 the village and the name of it shall be the village of Creme Puffs. 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 ice sickles 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.

24:12They 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 onto the long curved tails of the rusty rats till they came to the place where the village of Creme 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, where 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 snowbirds began to wear slip-on hats and slip-on shoes, long before they learned how to slip off the slip-on hats and slip off the slip-on shoes.

25:20Oh, said one of the uncles. Hmm, said the other three uncles. And sometime, added wing-tip the spec, when you go away from the village of Livernongans and cross the shampoo river and ride many miles across the upland prairie till you come to the village of Creme 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.

26:21End of Part 1 This is a LibraVox recording. All LibraVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information and to find out how you can volunteer, please visit LibraVox.org. Read and Recorded by Betsy Bush, Marquette Michigan, September 2006. Rootabaga Stories by Carl Sandberg. Part 2. Five Stories about the Potato Face Blind Man. People, the Potato Face Blind Man. Any ice today? Pickups? Lizzy Lazarus? Pokerface the baboon? Hotdog the tiger? Whitsome Wimble? A man shoveling money? A watermelon moon? White gold boys? Blue silver girls? Big white moon spiders? Zizzies? Give me the axe again.

27:29The Potato Face Blind Man who lost the diamond rabbit on his gold accordion. There was a Potato Face Blind Man used to play in a accordion on the main street corner nearest the post office in the village of Liver and Unghians. Any ice today came along and said, it looks like it used to be an 18 karat gold accordion with rich pawn shop 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.

28:33When 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. Add a boy little bunny? Add a boy little 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 pawn shop and took it out and stole it again and took it to a pawn shop and took it out and stole it again. And they keep on stealing it and taking it out of the pawn shop and stealing it again till the gold war off, so it looks like I used to be yesterday. Oh, yes, oh, yes, 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.

29:46And if a blind man goes to sleep, because his music is full of sleepy songs, like the long wind and 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 ears 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 post offices where everybody that gets a letter and everybody that don't get a letter stops and remembers the Potato Face Blind Man.

31:06How the Potato Face Blind Man enjoyed himself on a fine spring morning. On a Friday morning, when the Flummy Whisters were yodeling yisters high in the Elm trees, the Potato Face Blind Man came down to his work, sitting at the corner nearest the post office in the village of Liver and Unghians, and playing his gold that used to be accordion for the pleasure of the ears of the people going into the post office, to see if they got any letters for themselves or their children. 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 Flummy Whisters 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 breathing.

32:06I am going to listen to myself, playing on my accordion the same yodels, drawing them like long, glad breathing, and playing on my accordion the same yodels, drawing them like long, glad breathing. 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. On the side of him, on the left side on the sidewalk, he hung a wooden mug. On the right side on the sidewalk, he put a galvanized iron wash tub. 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 tree. Then came pickups. Always it happened, pickups asked questions and wished to know. And so this is how the questions and answers ran, when the Potato Face filled the ears of pickups with explanations.

33:18What 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 Flummy Wisters sing when they button loose the winter underwear of the baby Flummy Wisters 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 thimble full of dimes. And the tin copper cup? That is for the baseball 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.

34:22It 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 wash tub? What are they doing on the side of you on both sides on the sidewalk? Some time, maybe it will happen everybody who goes into the post office and comes out will stop and pour out all their money because they might get afraid their money is no good anymore. If such a happening ever happens, the knit will be nice for the people to have some place to pour their money, such as 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 pickups why this is so which? Some of the people who pass by here going into the post office and coming out, they have eyes, but they see nothing with their eyes.

35:23They 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 pickups. Good bye 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 Flummy Whister sing when they button loose the winter underwear of the baby Flummy Whisters. 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 rutabaga country they call it a watermelon moon and look for anything to happen.

36:23It was a night when a watermelon moon was shining. Lizzy 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 tonight and tomorrow 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 post office in the village of Leverand Unghins, 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.

37:24They 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 far away. In the eyes of hot dog was something hungry. Witson Wimble the pet and clothes ringer 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 Witson Wimble sat looking. First he looked into the eyes of Poker face the baboon and saw something far away. 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 him and see him. I look at him and I don't. You watch what their eyes say. I can only feel their hair. Then Witson Wimble commanded the chauffeur driving the car. Go on.

38:2915 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 wash tub? 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 wash tub. He shoveled out of the wheelbarrow till the dishpan was full, till the wash tub was full. Then he put the shovel into the wheelbarrow and went up Main Street. 6 o'clock that night pickups came along. The potato face blind man said to him, I have to carry home a heavy load of money tonight, an aluminum dishpan full of silver dollars and a galvanized iron wash tub full of silver dollars.

39:33So I asked you, will you take care of Poker face the baboon and hot dog the tiger? Yes, said pickups, 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 far away 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 pickups told the potato face blind man they left a note in their own handwriting on perfumed pink paper. It said mascots never stay long.

40:43And that is why for many years the potato face blind man had silver dollars to spend and that is why many people in the Rudebiga country keep their eyes open for a water melon moon in the sky with a green rim and a black spot. And red meat inside and black seeds making spots on the red meat. 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 post office. 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,

41:55hush baby hush baby and the wind fills the sky with them and they are like a sky full of birds who forgot 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.

43:02I 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 Rudebega country and sliding down from the moon on the 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.

44:13Once 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 hazelnuts. I listened more and I found out there are millions of pumpkins and millions of hazelnuts. So small, you and I cannot 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?

45:16Oh, 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's. How Gimmy the Axe found out about the zigzag railroad and who made it zigzag. One day Gimmy the Axe said to himself, today I go to the post office and around, looking around. Maybe I will hear about something happening last night when I was sleeping. Maybe a police man began laughing and fell in a siss turn 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 picture of buttermilk for the woman in the moon to drink and stop crying.

46:19Maybe he fell down the stairs and broke the picture 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, Gimmy the Axe 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 post office and around, looking around. It is a good speculation to look nice around, looking around at a necktie scarf, said Gimmy the Axe. It is a necktie with a picture like white face 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 in accordion on the corner next nearest the post office. He asked the potato face to tell him why the railroad tracks run zigzag in the Rudebaga country.

47:25Long 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 white face 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 zizzie 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 hizzards 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.

48:30The 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 shovel men with their shovels, smooth engineers with smooth blue prints, and water boys with water pails and water dippers for the shovel men to drink after shoveling the railroad straight. And I nearly forgot to say the steaman hoist operating engineers came and began their steam hoist in 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.

49:44They 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 shovel men, the smooth engineers and the steam hoist in operating engineers. This is it. We done it. So that is the how of the witch. It was the zizzies said, give me the axe. 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 makes 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.

51:08And of part two. The story is by Carl Sandberg. Part three. Three stories about the golden buckskin winter. People, Bixie Bimber, Peter Potato Blossom wishes, Jimmy the flea, Silas backspie, Fritz Axenbackz, James Sixbixdix, Jason Squiff the Sistern clean.

52:08The owner, Rags Habacook the Ragman, two daughters of the Ragman, two blue rats, a circus man with spot cash, a moving picture actor, a taxi cab driver. The story of Bixie Bimber and the power of the gold buckskin winter. Bixie 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 groundhog and whether the groundhog saw his shadow when he came out the second of February.

53:08If 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 post office 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 flag poles and smoke stacks and was a famous steeplejack. Bixie Bimber liked him because he was a steeplejack a little, but more because he was a whistler. Every time Bixie said to Jimmy,

54:13I got the blues. Whistled the blues out of me. Jimmy would just naturally whistle till the blues just naturally went away from Bixie. On the way to the post office Bixie found a gold-buckskin wincher. 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 wincher is different from just a plain common wincher. 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, Bixie Bimber wore the gold-buckskin wincher and never knew it had a power and all the time the power was working.

55:21The 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 wincher. And that was why Bixie Bimber stopped at the post office and went back again asking the clerk at the post office 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 Bixie Bimber. They went to dances, hay rack rides, picnics, and high jinx together. All the time the power and the gold-buckskin wincher 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.

56:21She met the high school principal. His name was Fritz Axenbach's. Bixie dropped her eyes before him and threw smiles at him. And for six weeks he kept steady company with Bixie Bimber. They went to dances, hay rack rides, picnics, and high jinx together. Why do you go with him for steady company? Her relatives asked. It's a power he's got. Bixie 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 could answer was, it's a power. All the time of course the gold-buckskin wincher on the little chain around her neck was working. It was saying,

57:22if she meets a man with three X's in his name, she must fall head over heels in love with him. In a band concert in the public square one night, she met James six Bixix. 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, hay rack rides, picnics, and high jinx 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 rainwater sistern one day, listening to the echoes against the strange wooden walls of the sistern,

58:22the gold-buckskin wincher on the little chain around her neck slipped off and fell down into the rainwater. My luck is gone," said Bixie. Then she went into the house and made two telephone calls. One was to James six Bixix, 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 them away. Was what she telephoned Jimmy the flea? And so, if you ever come across a gold-buckskin wincher, 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 ex in his name. Or it will do other strange things because different winchers have different powers.

59:22The story of Jason Squiff and why he had a popcorn hat, popcorn mittens, and popcorn shoes. Jason Squiff was a sistern cleaner. He had greenish yellowish hair. If you looked down into a sistern when he was lifting buckets of slush and mud, you could tell where he was. You could pick him out down in the dark sistern 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 sistern. 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.

1:00:24Do I understand you sent for me to clean the sistern in your backyard? You understand exactly such, said Mrs. Bimber, and you are welcome as the flowers that bloom in the spring, Tralala. Then I will go to work and clean the sistern, Tralala. He answered, speaking to Mrs. Bimber, I'm the guy, Tralala. He said further, running his excellent fingers through his greenish yellowish hair, which was shining brightly. He began cleaning the sistern. Blixie Bimber came out in the backyard. She looked down in the sistern. It was all dark. It looked like nothing but all dark down there. Bli and Bli, she saw something greenish yellowish. She watched it. Soon she saw it was Jason Squiff's head and hair.

1:01:24And then she knew the sistern was being cleaned, and Jason Squiff was on the job. So she sang Tralala and went back into the house and told her mother Jason Squiff was on the job. The last bucket full of slush and mud came as 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 winter, Blixie Bimber lost from the gold chain around her neck, the week before when she was looking down into the sistern to see what she could see. It was exactly the same gold-buckskin winter 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 winter in his vest pocket and spoke to himself again. It's luck!

1:02:29A 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 laugh. Something funny is happening, he said. And you are it! they all laughed at him again with ticklish laughs. Then they showed him. His hat was popcorn, his mittens popcorn, and his shoes popcorn. He didn't know the gold-buckskin winter had a power and was working all the time. He didn't know the winter in his vest pocket was saying, you have a little cue in your name, and because you have the pleasure and happiness of having a cue 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.

1:03:38So he tried on all his hats, mittens, and shoes. Always they changed to popcorn, the minute he had them on. He went downstairs 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 Kreme 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.

1:04:38The light of the shining popcorn lit up the hole 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 go alone with my thoughts. Everybody looks at me when I go up the street. If I meet a funeral, even the Paul Bears 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 groom altogether. 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.

1:05:38Then 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 boy is yelled, snowman, yari dahi dahi, snowman. 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 me, he said to himself. I am distinguished, 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-buck skin-winter with a power working, the power saying,

1:06:41you 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-buck skin-winter being in the vest. He just handed the vest to a ragman. The ragman put the vest with the gold-buck skin-winter 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 cis-turn, cleaning the cis-turn, or when anybody saw him walking along the street, they knew him by his greenish yellowish hair which was always full of bright lights.

1:07:41And so, if you have a Q in your name, be careful if you ever come across a gold-buck skin-winter. Remember, different winchers have different powers. The story of Rags Habakkuk, the two blue rats, and the circus man who came with spot cash money. Rags Habakkuk was going home. His day's work was done. The sun was down. Street lamps began shining. Burglers 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 today.

1:08:46Any old clothes, old coats, pants, vest, I take any old clothes you got. Yes, Rags Habakkuk was going home. In the gunny sack 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 Habakkuk. In the pocket of the vest was the gold-buck skin-winter with a power in it. Well, Rags Habakkuk got home just like always, sat down to supper, and smacked his mouth, and had a big supper of fish, just like always. And then he went out to a shanty in the back yard, and opened up the gunny sack rag bag, and fixed things out classified, just like every day when he came home, he opened the gunny sack bag and fixed things out classified. The last thing of all he fixed out classified was the vest with a gold-buck skin-winter in the pocket.

1:09:52Put 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 Habakkuk kissed his wife Gaby, and his 18-year-old girl Gaby, and his 19-year-old girl Gaby. 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 Habakkuk, 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.

1:10:53The 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'd been picking Rags, he said. Two blue rats stand by my ears, and never say anything if they know I am listening to anything they tell me. So Rags Habakkuk 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-wincher and the power working. Down in the pocket of the vest he had on, the gold-buckskin-wincher power was saying,

1:11:58because 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 Habakkuk 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, vest. 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 Habakkuk. Sometimes women came running out on the 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,

1:13:03all the time the gold-buckskin-wincher and the power was working. It was saying, so long as old Rags Habakkuk 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 Texi-Camp 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 $1,000 spot cash money for one of the blue rats. He exposctulated with his mouth, and I give you $2,000 spot cash money for the two of the blue rats, both of them together. Show me how much spot cash money $2,000 is. All counted out in one pile for one man to carry away home in this gunny sack rag bag.

1:14:08Was the answer of Rags Habakkuk? The circus man went to the bank and came back with spot cash greenback's money. This spot cash greenback's 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 exposctulating with his mouth, the finest silk rags. He exposctulated again, holding two fingers under the nose of Rags Habakkuk. I take it. Said Rags Habakkuk. I take it. It is a whole gunny sack bag full of spot cash greenback's 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.

1:15:14And that was why the next month his 18-year-old daughter married a taxi cab 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 19-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 wincher was stolen from Rags Habakkuk by the taxi cab driver. And of part three. This is a LibraVox recording. All LibraVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information and to find out how you can volunteer, please visit LibraVox.org.

1:16:18Read and recorded by Betsy Bush, Marquette Michigan, October 2006. Rudabaga Stories by Carl Sandberg, Part Four. Four stories about the deep doom of dark doorways. People, the rag doll, the broom handle, spoon of liquors, chocolate chins, dirty bibs, tinpan bangers, clean ears, easy ticklers, musical soup eaters, chubby chubs, sleepyheads, snoo-fu, blink, swink and jink, blunk, swunk and junk, Mrs. Snickers, Itapecapie, Minimini, Minimo, a potato bug millionaire, Bimbo the Snip, Bevo the Hike, award alderman, a barn boss,

1:17:22a weatherman, a traffic policeman, a monkey, a widow woman, an umbrella handle maker, 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 door one day and knocked off both the glass eyes soared 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.

1:18:29There 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 liquors. 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. Everyone 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 dish pans, 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 pan.

1:19:38And 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 spat at the end 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.

1:20:39And 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 moss 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.

1:21:55The 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 snasled the soup, and the noise they made could be heard far up at the head of the procession where the spoon liquors were marching. So, they dipped their soup and looked around and dipped their soup again. The chubby chubs were next. They were rolly-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 chubs and looked around and chubbed their chubs 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-shot or a little more than half-shot. They staggered just a little as though their feet were not sure where they were going.

1:23:12They 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? How the hat ashes shovel helped snoofeu. If you want to remember the names of all the six of the Snickers 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 a three littlest. The fuss was about a new hat for snoofeu, the snowman, 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.

1:24:17They 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 on 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 snowman with a big head like snoofeu, 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 trampling and clumping in, banging the door, and all six ejaculating to their mother at once.

1:25:24Where is the hat-ashes shovel? But Mrs. Snickers wasn't worried at all. She rubbed her chin with her finger and said softly. Oh, La-di-da, oh, La-di-da, where is that hat-ashes shovel? Last week I had it when I was making a hat for Mr. Snickers. I remember I had that hat-ashes shovel right up here over the clock. Oh, La-di-da, oh, La-di-da, go out and ring the front doorbell, she said, to jink Snickers. Jink ran away to the front door, and Mrs. Snickers 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, La-di-da, get out of here in a hurry," said Mrs. Snickers. Well, the children ran out and dug a big pile of hat-ashes with the hat-ashes shovel, and they made two hats for Snufu.

1:26:30One 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 Snufu, 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 Snickers 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. Three boys with jugs of molasses and secret ambitions. In the village of Liverand Agnians, if one boy goes to the grocery for a jug of molasses, it is just like always.

1:27:30And 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. Itape Kapai 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. Meenie-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. But when he looked at other people straight in the face they used to say, Meenie-Miney looks so sad like, I wonder if he'll get by.

1:28:32Meenie-Mo was different. He wasn't sad like and suspicious like Meenie-Miney, nor was he full of wishes inside and freckles outside like Itape Kapai. 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 them, 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 Itape Kapai, Meenie-Miney and Meenie-Mo was an ambition to go railroading,

1:29:38to 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 so sad, so sad it was hard to live and stand for it, they would all three put their hands on each other's shoulders 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.

1:30:42Two blocks from the grocery they stopped under a slippery elm tree. Etapeca 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 caflomp caflompady flomp. Down on the stone sidewalk, cracked into 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, looked peculiar and mysterious. Etapeca pie stepped into the molasses with his bare feet. It's a lot of fun, he said. It tickles all over. So meany-miny and minimo both stepped into the molasses with their bare feet.

1:31:42Then what happened just happened? One got littler, another got littler, all three got littler. You looked to me, only big as a potato bug. Said Etapeca pie to meany-miny and minimo. It's the same like you looked us. Said meany-miny and minimo to Etapeca 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.

1:32:43But what if you want a hat when you are frying with a frying pan? Asked Etapeca pie. That never happens to any respectable lady in this country. Don't you never have no new style hats? Asked meany-miny. No, but we always have new style frying pans every spring and fall. When we were sitting 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, Linda's a parasol apiece. Said all three. Gladly. Most gladly said the clerk. How do you do it?

1:33:44Asked Etape. I don't have to answer to 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 cannot sell you something I know you will surely lose. Neither can I ask you to pay for something you will forget somewhere, some time. And when you forget it, it will walk back here to me again. Look, look!

1:34:45As 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 Etapecapie. He looks like he had suspicions, said meanie-miney. He looks like he was all mixed up wishes and suspicions, said Minemo. And once more, because they all felt loansome, 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?

1:35:46They asked him. Because I got a million, he answered. A million what? A million flees. Who wants flees? You want flees if you're going to live here? Why so? Because flees is our money. In the potato bug country, if you got no flees, you can't buy nothing or anything. But if you got a million flees, you're a potato bug millionaire. Then he surprised them. I like you because you got wishes and freckles. He said to Ida Pecapie, filling the pocket of Ida with flees. And I like you because you got suspicions. And you're sad like. He said to meeny miny, filling meeny miny's pockets full of flees. And I like you because you got some wishes and some suspicions and you look mixed up. He said to meenymo, sticking handfuls and handfuls of flees into the pockets of meenymo.

1:36:52Wishes do come true and suspicions 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 flees, 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 Wonderham from the famous potato bug pigs, eggs from the potato bug hens, etc. It seemed to them they stayed a long while in the potato bug country, years and years. Yes, the time came when all their flees were gone. Then, whenever they wanted a railroad ride, or something to eat or place to sleep, they put their hands on each other's shoulders and sang the Mexico Joe song.

1:37:56In 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 and 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 under the heads and shoulders of all three. Eat a peccapai, meanie-miney, and minimo. 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.

1:39:06The 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. How bimbo the snips, Thom, 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, B.V. 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 father away. Said bimbo the snip. Because when I put my thumb to my nose and wiggled my fingers at the iceman, the wind changed.

1:40:11And just like mother always said, if the wind changed, the thumb would stay fastened to my nose and not come off. B.V. the hike took hold of the thumb and pulled. He tried a clothesline 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. B.V. the hike sent for the ward aldermen. The ward aldermen 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 understood the tricks of the wind and the wind changing.

1:41:11And 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 B.V. 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 B.V. 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.

1:42:13The monkey answered, get me a ladder with a whistle so I can climb up and whistle until the traffic which way to go. So B.V. 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. B.V. 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.

1:43:29B.V. the hike went to the next block found the house of the umbrella handle maker and said to him the wind changed and bimble the snips 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 this place and the monkey cannot take his place unless he has a ladder with a whistle to stand. And on and whistle the wagons and cars which way to go then the umbrella handle maker said tonight 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 do whistling but if you promise to have the ladder back by tonight you can take it. B.V. 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 B.V. the hike where bimble 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.

1:44:44The traffic policeman hit bimble the snips 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 B.V. thanked the policeman thanked the monkey and took the ladder with a whistle back to the umbrella handle maker's house and thanked him. When B.V. the hike came home that night bimble 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. End of part four. This is a LibraVox recording all LibraVox recordings are in the public domain for more information and to find out how you can volunteer please visit LibraVox.org.

1:45:51Read and recorded by Betsy Bush, Marquette Michigan October 2006. Rudevaga stories by Carl Sandberg, part five. 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. 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.

1:46:58In the night time when all the people buying and selling were gone home and there were only policemen and taxi cab 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 in 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 at 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.

1:48:03Now the northwest wind was a friend of the two skyscrapers coming so far, coming five hundred miles and a few hours coming so fast. The north wind was a friend of the two skyscrapers coming so far, coming five hundred miles and a few hours coming so fast. Now the northwest wind was a friend of the two skyscrapers coming so far, coming five hundred miles and 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?

1:49:04Yes, 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.

1:50:22And there's somebody's funeral. So time passed on and the two skyscrapers stood with their feet among the policemen and the taxi cabs, 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.

1:51:25Yes, 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 Rudebega 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.

1:52:31Then time passed on, there came a day when the newsies yelled as though they were crazy. Ya ya blah blah yo yo! was what it sounded like to the two skyscrapers who never bothered much about what the newsies were yelling. Ya ya blah blah yo yo! 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, taxi cab 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.

1:53:35One was a tin brass goat, the other was a tin brass goose, and they lay next to each other. 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 Haygreen in their marvelous curving tail feathers. Long before the doodoo jangers whistled among the honeysuckle blossoms and the bitter bastards cried their last and dying wrangling cries. Long before the sad happenings that came later, it was then some years earlier than the year 50-50 that young leather and red slippers crossed the Rudebega country. To begin with they were walking across the Rudebega 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.

1:54:43They learned the ways of birds and bugs, why birds have wings, why bugs have legs, why the gladi-wingers have spotted eggs in a basket nest in a boob-low tree, and why the cheesy whizzies 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 Rudebega country singing, deep down among the dagger dancers. They had just had a breakfast of coffee and hot hanky-pank cakes covered with cows butter, young leather said to red-slipper. What is the best secret we have come across this summer? That is easy to answer, red-slippers, said, with the long, flesh 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.

1:55:44Walking on they came to a town where they met a man with a sorry face. Why, they asked him, and he answered, my brother isn't 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 haircut pump-pumbador and went out on the streets bare-headed 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 tomorrow morning. The gallows made of lumber and the rope made of hemp. They are waiting for him tomorrow 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.

1:56:48It 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 dragonfly wings. The dollar-watch changed into a dragonfly ship. The man who was going to be hanged jumped into the dragonfly ship and flew wanging away before anybody could stop him.

1:57:52Young 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 anymore, came running after them. Behind the man and running after him were five long-legged spider jackrabbits. These are for you, was his exclamation, and they all sat down on the stump of a boob-low tree. He opened his sorry face and told the secrets of the five long-legged spider jackrabbits to young leather and red-slippers. They waved goodbye and went on up the road leading the five new jackrabbits. 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.

1:58:58And 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 along a country road singing their old song, deep down among the dagger dancers. We got a show and we give up 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.

1:59:58What do you do, asked the mayor? We jump five Jackrabbits, five long-legged spider Jackrabbits, 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 Jackrabbits jump over the highest skyscraper in the city. Four of the Jackrabbits had stripes. The fifth had stripes and spots. Before they started the show, young leather and red-slippers held the Jackrabbits 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.

2:01:09Zingo, they yelled to the first Jackrabbit. He got already. And now Zingo, they yelled again. And the Jackrabbit 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 Jackrabbits 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 up their feet and went on and on and up and up until 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.

2:02:24Then came the turn of the fifth Jackrabbit, the beautiful one with stripes and spots. Ah, we're sorry to see you go! Ah, we're sorry, they said, rubbing his long ears and feeling 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-bye, old bunny, good-bye! 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 Jackrabbit with his stripes and spots, lifted off his feet and went on and on and on and up and up.

2:03:31Till 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 he never came back. 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 to 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.

2:04:43Yes, 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 Haberdash's 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.

2:06:01So 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. And after they had looked along while and each of them got an eye full of the high hill, the big bend and the moon mist on the river all blue and white and soft. After they had looked along 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 Haberdash's 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 Kreme 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!

2:07:18Tis marvelish! Tis marvelish! End of Part 5 This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information and to find out how you can volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Read and Recorded by Betsy Bush, Market, Michigan, November 2006. Rudebaga Stories by Carl Sandberg. Part 6 Four stories about deer-deer eyes. People. The White Horse Girl. The Blue Wind Boy. The Gray Man on Horseback. Six girls with balloons. Henry Hagley Hogley. Susan Slacken Twist. Two wool yarn mittens. Peter Potato Blossom wishes. His father. Many shoes. Slippers. A Slipper Moon. The White Horse Girl and the Blue Wind Boy.

2:08:37When 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 Rudebaga 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 Rudebaga 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, loathing with a loose bridal among the hills and along the rivers of the West Rudebaga 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 Horse's 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.

2:09:45I like the white mains, the white flanks, the white noses, the white feet of all my ponies. I like the four locks 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 Rudebaga Country listening to the winds. There was a blue wind of daytime starting sometimes six o'clock in the 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.

2:10:45And 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 in 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 Rudebaga Country where they lived neighbors.

2:11:50And of course she told him all about the snow white horses and the horse white as new washed sheep wool and the horse white as 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 sweet hearts 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 Rudebaga Country to guess and guess where two darlings had gone. Many years passed.

2:13:08One day there came riding across the Rudebaga 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 mains, white flanks, white noses, white galloping feet.

2:14:18Look, 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 grey man on horseback would tell the people of the West Ridebake 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 grey 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 Ridebake 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 and winter.

2:15:33What six girls with balloons told the grey man on horseback? Once there came riding across the Ridebake country a grey man on horseback. He looked as if he had come a long ways. He looked like a brother to the same grey 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 grey face was sad and his eyes were grey 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. Yes, he did laugh once. It did happen once. He lifted his head and faced 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 grey horse. When he met six girls with six fine braids of yellow hair and six balloons a piece. 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.

2:16:54A 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 grey 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 are you going? He asked. Who? Who? Who? Who? Who? Who? Who? The six girls cheaped out. All six of you and your balloons. Where are you going? Oh, who? Who? Who? Back where we came from. And they all turned the heads back and forth in sideways, which of course turned all the balloons back and forth in sideways because the balloons were fastened to the fine braids of hair which were fastened to their heads.

2:17:58And where do you go when you get back where you came from? He asked, just to be asking. Oh, who? Who? 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 winds make the red balloons. The south wind makes the blue. The yellow and green balloons come from the east wind and the north wind.

2:19:07The 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, it balloon used to be a flower. It got tired. Then it had 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,

2:20:20now 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, the 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 pippens and half is red pippen balloons. Look for watermelons too. A long green balloon with white and yellow belly stripes as a ghost. It came from a watermelon said goodbye.

2:21:31The sixth little 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 sixth girls, the face of the grey man kept getting more hopeful. His eyes lit up twice he smiled. And after he said goodbye and rode up the street, he lifted his head and faced to the sky and let loose a long road.

2:22:44He 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, yes, 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. How Henry Hagley Hogley 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.

2:23:51It was this kind of a night. Henry Hagley Hogley was walking down a country road on his way to the home of Susan Slacken Twist, the daughter of the Rita Beg a King near the village of Liver Nungyuns. When Henry Hagley Hogley 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 four and number seven and four and seven over and over again across the sky. Why is it so bitter cold weather? Henry Hagley Hogley 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, clampy clamps on the nose of Henry Hagley Hogley, fastening the clamps like a nipping gripping close pin on his nose.

2:24:56He 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. 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. Here my chums keeping me company, he said to the mittens. Do you know what we got here under my 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, spanish, splishy guitar, made special. Yes mittens, they said a strong young man like me ought to have a piano because a piano is handed to play for everybody in the house. And a piano is handed to put a hat in overcodone or books or flowers. I snizzle that on mittens. I told him I seen a Spanish, spanish, splishy guitar, made special in a hardware store window for $8.5.

2:26:10And so mittens, are you listening mittens? After corn husking was all husked and the oats thrashing all thrashed and the rutabega 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 desired to purchase this evening as one of your high class customers, the article I desired to have after I buy it for myself, is the article there in the window, sir, the Spanish, spanish, splishy guitar. And mittens, if you are listening, I am taking the Spanish, spanish, splishy guitar to go to the home of Susan Slack and Twist, the daughter of the rutabega king near the village of Levernungenz, to sing a serenade song.

2:27:10The cold wind of the bitter cold weather blew and blew, trying to blow the guitar out from under the left elbow of Henry Hagley-Hogley, and the worst 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-ha, yeah, yeah, this is the big rutabega field near the home of the rutabega king, and to the home of his daughter Susan Slack and Twist. 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.

2:28:21I will play with mittens on, which he did. He stood under the window of Susan Slack and Twist 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 Slack and Twist opened her window and threw him a snowbird feather to keep for keepsake to remember her by, and for years afterward, many a sweetheart in the rutabega 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 Huggley-Huggley walked home on his long legs, stepping long steps, he said to his mittens, this Spanish, Finnish, 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 four and number seven and four and seven over and over.

2:29:42Never kick a slipper at the moon. When a girl is growing up in the rutabega 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, tonight all the shoes and the slippers and the boots of the world are going walking without any feet in them.

2:30:44Tonight 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 pussy foot, 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.

2:31:45Now there was a little girl in the village of Kreme 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 a 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 moon shine. It never came back that slipper. It was never seen again.

2:32:53When 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 Rudabagga 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. End of Part 6 This is a LibraVox recording. All LibraVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information and to find out how you can volunteer, please visit LibraVox.org. Read and recorded by Betsy Bush, Marquette Michigan, November 2006. Rudabagga Stories by Carl Sandberg, Part 7

2:33:57One story, only the fireborn understand blue. People, fire the goat, flim the goose, shadows. Sand flat shadows. Fire the goat and flim the goose, slept out. Stubb pines stood over them, and away up next over the stubb 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. Grey 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.

2:34:57Over 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 stubb 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, grey 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.

2:36:02And 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 are also grey, 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 on in.

2:37:03There 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, and 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 studied 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 studied herself and went on.

2:38:10This 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. 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 kiss 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 goat 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 cyclopian spectacle, which is passing on the east sky in front of the sun coming up.

2:39:23People 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 it's breath. The breath comes out and it does 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 senders. 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 fireborn understand.

2:40:24The fireborn 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 practiced. 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.

2:41:25His 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 practicing 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

2:42:30were born 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. Batman, 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 load him down and drags him on.

2:43:32He 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. See her the last of all the end of the procession on the back of her neck upon no. Sometimes the bond will get bigger. The woman's daggers her legs get bigger and stronger. She takes 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.

2:44:34She was made for practice. Listen, Flimm the goose. What I am telling you is a secret of the fireborn. I do not know whether you understand. We have slept together a night on the sand flats. Next to the booming rollers. Under the stubb pines. With the stars high over. And so I tell what the fathers of the fireborn 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 mule. 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.

2:45:38To the east, they were sometimes streak purple. Sometimes changing blue bell stripes. And to the south, they were silver blue, sheet blue. That morning was a long line of bluebird spots. Only the fire-borne 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 to 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-borne understand blue." End of Part 7 This is a Libravox recording.

2:46:47All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information and to find out how you can volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Read and recorded by Betsy Bush, Marquette Michigan, November 2006. Root-A-Baga Stories by Carl Sandberg. Part 8 Two stories about cornferries, blue foxes, flung booze, and happenings that happened in the United States and Canada. People, spink, scabooch, a man, cornferries, blue foxes, flung booze, a Philadelphia policeman, passenger conductor, Chicago newspapers, the head spotter of the weathermakers at Medicine Hat.

2:47:47How to tell cornferries if you see them? 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 cornferries. Leave out the cornferries and there wouldn't be any corn. All children know this, all boys and girls know that corn is no good unless there are cornferries. Have you ever stood in Illinois or Iowa and watched the late sun wind or the early fall wind running across the 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 cornferries come dancing and singing sometimes.

2:48:52If 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 cornferries marching and counter-marching in mocking grand marches over the big long blanket of green and silver. Then, to 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 plus-sizzy, plus-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 Scabooch, who is another little girl in the same house. Both Spink and Scabooch are asking the question, how can we tell cornferries if we see them? If we meet a cornferry, how will we know it?

2:49:56And this is the explanation the man gave to Spink, who is older than Scabooch, and Scabooch, who is younger than Spink. All cornferries wear overalls. They work hard, the cornferries, 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 cornferries 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 clothes.

2:51:02When 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 halfway 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 cornferries sit sewing, where their big toes pointed nearly straight up. If it is a cool night and looks like frost, then the laughter of the cornferries 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 cornferries laugh, then the laugh comes out of the mouth like a thin gold frost.

2:52:04If you should be lucky enough to see a thousand cornferries sitting between the cornrows 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 cornferries with a real knowledge, you can always tell by the stitches in their clothes what state they are from. In Illinois, the cornferries stitch 15 stitches of ripe corn silk across the woven corn leaf cloth. In Iowa, they stitch 16 stitches. In Nebraska, 17, and the farther west you go, the more corn silk stitches the cornferries have in the corn cloth clothes they wear. In Minnesota one year there were ferries with a blue sash of cornflowers across the breast. In the Dakotas, the same year, all the ferries wore pumpkin flower neckties, yellow foreign hands, and yellow ascats.

2:53:12And in one strange year it happened in both the states of Ohio and Texas, the cornferries 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 cornferries wore little wristlets of white morning glories. He said, whenever ferries 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 ferries because a hundred ferries could sit on one rail, and thousands and thousands of them could sit on the zigzags and sing, Plastisi, Plastisi, 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.

2:54:19So 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 cornferries look in the evening, the night's time and the moonlight. Now we shall see how they look in the daytime. In the daytime the cornferries 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.

2:55:19Around 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 rainstorm is blowing up terrible and driving all kinds of terrible across the corn field, 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 scobooch ask where the corn fairies get the nails. The answer to Spink and scobooch 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.

2:56:31And the next time you stand watching a big corn field 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 plus to Z, plus to Z, to Z, to Z, softer than an eye wink, softer than a Nebraska baby's thumb. How the animals lost their tails and got them back traveling from Philadelphia to medicine hat. Far up in North America, near this Saskatchewan River in the Winnipeg Wheat Country, not so far from the town of Moose Jaw, named for the jaw of Moose shot by a hunter there, up where the blizzards and the schnooks 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 and a high tower on a high hill sits the head spotter of the weather makers.

2:57:37When the animals lost their tail, 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 blue and blue, 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.

2:58:42It 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 flambu, 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 flambu to lose his tail, because it lights up his way when he sneaks at night on the prairie, sneaking up on the fling wares, the hippers and hangjasts, so good to eat. The animals picked a committee of representatives to represent them in a parley who, to see what steps could be taken by talking to do something. There were 66 representatives on the committee, and they decided to call it the committee of 66. 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 table. If they were scratching themselves under the chin, looking thoughtful, and just like a distinguished committee, then anybody would say just to look at them.

2:59:50This must be quite a distinguished committee. Of course, they would all have looked more distinguished if they 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. If the long yellow torch of a tail blows off behind a yellow fling bou, he doesn't look so distinguished as he did before the wind blew. So the committee of 66 had a meeting in a parley who, to decide what steps could be taken by talking to do something. For chairman, they picked an old fling bou, who was an umpire, and used to umpire many mix-ups. Among the fling-boos 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 fling-boo was called into umpire and to say which family was right, and which family was wrong, which family started it, and which family ought to stop it.

3:00:58He 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 Chapaquitic, this old fling-boo, and he lived there in a horse chestnut tree, six feet thick halfway between south-hadly and north-hampton. 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 a gavel and made the committee of 66 come to order. It is no panic 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 blue bonnet leaves from a hole where he lives near the brazos' river, stood up and said,

3:02:01,"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 watchers 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 be siege 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 the right ears with their right paws."

3:03:02And all the blue foxes and all the yellow-flong boos began cleaning their right ears with their right paws. ,"All who were against the motion, ,"will clean their left ears with their left paws," said the chairman, ,"and all the blue foxes and all the yellow-flong boos began cleaning their left ears with their left paws." The motion is carried both ways. It is a resmat as," 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-flong boos 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, ,"sticking their hind legs straight up in the air, and make a noise like a woof-woof."

3:04:02And then, not one of the blue foxes and not one of the yellow-flong boos 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 flong boo 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 flong boo. "'Polite persons and angry persons are different kinds,' said the policeman. The flong boos' eyes changed their lights and a slow torch of fire sprang out behind where his tail used to be,

3:05:03and speaking to the policeman, he said, "'Sir, I must inform you publicly and respectfully that we are the committee of 66. We are honorable and distinguished representatives from places you are 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 weathermakers. "'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 66 blue foxes and flong boos has ever visited a city in the United States,' insinuated the flong boos.

3:06:11"'I beg to be mistaken,' finished the policeman, the union depot is under that clock, and he pointed to a clock nearby. "'I thank you for myself. I thank you for the committee of 66. 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 66 half-blue foxes half-flong boos. As they patterned, pity-pat pity-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 flong boos say anything.

3:07:16They 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 to never tell us,' said another passenger. "'We will find out all about it, leaving the newspapers upside down tomorrow morning,' said a third passenger. Then the blue foxes and the yellow flong boos, pitted pity-pat pity-pat, each with feet and toenails, ears and hair, everything except tails, patterned a scrunch 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.

3:08:20It came to the horse-shoe curve near Altuna, where the tracks bend like a big horse-shoe. Instead of going around the long winding bend of the horse-shoe 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 cutoff, 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 flong boo umpire. Two baby blue foxes, the youngest on the committee, sat on the front platform. Mile after mile of chimneys went by. Four hundred smoke stacks stood in a row, and tubs on tubs of sitty black sutt marched out. "'This is the place where the black cats come to be washed,' said the first baby blue fox.

3:09:25"'I believe you're affidavid,' said the second blue fox. Crossing Ohio and Indiana at night, the flong boos 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 flong boos climbing telephone poles standing on their heads, eating pink ice cream with iron axes. Each blue fox and yellow flong boo 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 axe. Crossing Minnesota, the sky began to fill with the snow ghosts of Minnesota's snow weather. Again, the foxes and flong boos lifted the roof of the car, telling the conductor they would rather wreck the train and then miss the big show of the snow ghosts of the first Minnesota snow weather of the winter.

3:10:37Some 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 ghost of?'' The second baby blue fox answered, "'Everybody who makes a snowball, a snowman, a snow fox, or a snowfish, or a snow patty cake. Everybody has a snow ghost,' and that was only the beginning of their talk. It would take a big book to tell all 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 news stories never heard before about where the snow ghosts go on Christmas morning and how the snow ghosts watched the new year in.

3:11:37Somewhere between Winnipeg and Musja, 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 snow bird valley where all the snow birds 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 in 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 weathermakers 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 weathermakers. Which was just what he did, giving them exactly what they wanted, so they all went back home satisfied.

3:12:42The 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 flung booze each with a long yellow torch on a tail to light up his house in a hollow tree, or to light up his way when he sneaks at night on the prairie, sneaking up on the flangware, the hipper or the hangjast. End of Part 8. End of Rudabega Stories by Carl Sandberg.