Rootabaga Stories

Two Sk

rthwes

Spike Lim

Bras

Bras

ws

g Le

Slip

to be

Jackr

ooden

aghorn

ght Po

scrapers Wh

a C

-and-Onions. In the daylight when the streets poured full of people buying and

ts, in the night when a mist crept up the streets and threw a purple and gray wrapper over everything, in the night when the stars and

I know and everybody knows, that is their secret. One thing is sure: they often were seen leaning

plates, and out across silver snakes of winding rivers in the morning sun. And high on the roof of the other skyscraper was a tin brass goose looking o

ed miles in a few hours, coming so fast always while the skyscrapers were standing still, st

yet," the Northwest Wind wou

e the mountains standing yet way ou

a, and the railroads are still going, still running across the pra

two skyscrapers. Often the Northwest Wind shook the tin brass

loose the tin brass goa

se the tin brass goose on

loose your tin brass goat and if I ever blow loose your tin brass goose, it will be when

d selling,-the customers with parcels, packages and bundles-while away high on their roofs stood the goat and the goose lo

hwest Wind kept coming, tellin

the two skyscrapers d

their child came it

still all its life on a street corner. Yes, if we have a child she must be free to

olden Spike Limited, the fastest long distance train in the Rootaba

ay from the big city, far away to the mountains, far away to the sea, running

child was carrying a thousand people a thousand miles a day, so when people

were crazy. "Yah yah, blah blah, yoh yoh," was what it sounded like to the

he cry of the newsies that came up a

ned and heard the newsies yammering, "All about the great train wreck!

and customers with bundles, all stood around talking and wondering about two things next to each other on the street car t

Watch and t

bb

long before the doo-doo-jangers whistled among the honeysuckle blossoms and the bitter-basters cried their last and dying wrangling cries, long before the

shoes and they were close to the smells of the earth. They learned the ways of birds and bugs, why birds have wings, why bugs have legs, why the gladdywhinge

ong the Dagger Dancers." They had just had a breakfast of coffee and hot hankypank cakes covered with co

g black eyelashes. "The best secret we have come across is a rope of gol

a man with a sorry face. "Why?" they asked h

he streets bareheaded in the summertime laughing; and these things were against the law. Worst of all he sneezed at the wrong time and he sneezed before the wrong persons; he sneezed when it was not wise to sneez

They whispered to each other. Then Young Leather said, "Take this dollar watch. Give it to your brother. Tell him when they are lea

ong 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 o

Down Among the Dagger Dancers." The man with a sorry face, not so sorry now any more, came run

opened his sorry face and told the secrets of the five long-legged spider jack-rabbits to Young Lea

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 wit

d his friends. "I command you, therefore, to throw the building high in the air because the higher it g

first saw the skyscraper, when they were far off along a country

Young Leather and Red Slippers said to the mayor of the town when they called on him at t

u do?" aske

spider jack-rabbits over the highest skyscr

is daylight and you are giving your performance, then here is your license permit

They wished to know how it would look to see five long-legged,

ow Young Leather and Red Slippers held the jack-rabbits one by one in their arms and petted them,

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 le

long ears touching each other, they lifted off their feet and went on and on and up and up till they cleared the roof of the skyscraper. Then they came down an

stripes and spots. "Ah, we're sorry to see you go, Ah-h, we're sor

him on the nose, kissed the last and fifth

d in his long ears. And he, because he knew what they were saying and why they were sa

ripes and spots lifted off his feet and went on and on and on and up and up and when he came to the roof of t

th the stripes on his back and the spots on his hair, he was gone. And Young Leather and Red Slippers said they we

Indian and

ff

tood out milk white. And there was a thin blue mist drifted and shifted like a woman's veil up and down Main Street, up to

down off his stand. The Shaghorn Buffalo in front of the haberdasher shop li

Street they met. The Wooden Indian jumped straddle of the Shaghorn Buffalo. And the Sha

ifting like a woman's blue veil, the blue mist filled the valley and the milk white moon filled the valley. A

e and wooden feathers, and the Shaghorn Buffalo with his big

stood

, after they had looked a long while, they turned around and the Shaghorn Buffalo put his head down and ran like a prairie wind down Main Street till he was exa

g on the steps of the cigar store last night watching for burglars. And when I saw the Wooden Indian step down and the Shaghorn Buf