Rootabaga Stories

he White

lue W

Man on

ls With

Haggly

Slacke

l Yarn

ato Bloss

Fa

y S

ip

ippe

rse Girl and

o

lamps and fires are lit for the night in winter, then the fathers and mothers in the Rootabaga

as a girl she liked to ride horses. Best of all things for her was to be straddle of a white ho

sheep wool, and another white as silver. And she could not tell beca

new moon, any or either is white enough for me. I like the white manes, the white flanks, the white noses, th

nd 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 thing

as a night wind with blue of summer stars in summer and blue of winter stars in winter. And there was yet another, a blue wind of the t

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,

ne of her white horses, and he, wearing his strong hiking shoes in the dirt and the grass, it had to happen t

hite as a silver ribbon of the new moon. And he told her all about the blue winds he liked listening to, the early morn

hers and mothers and sisters and brothers and uncles and aunts wondered about them and talked about them, because they didn't tell

short lett

hearts, Old Folk

me from and where the blue winds begin. Keep a

te Hors

ue Win

the west Rootabaga Country, to guess

looked like he had come a long ways. So they asked him the question they always asked of any rider w

answered,

sitting together and talking to each other, sometimes singing, in a place where the land runs high and tough rocks reach up. An

oy, 'that's where t

ide of where the blue winds begin, there were white m

, 'that's where the wh

ns in a day, white horses, some white as snow, some like new w

ongs to us; this is what we started for; this is where the w

e people of the west Rootabaga Country. That was all he

orse Girl and the Blue Wind Boy wondered and talked often about whether the Gray Man on

Rootabaga Country when the dishes are washed at night and the cool of the eve

ls with Ball

n on Ho

looked as if he had come a long ways. He looked like a brother to the same Gray

re gray deep and sad. He spoke short and seemed strong. Sometimes his eyes look

ce he lifted his head and face to the s

e met six girls with six fine braids of yellow hair and six balloons apiece. That is, each and every one of the six girls had six fine long braids of yellow hair and each braid of hair had a balloon

ed with lights and his face began to look hopeful. He stopped his horse when he ca

u going?"

who-who?" the six

nd your balloons,

and sideways, which of course turned all the balloons back and forth and sideways because

get back where you came from

an see," they all answered just to be answering and they dipped their heads

be asking and the six balloon gi

orning sun coming up over harvest fields. And he said to them, "Tell me

e wind over her head, and said: "Balloons are wishes. The wind made them. The west wind makes the red balloo

her nose, looked up at her six balloons dipping up a

balloon. It was talking to itself like people talk. It said, 'I used to be a yellow pumpkin flower stuck down close

fraid they would wiggle while she slid with a skip, turned

ver water, ocean water, waterfall water, falling and falling over a rocky waterfall, any water you want. The wind sa

oing to get loose and go to the sky-and when the little girl came down from her jump and was standing on he

ake us look up. Th

d down to her knees and looked at her toes, then swinging straight up and

r apple trees where half is red pippins and half is red pippin balloons. Look for watermelons too. A lo

s under her ears and wiggled all her fingers, then stopped all her kicking and wiggling, and stood looking u

rrible quick and when they come they burn quick, so the balloon is made light so it can run away terrible quic

hopeful. His eyes lit up. Twice he smiled. And after he said good-by and rode up the

hing he saw was the six girls each with six balloons fastene

ght foot and said, "He is a nice man. I think he must be our uncle. If he com

" or "Yes, yes," or "Yes, yes, yes," real fa

agglyhoagly

ith His

close if we walk on a country road, an

ook like numbers, look like the arithmetic writing of

the Village of Liver-and-Onions. When Henry Hagglyhoagly turned his face up to look at the sky it seemed to him as though the sky came down close to his nose, and

y asked himself, "if I say many bitter bitters it is

ers warm," he said every once in a whil

s like a nipping, gripping clothes pin on his nose. He put his wool yarn mittens up on his nose and rubbed till the wind

as though the s

his

ns or pups, or two little cub bears, or two little Idaho ponies

elbow?" he said to the mittens, "I shall me

accordion nor a concertina nor a fiddle. It is a gui

piano because a piano is handy to play for everybody in the house an

panish Spinnish Splishy guitar made special in a h

nd the oats thrashing all thrashed and the rutabaga digging all dug, I took eig

I said to the head clerk in the hardware store, 'Sir, the article I desire to purchase this evening as one of your high class customers

ishy guitar to go to the home of Susan Slackentwist, the daughter of the r

itar out from under the left elbow of Henry Hagglyhoagly. And the worse the w

tepping long steps till at last he stopp

fting his wool yarn mittens to his nose and rubb

field near the home of the rutabaga king and

window and slung the guitar around in front

off the cold wind of the bitter cold weather will freeze my hands so stiff and bitt

warm wool yarn mittens he called his chums. It was the first time any strong young man going to see his sweet

her by. And for years afterward many a sweetheart in the Rootabaga Country told her lover, "If you wish to

hy 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 l

a Slipper

ootabaga Country she learns some t

en the slim early moon looks like the toe and the heel of a dancer's foot," was the

she ask

to the moon, and fasten itself on the moon as if th

a secret word was passed around to all the

are going walking without any feet in them. To-night when those who put us on their feet in the dayt

d the boots everywhere walked out of the bedrooms and the closets. Along the sidewalks on the streets, up

the daytime. Some walked clumping and clumping, coming down heavy

their toes out and held their heels in, just like people in th

ancing round dances and square dances, one steps and two steps, toe dances and toe and heel dances, dances close up and da

to the window and looked up in the sky and saw a Dancing Slippe

g slipper of a moon!' she crie

! what a moon!'-and kicked her foot with

ew up and went on and on and

ed the girl about it she said, 'It slipped off my foot and went up and up

eir girls growing up, "Never kick a slipper at the moon if it is the time of the Dancing