Rootabaga Stories | Page 4

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 Cream Puffs When the Wind
Blows It Away
A girl named Wing Tip the Spick came to the Village of

Liver-and-Onions to visit her uncle and her uncle's uncle on her
mother's side and her uncle and her uncle's uncle on her father's side.
It was the first time the four uncles had a chance to see their little
relation, their niece. Each one of the four uncles was proud of the blue
eyes of Wing Tip the Spick.
The two uncles on her mother's side took a long deep look into her blue
eyes and said, "Her eyes are so blue, such a clear light blue, they are the
same as cornflowers with blue raindrops shining and dancing on silver
leaves after a sun shower in any of the summer months."
And the two uncles on her father's side, after taking a long deep look
into the eyes of Wing Tip the Spick, said, "Her eyes are so blue, such a
clear light shining blue, they are the same as cornflowers with blue
raindrops shining and dancing on the silver leaves after a sun shower in
any of the summer months."
And though Wing Tip the Spick didn't listen and didn't hear what the
uncles said about her blue eyes, she did say to herself when they were
not listening, "I know these are sweet uncles and I am going top 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 fifty questions this morning, fifty questions
tomorrow morning, and fifty questions any morning. I like to listen to
questions. They slip in one ear and slip out of the other."
Then the uncles asked her the first question first, "Where do you come
from?" and the second question second, "Why do you have two
freckles on your chin?"
"Answering your first question first," said Wing Tip the Spick, "I come
from the Village of Cream Puffs, a little light village on the upland corn
prairie. From a long ways off it looks like a little hat you could wear on
the end of your thumb to keep the rain off your thumb."

"Tell us more," said one uncle. "Tell us much," said another uncle.
"Tell it without stopping," added another uncle. "Interruptions nix nix,"
murmured the last of the uncles.
"It is a light little village on the upland corn prairie many miles past the
sunset in the west," went on Wing Tip the Spick. "It is light the same as
a cream puff is light. It sits all by itself on the big long prairie where
the prairie goes up in a slope. There on the slope the winds play around
the village. They sing it wind songs, summer wind songs in summer,
winter wind songs in winter."
"And sometimes like a accident, the wind gets rough. And when the
wind gets rough it picks up the little Village of Cream Puffs and blows
it away off in the sky—all by itself."
"O-o-h-h," said one uncle. "Um-m-m-m," said the other three uncles.
"Now the people in the village all understand the winds with the wind
songs in summer and winter. And they understand the rough wind who
comes sometimes and picks up the village and blows it away off high
in the sky all by itself.
"If you go to the public square in the middle of the village you will see
a big roundhouse. If you take the top off the roundhouse you will see a
big spool with a long string winding up around the spool.
"Now whenever the rough wind comes and picks up the village and
blows it away off high in the sky all by itself then the string winds
loose 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 at last when the rough wind, so forgetful, so careless, has had all
the fun it wants, then the people of the village all come together and
begin to wind up the spool and bring back the village where it was
before."

"O-o-h-h," said one uncle. "U-m-m-m," said the other three uncles.
"And sometimes when you come to the village to see your little relation,
your niece who has four such sweet uncles, maybe she will lead you
through the middle of the city to the