Rootabaga Stories | Page 5

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 nix nix."
"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. Each 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."
"O-h-h-h," said one uncle. "Um-m-m-m," said the other three uncles.
And they talked among each other afterward, the four uncles by
themselves, saying:
"She has 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."

How 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 Liver and Onions, 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 as the gray gravy on a beefsteak. The
rat had a basket. In the basket was a catfish. And 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 Cream Puffs, please don't," was the exclamation
of Wing Tip the Spick.
The 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 good-by,
they turned to Wing Tip the Spick and asked her to tell them about the
fave rusty lucky rats of the Village of Cream 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. I 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 wished to be early anywhere I should go by the clock that ran fast.
And if I wished 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 Cream 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 year ago, long before the snow birds began to wear funny little
slip-on hats and funny little