Rootabaga Stories | Page 6

slip-on shoes, and away back long before
the snow birds learned how to slip off their slip-on hats and how to slip
off their slip-on shoes, long ago in the faraway Village of
Liver-and-Onions, the people who ate cream 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 a village and the name of it shall
be the Village of Cream 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 icicles 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. They 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 tail like handles.
"'And so, while the wind and the snow blew and the blizzard beat its
icicles in their faces, they held on to the long curved tails of the rusty
rats till they came to the place where the Village of Cream 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 with 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 snow birds began to wear slip-on
hats and slip-on shoes, long before they learned how to slip off the
slip-on hats and to slip off the slip-on shoes."
"O-h-h-h," said one of the uncles. "Um-m-m-m," said the other three
uncles.
"And sometime," added Wing Tip the Spick, "when you go away from
the Village of Liver-and-Onions and cross the Shampoo River and ride
many miles across the upland prairie till you come to the Village of
Cream 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."

2. Five Stories About the Potato Face Blind Man
People:

The Potato Face Blind Man
Any Ice Today
Pick Ups
Lizzie Lazarus
Poker Face the Baboon
Hot Dog the Tiger
Whitson Whimble
A Man Shoveling Money
A Watermelon Moon
White Gold Boys
Blue Silver Girls
Big White Moon Spiders
Zizzies
Gimme the Ax Again

The Potato Face Blind Man Who Lost the Diamond Rabbit on His Gold
Accordion
There was a Potato Face Blind Man used to play an accordion on the
Main Street corner nearest the postoffice in the Village of
Liver-and-Onions.
Any Ice Today came along and said, "It looks like it used to be an 18
carat gold accordion with rich pawnshop 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. When 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