Rootabaga Stories | Page 8

of dimes.'"
"And the tin copper cup?"
"That is for the base ball players to stand off ten feet and throw in
nickels and pennies. The one who throws the most into the cup will be
the most lucky."
"And the wooden mug?"
"There is a hole in the bottom of it. The hole is as big as the bottom.
The nickel goes in and comes out again. It is for the very poor people
who wish to give me a nickel and yet get the nickel back."
"The aluminum dishpan and the galvanized iron washtub—what are
they doing by the side of you on both sides on the sidewalk?"
"Sometimes maybe it will happen everybody who goes into the

postoffice and comes out will stop and pour out all their money,
because they might get afraid their money is no good any more. If such
a happening ever happens then it will be nice for the people to have
have some place to pour their money. Such is the explanation why you
see the aluminum dishpan and galvanized iron tub."
"Explain your sign—why is it, 'I Am Blind Too.'"
"Oh, I am sorry to explain to you, Pick Ups, why this is so which.
Some of the people who pass by here going into the postoffice and
coming out, they have eyes—but they see nothing with their eyes. They
look where they are going and they get where they wish to get, but they
forget why they came and they do not know how to come away. They
are my blind brothers. It is for them I have the sign that reads, 'I Am
Blind Too.'"
"I have my ears full of explanations and I thank you," said Pick Ups.
"Good-by," said the Potato Face Blind Man as he began drawing long
breathings like lingering leaves out of the accordion—along with the
song the mama flummywisters sing when they button loose the winter
underwear of the baby flummywisters.

Poker Face the Baboon and Hot Dog the Tiger
When the moon has a green rim with red meat inside and black seeds
on the red meat, then in the Rootabaga Country they call it a
Watermelon Moon and look for anything to happen.
It was a night when a Watermelon Moon was shining. Lizzie Lazarus
came to the upstairs room of the Potato Face Blind Man. Poker Face
the Baboon and Hot Dog the Tiger were with her. She was leading
them with a pink string.
"You see they are wearing pajamas," she said. "They sleep with you
to-night and to-morrow they go to work with you like mascots."

"How like mascots?" asked the Potato Face Blind Man.
"They are luck bringers. They keep your good luck if it is good. They
change your bad luck if it is bad."
"I hear you and my ears get your explanations."
So the next morning when the Potato Face Blind Man sat down to play
his accordion on the corner nearest the postoffice in the Village of
Liver-and-Onions, next to him on the right hand side sitting on the
sidewalk was Poker Face the Baboon and on the left hand side sitting
next to him was Hot Dog the Tiger.
They looked like dummies—they were so quiet. They looked as if they
were made of wood and paper and then painted. In the eyes of Poker
Face was something faraway.
In the eyes of Hot Dog was something hungry. Whitson Whimble, the
patent clothes wringer manufacturer, came by in his big limousine
automobile car without horses to pull it. He was sitting back on the
leather upholstered seat cushions.
"Stop here," he commanded the chauffeur driving the car.
Then Whitson Whimble sat looking. First he looked into the eyes of
Poker Face the Baboon and saw something faraway. Then he looked in
the eyes of Hot Dog the Tiger and saw something hungry. Then he read
the sign painted by the Potato Face Blind Man saying, "You look at 'em
and see 'em; I look at 'em and I don't. You watch what their eyes say; I
can only feel their hair." Then Whitson Whimble commanded the
chauffeur driving the car, "Go on."
Fifteen minutes later an man in overalls came down Main Street with a
wheelbarrow. He stopped in front of the Potato Face Blind Man,
Poker Face the Baboon, and Hot Dog the Tiger.
"Where is the aluminum dishpan?" he asked.

"On my left side on the sidewalk," answered the Potato Face Blind
Man.
"Where is the galvanized iron washtub?"
"On my right side on the sidewalk."
Then the man in overalls took a shovel and began shoveling silver
dollars out of the wheelbarrow into the aluminum dishpan and the
galvanized iron washtub. He shoveled out of the wheelbarrow till the
dishpan