heads back and forth and sideways, which of course turned all the
balloons back and forth and sideways because the balloons were
fastened to the fine braids of hair which were fastened to their
heads.

"And where do you go when you get back where you came from?" he asked
just to be asking.

"Oh, hoo-hoo-hoo, then we start out and go straight ahead and see what
we can see," they all answered just to be answering and they dipped
their heads and swung them up which of course dipped all the balloons
and swung them up.

So they talked, he asking just to be asking and the six balloon girls
answering just to be answering.

At last his sad mouth broke into a smile and his eyes were lit like a
morning sun coming up over harvest fields. And he said to them, "Tell
me why are balloons--that is what I want you to tell me--why are
balloons?"

The first little girl put her thumb under her chin, looked up at her
six balloons floating in the little blue wind over her head, and said:
"Balloons are wishes. The wind made them. The west wind makes the red
balloons. The south wind makes the blue. The yellow and green balloons
come from the east wind and the north wind."

The second little girl put her first finger next to her nose, looked
up at her six balloons dipping up and down like hill flowers in a
small wind, and said:

"A balloon used to be a flower. It got tired. Then it changed itself
to a balloon. I listened one time to a yellow balloon. It was talking
to itself like people talk. It said, 'I used to be a yellow pumpkin
flower stuck down close to the ground, now I am a yellow balloon high
up in the air where nobody can walk on me and I can see everything.'"

The third little girl held both of her ears like she was afraid they
would wiggle while she slid with a skip, turned quick, and looking up
at her balloons, spoke these words:

"A balloon is foam. It comes the same as soap bubbles come. A long
time ago it used to be sliding along on water, river water, ocean
water, waterfall water, falling and falling over a rocky waterfall,
any water you want. The wind saw the bubble and picked it up and
carried it away, telling it, 'Now you're a balloon--come along and see
the world.'"

The fourth little girl jumped straight into the air so all six of her
balloons made a jump like they were going to get loose and go to the
sky--and when the little girl came down from her jump and was standing
on her two feet with her head turned