Skabootch
A Man
Corn Fairies

Blue Foxes
Flongboos
A Philadelphia Policeman
Passenger Conductor
Chicago Newspapers
The Head Spotter of the Weather Makers at Medicine Hat

[Illustration]

How to Tell Corn Fairies If You See 'Em

If you have ever watched the little corn begin to march across the
black lands and then slowly change to big corn and go marching on from
the little corn moon of summer to the big corn harvest moon of autumn,
then you must have guessed who it is that helps the corn come along.
It is the corn fairies. Leave out the corn fairies and there wouldn't
be any corn.

All children know this. All boys and girls know that corn is no good
unless there are corn fairies.

Have you ever stood in Illinois or Iowa and watched the late summer
wind or the early fall wind running across a big cornfield? It looks
as if a big, long blanket were being spread out for dancers to come
and dance on. If you look close and if you listen close you can see
the corn fairies come dancing and singing--sometimes. If it is a wild
day and a hot sun is pouring down while a cool north wind blows--and
this happens sometimes--then you will be sure to see thousands of corn
fairies marching and countermarching in mocking grand marches over the
big, long blanket of green and silver. Then too they sing, only you
must listen with your littlest and newest ears if you wish to hear
their singing. They sing soft songs that go pla-sizzy pla-sizzy-sizzy,
and each song is softer than an eye wink, softer than a Nebraska
baby's thumb.

And Spink, who is a little girl living in the same house with the man
writing this story, and Skabootch, who is another little girl in the
same house--both Spink and Skabootch are asking the question, "How can
we tell corn fairies if we see 'em? If we meet a corn fairy how will
we know it?" And this is the explanation the man gave to Spink who is
older than Skabootch, and to Skabootch who is younger than Spink:--

All corn fairies wear overalls. They work hard, the corn fairies, and
they are proud. The reason they are proud is because they work so
hard. And the reason they work so hard is because they have overalls.

But understand this. The overalls are corn gold cloth, woven from
leaves of ripe corn