more. If such a happening
ever happens then it will be nice for the people to 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.
[Illustration]
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 manu
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