facturer, 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 into
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 a 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 was full, till the washtub was full. Then he put the shovel
into the wheelbarrow and went up Main Street.
Six o'clock that night Pick Ups came along. The Potato Face Blind Man
said to him, "I have to carry home a heavy load of money to-night, an
aluminum dishpan full of silver dollars and a galvanized iron washtub
full of silver dollars. So I ask you, will you take care of Poker Face
the Baboon and Hot Dog the Tiger?"
"Yes," said Pick Ups, "I will." And he did. He tied a pink string to
their legs and took them home and put them in the woodshed.
Poker Face the Baboon went to sleep on the soft coal at the north end
of the woodshed and when he was asleep his face had something faraway
in it and he was so quiet he looked like a dummy with brown hair of
the jungle painted on his black skin and a black nose painted on his
brown face. Hot Dog the Tiger went to sleep on the hard coal at the
south end of the woodshed and when he was asleep his eyelashes had
something hungry in them and he looked like a painted dummy with black
stripes painted over his yellow belly and a black spot painted away at
the end of his long yellow tail.
In the morning the woodshed was empty. Pick Ups told the Potato Face
Blind
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